Our First Pinewood Derby Car

This week Travis and I got to spend some time planning and building a pinewood derby car for his cub scout packs annual race. Travis decided on the standard wedge design and worked hard sanding the wood smooth in preparation for painting. We drilled a 3/4″ hole in the rear of the car and filled it with pennies until it weighed just under 5 ounces.

We painted it with several coats of gloss white spray paint. I wish we would have listened to the suggestion about not painting the area where the wheels touch the car. Some people place a round sticker there before painting to avoid more friction loss. We spun all the wheels and axles on a power drill to get the rough parts smoothed out. Travis chose a BYU cougar theme for his derby car this year.

A gentleman in the next town sets up his custom four lane track and schedules a different scout group every hour. I imagine he was there all day long volunteering his time and his track. It had an electronic sensor at the finish line that indicated the winners with LED lights. A few of the races were extremely close, so we decided to try capturing photo finishes. Travis won many races including this one and ended up tied for second place in his pack. Everyone got a kick out of Travis’ cute cheerleader sisters. Alyssa squealed with delite when Travis won his first race and everyone laughed, she was very embarassed. She still cheered him on in each race but with less zeal.