Pinewood Derby Time Again!...

Time for the yearly Pinewood Derby Update!

A couple of weeks ago my son's Cub Scout pack held it's annual Pinewood Derby races. We were lucky this year and seemed to find the right combination of good looks and speed. After getting a good up close look at a General Lee clone last fall at the Branson Sheppard of the Hills show, my son has reciently become a "Duke's of Hazzard" freak. Needless to say it was the first thing that came to his mind when it was time to pick out his pinewood project for 2007.

For the "Family" Outlaw race I decided not to build the wheel stander or the Glass slipper that was mentioned on CHR last year. Instead, (with a nod to Big John in mind) I went with one of my all time favorites a 41 Willys. Originally I was planning to do a replica of Big John's racer, but decided to do my own paint scheme at the last minute.

At the pack event we did pretty well. My son won each of the eight heat races he ran and ended up being the derby's "Grand Champion". The "General Lee" was also awarded second place "Judge's Choice" in the car show competition. The Willy's was also a winner taking first place in the family race.

By winning the pack events both cars were allowed to advance to the District Pinewood Championships which were held earlier today. My son and I represented our local pack which is one of 48 seperate packs in our district. Overall we ended up finishing fairly well. The General placed 4th in the race and took 2nd place in the car show while the Willys ended up placing 2nd in the "Outlaw" event.

Overall it was a pretty good year. Below are a few photos of the cars and one of my boy and the awards he took home this season.

Fun Stuff!!!

Dave Brisco

That is way kewl Davey!!!

Awesome job on the cars. One word TALENT!

Congrats for being a #1 Dad Dave, looks like one happy kid you have there!!!

Really Nice cars ! My grandsons race is today, first time for both of us. His isn't nearly as nice looking as yours, Your son has some real talent.

Good luck with your race today Ken... Please let us know how it turns out and post some photos!

Just to clearify....

On my son's car he came up with the ideas for what he wanted to build. I did the basic shaping of the body and he sanded/shaped the body then I did the final detail carving. Together we primed and blocked the body (5 times). I mixed the paint colors but he airbrushed the base Orange by himself. We worked on the graphics together, him doing all the paint work and he and I masking the car together. I sprayed the final clear. The main reason for building the cars is parent/son interaction. With that in mind I am teaching him as many skills as I can with this project, so we approach it just like building a real car. We spent around 50 hours building his pinewood racer this year! That is a lot of quality time!!!

There is also an alterior motive at work here. I figure if I teach him good work habbits and good work skills, he can help me built a real car some day!

Dave Brisco

Beautiful cars!. The detail work is phenominal.

Back when my son was a Cub Scout (he's 32 now) we built his first Pinewood car to look like something from the Bonneville salt flats. I was working in a body shop at the time, so after we shaped and sanded the body, I took it to work and painted it. I spent my spare time for a couple of days sealing, priming, sanding, and finally painting it. Like yours, it looked like it had been dipped in glass. He won "best appearing car" and won the pack eliminations. Two weeks later we went to the district championships where he took 4th in eliminations and runner-up for "best appearing car".

The following year we built his car to look like an Indy racecar. We won the eliminations at the pack meet, but then we were disqualified because they said "the dad did too much of the work on the car". My son was devastated; he actually had done more work on this second car than he did the year before. I was told by another parent, sometime later, that it was all political. Apparently, my son's car was disqualified because the Packmaster wanted the runner-up to win. His dad was some kind of a manager at the local Chrysler dealership and the Packmaster was hoping for a donation...

The really sad part was, after that, my son refused to participate in any scout functions and refused to go back to his den meetings. Many years before, I had been a Cub Scout myself and later a Boy Scout and loved it. Later, I became an adult scouter and worked with a team from the District Committee training new Scoutmasters and Assistant Scoutmasters, so I fully understand the value of the scouting program. Too bad our local Packmaster turned out to be a jerk...

Sorry to hear that. It's sad when politics get involved to the point where it affects the kids. We are lucky and have a great pack and awesome adult leadership!

Dave Brisco

Ken,

Just wondering how your Grandson did at the Pinewood race... Got any photos to share?...

Dave Brisco