Derby Day 2013

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby for Cub Scout Pack 248, the last derby for Aidan and his fellow Webelos II. The Pinewood Derby has often been a source of conflict in our home; in past years, James has had to push Aidan to design and work on his car, often at the last minute. This year, we told Aidan that if he wanted to have a car in the derby, then up was up to him to design the car and start work on it well ahead of time...and if he did not, then he wouldn't have a car. Period.

Much to our surprise and delight, he came up with the concept and plan about a month in advance, and asked James to help him cut out the shape. Then Aidan did all the sanding and once James helped him tape out the design, he did all the painting.The only other work that James did was to place the wheels onto the car and add weights.

Tada! Here is Aidan's Star Spangled car:

The derby was its usual blend of excitement bordering on hysteria, and parents jostling for the best camera angles. There was quite an assortment of cars:

There were, of course, cars that were obviously made entirely by parents; two dads in particular are well known in the pack for expending significant effort and money on their sons' cars. It does cause resentment on the part of both scouts and parents, but there really isn't anything that can be done to prevent it.

Each car raced in each of the six lanes on the track and then times were tabulated. The top eighteen cars - half of the field - then raced again, and again the cars races in each of the six lanes. Aidan's car was in the top eighteen but against the fastest cars, it did not come out near the top on most races.

The results will be announced at Tuesday night's pack meeting, along with the cars that won awards like "Most Colorful" or "Most Imaginative". Aidan knows that his car will not place in the top three in the pack, but he holds out hope that he will place in the top three in his den. Considering that five out of the six cars in his den went on to the finals, I think winning a place in the den in highly unlikely. I hope that all those talks about good sportsmanship will bear fruit on Tuesday night!