This year's Derby was a huge success and great fun for all. We had an excellent turnout, some terrific food, and lots of super fast and beautiful cars! We had an army of volunteers who really made this event happen, and we want to say a special thank you to all of them, especially to Bob, Rose, and Daniel Bergman of Conference Baptist Church who cooked and served us a great lunch. The full list of our volunteers is listed below on this web page - please take a moment to say thanks to these folks when you see them in your dens.

Our software package allows us to directly post all of the results here on our web site for everyone to carefully examine to their hearts content. I know everyone wants to win, but we hope you will all tell your sons and daughters that everyone who came to our Derby was a winner! If you spent even 10 minutes connecting with your child in some way, teaching him or her something about woodworking or handling tools or just spending time together, then we accomplished our mission. We hope you enjoyed your time, and we look forward to seeing you again next year.

Pinewood Derby Co-Chairs Jeff Patton and Dave Van Auken
 

Old Cars: You can enter cars from last year or an earlier year if you just ran out of time and didn't get to make a car this year. We would rather have you come with an old car than not come at all. However if you bring an old car you must tell us that at check in, and new cars will be given preference for all trophies in every class! Again, this is only fair to the participants who invest the time to make a new car each year.

Other than allowing pre-made kits and custom wheels and axles, our rules are essentially just the same as what comes in the Official Grand Prix Pinewood Derby Kit, with only one addition: the car must be short enough to clear our electronic timers.

Here the official rules from the kit:

Car Specifications:

Width: 2 ¾ ”
Length: 7”
Weight: Not over 5 Ounces
Width between wheels: 1 ¾”
Bottom clearance between car and track: 3/8”

Wheel bearings, washers and bushings are prohibited. The car shall not ride on springs. (Only official Cub Scout Grand Prix Pinewood Derby wheels and axles are permitted. - you can ignore this one) Only dry lubricant is permitted. Details, such as steering wheel and driver are permissible as long as these details do not exceed the maximum length, width and weight specifications. The car must be free wheeling, with no starting devices. Each car must pass inspection by the official inspection Committee before it may compete. If, at registration, a car does not pass inspection, the owner will be informed of the reason for failure, and will be given time within the official weigh-in time period to make the adjustment. After final approval, cars will not be re-inspected unless the car is damaged in handling or in a race.

Here is the one additional rule for Pack 39:

1) Height - The height of the car with the wheels on must not exceed 4.75 inches if you intend to actually run it in a race heat. This is necessary because the electronic timers at the end of the track have only 5 inches of clearance. If you want to build something elaborate in order to go after the Best Looking or Most Original trophies and you want to exceed 4.75 inches , that is OK, but you cannot run your car in any races because it will damage the track (and your car). You will still have to adhere to all the other rules listed above under Car Specifications.

If for any reason you do not want to follow these rules, you are welcome to enter your car in our Extreme class. Here you can break the rules as long as your car remains safe and will not damage the track or the church. The Derby Co-Chairs and/or Cubmaster will make any necessary determinations as to suitability (e.g. no rocket motors please).

Each den races itself. Each car runs once in each of the 4 lanes. The time for each car in each race is totaled together to eliminate any possible advantage from one lane being faster than another. The car with the quickest total time over the 4 races wins 1st place for the den. The same procedure applies for the Open Class (brothers and sisters of scouts) and the Adult Open class.

The 1st and 2nd place winners from each den will advance to the Grand Finals to compete for the Grand Champion trophy (it's a big honkin' trophy!). Additionally, the top 10 fastest scouts who did not advance from the dens by winning 1st or 2nd place in their den will also advance to the Grand Finals (this makes it fair for over-achieving dens who have a lot of really fast cars). Only scouts advance to the Grand Finals, not brothers and sisters, and not adults (sorry, but the big trophy must go to a scout).

The Grand Finals are run just like the Den heats, with each car running once in each lane and the time being totaled over all 4 races. The fastest four cars from the Grand Finals advance to the Final Four.

The Final Four is the last round. Each car again runs once in each lane and the times are totaled. The fastest total time wins the Grand Champion trophy.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by all of this? That's pretty normal! When my son was a Tiger, I found mountains of information on the Internet telling me how to build a fast car, and I couldn't make ours fast to save my life. By the time he became a Bear, I discovered that at least 80% of the formula lies in polishing the axles. Put those nails into an electric drill to spin them, and then use a small flat file to remove the little burs you will find where the head connects to the shaft of the nail. Then get some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper from the hardware store and get it wet, then just wrap it around the axle while spinning it in the drill for a few minutes. This will polish the axle and remove a whole lot of the friction. When you nail the axles into the car body try to make sure they go in straight. You can check them halfway in and make adjustments with your hand as you go. After you are done just give the car a push on a hard surface and see if it goes straight or turns a bit. If it turns try pushing one or more of the axles a little with your hand up or down, left or right to see if you can straighten it out a bit. When you get it close to where you want it, put some super glue on each axle to hold it in place (Cub Scouts are notoriously rough on cars, so don't worry too much about fine adjustments - they won't last too long anyway unless you use super strength epoxy!) The final touch is graphite. The best stuff is the dark kind with molybdenum included. It's available at most hobby stores like Hobby Lobby. Pack 39 also keeps a supply available for the Test & Tune events and the final Weigh-In, so if you can't find any don't worry, we'll have some you can use.

Everything after this is (in my humble opinion) just a black art. You can read about it on the Internet or have deep discussions at your Den meetings and at the local hardware store. I will simply say this - when I did nothing with axles we always finished last, when we built a simple wedge and polished the axles my son won the Pack Grand Champion. 'Nuff said.

Pinewood Derby Co-Chairs Jeff Patton and Dave Van Auken

After the race heats are over, we will be serving hot dogs, chili, sour kraut, chips, juice boxes, coffee, and cookies. Like last year we will be calling the scouts and their families up in groups by rank, so that the lines are more manageable. Please help us out by waiting until your group is called.