Pinewood Derby 2018

The Pinewood Derby is the end result of many hands making short work. Here, the track is pictured before the events unfolded on Sunday. Scouts and volunteers helped get the track situated and solved the many technical issues involved in creating a racetrack that can record car times with digital precision.

The cars must be of the correct specifications to race. Cars can weigh no more than 5 ounces, but getting your car as close to that number as you can seems to be a common goal. Cars that weigh slightly less after an official weigh in, or those requiring other adjustments may be directed to the Pit-Crew table. The registration table is building up quite a line!

Here's where everyone gets another opportunity to get their hand's dirty! The Pit Crew table was booming with people trying to get last minute adjustments to either finesse their cars or coarsely overhaul them completely to get them race-ready! Scouts and volunteers are on hand to help anyone needing some guidance.

Look at all these beautiful cars! They will race in a series of randomized heats that will have them in each lane of the track, racing against cars from different dens. The final winners will be chosen by den, with the fastest being eligible for larger races afterwards. Also, design is as important as speed here, as trophies honoring creativity and finesse are awarded! Some of these cars are considered 'pace' cars, namely cars made by siblings of scouts or old champions from previous derbies. They race in their own set of heats beforehand.

Boy Scouts are on-hand to officiate and make sure everything is working as intended. They make sure the timers are working, the heats have the correct cars and everything runs smoothly. Thank you, Scouts!

After each heat, you can see the results projected for all to view, along with the cars coming up in the next heat. There was also pizza, ice-cream and the Master of Ceremonies kept the crowd involved with jokes and stories and trivia.

Finally, there were many, many winners, you know who you were! They all came up to shake the hand of the Cubmaster as he presented them with their trophies. The hard work put into these cars honors the pack and the scout. Not pictured: everyone pitching in for cleanup!