1st Pinewood Derby

8 is Great!
Dylan's first Scouting activity was the Pinewood Derby. The Wednesday night Cub Scouts activity was cancelled so that the dads kids could take that time to work on their cars. So one week after Dylan turned 8, he was racing with his friends!
On Dylan's birthday, he went to Darren's with Andre, Steven, and Isaac to work on the car. Then all that week we tweaked the car more. We used my dad/brother's tricks except for shaving the wheels since that's not allowed anymore. We put the weight in the back, but not until after testing to see if that worked by using my brothers' old cars backwards on a track Darren made. The final car only had the back wheels and one front wheel touching the track, they used bolts drilled into the back and weights piled on the top in the back, a similar design with the wheels moved closer to the front and rear than the given slots, etc. Steven bought a postage scale so they could guestimate the weight before the big day since it couldn't be over 5oz. Dylan painted the car then painted it again after we sanded it. There was more drama with the wheels and using wood filler and wood glue etc. but it worked out well.

 Here's the track. We got there a little early to secure a front row seat (see Dylan) on the right and to hot glue some more weights to the car to get it to 4.9oz. I thought I was clever bringing a hot glue gun, but they had one over at the pit stop area too.

 As you can see, other families are there helping their Cub Scouts with finishing touches. My mom said that she made some of the decorations like "Pit Stop" when she was one of the leaders for my brothers.

 The cars were officially checked in, had to make weight, and had to fit inside of a box to make sure they weren't too long. Our car barely made it since the bolts stuck out a tad in the back. It had to go in parallel to the table or it wouldn't fit!

 The cars were numbered within one of the 3 age groups. I believe there ended up being 15 cars in Dylan's division.

 His car has the gold bolts sticking out and the bars of gold on top. There's an eagle behind it, it had a yellow beak touching its wheel but you can't tell from this picture.

 Dylan's Cub Scout leaders are the ones holding their twins and baby.

 Tyler asked me to take his picture then changed his mind.

 The moms had to make sure the computerized racing/scoring system was set up properly.

 Dylan's car is the one with Brother Prescott's hand almost on it. 2 or 3 cars raced at a time.

 He had the faster start!

 Winning...

 And he won! It went under the electronic finish line first!

 I should've had another camera on Steven. Of course the dads are just as proud!

 The scoreboard is below. Each row is a race and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place kids are entered in after each race. The number to the right of the name is the car number (Dylan is #7) then the place (Dylan got 1st place, William got 2nd place, and Mace got 3rd). Dylan won all but one race.

 He's in the middle lane here.

 And he won again!

 It looks like this one was close but the other car seems to be ahead. This must be the race he got 2nd place. But it wasn't by much at all!

 Jake is just a little older than Dylan. Don is congratulating him after one of HIS wins.

 I got up to go get a photo of one of Dylan's races and jumped up before telling Tyler. Um...

 Dylan won,

 But Tyler missed me and was inconsolable for a while once I got back to him. I had to take him out.

 Dylan won the "Fastest Looking Car" award. All of the cars got some award like that. Simply based on looks.

 Then he got to stand on the silver step of the podium to hold his silver medal and 2nd place certificate. Yay!!

 They had bag lunches for us to grab and go. We grabbed and grubbed there.

 An exciting morning!