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| Joined: | Tue Feb 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | Scranton, Pennsylvania USA |
| Posts: | 2408 |
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Today is our Cub Scout Pack's annual Pinewood Derby. Every year our Cub Scouts (ages 7-11) build cars out of blocks of wood, plastic wheels and nail axles to race down a 32 foot gravity track. The cars cannot be more than 5 ounces and must be within size specifications per Pack rules. I get a little nuts around now, the Derby is my favorite event and am a "Pinehead" (see http://www.derbytalk.com for more info :D). My older son was Pack and District champion last year but is now a Boy Scout and can no longer race. Luckily my younger son still has a few more years left, plus we have a Dad's race to encourage the fathers to build their own cars and just help the Scout build their own.
Over the last few years we have computerized the race and gotten away from double elimination. Each Scout gets to race his car 6 times, and the lowest cumulative time is the winner. The software also calculates their scale speed. My wife and I encouraged the Pack to replace our old wooden track with a new aluminum one so it is guaranteed to be a fast race!
While we build the boys' cars for speed, I like to build models. Here are the cars I built for the Dad's race over the years. The 1961 Ferrari 156 F1 is this year's car and the first Formula One I have built. I usually build Indy cars that I have seen race or wish I had!
I will post more pics and the race stats tomorrow when it is all over. The great thing is that the District race is next week, we get to do it all over again!
Cheers,
Griff
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