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Sunday, January 29, 2017

Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby Races

This is Emory's first year in Cub Scouts and one of the benefits of being a CubScout is the Pinewood Derby Race! This year he decided to build a "Creeper" derby car from the game Minecraft.  He named his car "The Creeper of Doom!"

Not having the right tools created challenges for us and thank goodness we have friends who let us use their compound miter saw and electric sander.  **Thanks Regina and Joey!!** 

We shaved our derby cars so thin (for aerodynamics of course)   :-), we were far from the weight needed (5.0 ounces) to have a competitive chance.   Even with the challenges at hand, we pressed on, just for the experience and learning opportunities. We knew our chances for winning were slim to none.

One "must have" this year was tungsten weight. Approximately 5 ounces worth. 
Have you priced this stuff out?  
 $15.99 for this tiny pack of weights: 
(2 .5 oz, 2 .25 oz and 4-.15 oz)!!

Our official derby car weight at weigh in was 5.0 ounces!!  Perfect - it just might be our lucky day!


Emory's den was first to race (Tiger scouts).  Each participant gets to race four times; they race on different lanes of the track.  This eliminates any chance of disadvantages.  The track is wired for accurate time and is connected to a computer then displayed on the big screen. 



 Emory won all 4 races and secured 1st place for the Tiger group. 
 Everett's turn...
Everett's car (on left) was the same template as Emory's only he chose to decorate it with CubScout logos: Tiger, Wolf, Bear & Webelo.   Oddly enough he named his derby car "Wolf  Den" even though he is a Bear Scout.  He defended his reasoning (something about the Jungle Book) but I don't remember the details.   :-)

Here's proof a little prayer goes a long way. LOL!
 Like his little brother, he too won all four heats to secure 1st place for his den.  
What?! Really?!!  
You can probably imagine just how shocked both Deona and I were.


Next up....THE FINALS.

Top two winners from each den qualified for "The Final" race. 

Emory and Everett raced in the last heat together.  
Here they are side by side:



 Emory secured 2nd place overall, just losing out of the top spot by .0094 of a second!!



 Everett was very proud of Emory and happy he placed in the Top Ten.

Everett and Emory had a blast and are ready to do it again next year!