[Lightningbolt]

I didn't get any carving done today but you might say that I did enjoy the fruits of my labor! Today our troop had its annual spring Pinewood Derby race and it was a great success.

Many, many kid's have gotten their first introduction to woodcarving and woodwork by participating in a pinewood race. Limited only by imagination some very creative cars can be crafted and a lifetime love for working with wood can begin.

It is so popular here that we have two categories that can be entered:

• Inlaw's: Up to 5 ounces.
• Outlaw's: 5.1 to 10 ounces.

The two categories are held for winning trophys in a bracket race for the kid's and a seperate race for the adult's.

The first two picture's show my No. 1 winning car in the adults "Outlaw" race which was a fighter jet complete with two air-to-air hellfire missile's weighing in at 9.7 ounces. After many year's of holding the first place trophy I lost it in last year's race coming in at second place, but I won the first place trophy back in 2006! Boy was I a happy camper!

The third picture shows me (crazy guy with the hat) and Bob, a good friend and our utility engineer who won the first place trophy for the adult's race "Inlaw" category.

The third picture is of a local racing team who brought their race car for all the kids to see. This is always a big part of our annual race day and about five years ago we actually got Dale Earnhardt's #3 car up to our race day which made the front page feature story in our local newspaper.

The last picture of of all the kid's cars. They spent the last 3 weeks working on them in my woodshop and it was a lot of fun teaching them all about crafting a nice car. The day began at 8:00 a.m. and we didn't have our winner's until after 3:00 p.m. so it was a very FULL day and that's the way we like it... uh,huh!!

[Thomp]

Great Job Dave,
its always fun, as well as rewarding to assist the creativity of a child.
ill always remember my pine derby soap box car, it was still in block fasion, painted with paint by numbers oul paint dark forest green still wet,
it went 12 inches before it stopped, while working on it i didnt know it would be actually raced or i was more interested in accomplishing the task,
but i was the cause for a new rule of no wet paint jobs, everything had a dab of forest green paint on it,

Funny its been 40 years since i was in boy scouts, and im sure them cars are the same ones i seen at my soap box pine derby except the airplaine car,,,,

tell me did all the farhers have on their bandaid gloves at the race?
HA!

[Callynne]

Hey Dave, Congratulations on regaining your title!! Looks like everyone had a great time, especially you adults! Thanks for sharing with us! Deborah

[Anthony Filetti]

...love the smell of graphite in the morning!!!

Great job Dave, I'm sure the kids had a blast!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

hummmmm..wheres the kids?

" I lost it in last year's race coming in at second place, but I won the first place trophy back in 2006! Boy was I a happy camper!"

whose race was this? ha ha...didn't see any kids? You won "your" trophy back LOL

[BobD]

We've actually got a new book on Winning the Pinewood Derby coming out next year...

Bob

[Kenny_S]

Ah the smiles on those Cubbies faces when they weighed in their Pinewood derby cars. Some, the leaders knew the cubbie did not have anything to do with it till race day, others well, They were proud of them anyway. What I learned in the 15 years is, Just because dear old Dad of grandpa carved, painted and polished the axcels didn't mean they would be winners.
We allow the Tigers up to and including second year Webelos to participate and the adults had their races after every thing was over with the cubbies. On yound lad whose dead beat parents would not help him, took a dull knife and rounded the front and the back, put his wheels on and gracked one, Painted it with whatever he had, still wet when we had weigh in and beat everyone there in is den, then he went on and made it pretty far in the overall Pack race. I felt sorry for the little guy and made sure, the next year he would have some help. Alas, His dead beat parents did not send hiom to scouts the next year and then they moved away. Always wondered how he faired in life. Well, Last fall,There was a revival in town for another church and the a young man came up to our house and knocked on the door.Guess who it was and he was a peracher, Yeper it was that young lad who finished high school, then went to Bible college in the Ozarks and went on to seminary school. This old geezer had tears in his eyes when This young lad hugged me and thanked me for the fun times he had in that year of Scouting. He now has a church and has a Troop of Scouts that he is the organizing unit for the Troop and Cubs. We have stayed in touch and when he calls me, we are headed there to help him in whatever he needs done with those boys.
Yes, the memories of pinewood derby, the aircraft races and raingutter regalaand the Fun time spent with those lads.

[Lightningbolt]

As can be seen from the stories above, if you've ever had anything to do with a pinewood derby race either as a kid or as an adult, then it certainly sticks with you for a lifetime! This has got to be one of the best all-time quality time activities for dad's and/or mom's with their son's!

Hi-Ho: Sorry that I only posted pictures of the adults because I shot over 300 images of yesterday's race most of which were of the kids and believe me they were all smiles! Yes, the adults did have their race during the last hour of the day but the overwhelming focus was most definitely on the kid's! During the morning only 10 kid's at a time were allowed in the gym for the race and process of elimination, while outside there were several other activity stations from relay's, build your own ice cream sundae, visiting a real race car, and basketball, then after lunch everyone came inside for the "finals".

Unfortunately all of the kid's in our troop are identified as "at risk" and they all have very troubled backgrounds of abuse and neglect so there is a very restrictive privacy policy in place in addition to the new Federal "Hippa" law's recently passed. Nothing tell's the story of a successful race better than the happy faces of kid's and I wish that I could share them.