WE had the Pinewood Derby this week. Yes, WE, because my competitive nature won’t allow me stand back and just let this be a Cub Scout thing. Sure, I let Jackson pick the design and do most of the painting, but when it comes to speed…momma takes the car. The Hubster is involved too, of course. He has to do the tough stuff like cutting and sanding (What!? I have delicate hands!) But weight placement, axle and wheel buffing…that’s my area. Last year I let The Hubster handle speed, and I helped with design. We won Best in Show, but our speed was no good.
This year, I stepped up our speed game! I searched the interwebs for speed tips and came across this video. I couldn’t use all of this guy’s tips because some of the things he suggests are against our council’s rules, but I used some of what Jackson’s design would allow. Next year I will have 2 Cub Scouts, so I will push one of them for a more aerodynamic car. This year Jackson wanted a Star Wars design. Since we got started on the thing so late, we went with the simplest possible design. It was really difficult for me to let Jackson do all of the painting, but he did a really great job.
Our Pack is really small, so we combined with another Pack for our Derby. It was a little chaotic, but the boys really enjoyed it. Jackson kept leaving the room every time his car would race because he thought it was bad luck to watch or something. Here he is after coming back in, shocked that his car had won its heat.
Here are clips of 3 of the heats that Jackson won…
They almost didn’t announce who won, but the…umm…kids were up in arms (and by kids I mean me.) So, they announced it after cleanup. Jackson won Best in Show and 3rd overall for speed, but 1st for speed in his Pack! I’m all like…
