Pinewood Derby

Cole was excited to participate in his first Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts.  Unfortunately, because of The Plague of 2011 that struck our house (resulting in someone being sick with a form of the flu for about four weeks), Mark and Cole only had about a week to design and modify the car.  Cole picked out the design but then had to watch while Mark did the cutting.  There was quite a bit that Mark had to do, and Cole lost interest for a bit.  He did help sand it, and then was excited again when it came time to paint / decorate it.  

The chief engineer working hard on his newest design

Introducing...Blue Lightning!

The boys were able to get Blue Lightning finished in time, and took the car to the inspection the day before the race.  Each car is weighed, measured, and checked for a couple of other criteria.  If all is satisfactory, the car is 'impounded' until the race (very Nascar-ish).  Blue Lightning passed the tests and was ready for the big race.

The race was held at a local car dealership, which opened up their service garage to the Pack. They provided each boy with a identification tag with their name on it, and also had a medal for all the participants and trophies for the winners.

The boys raced against the other members of their Den.  Four cars raced at a time, and each car raced four times (or maybe more - I can't remember) so each car could race in each lane.  It was all very high tech, with electronic timers, judges, computerized scoring spreadsheets, etc.

If you look really closely, you can see Cole's name in first place

The Tigers went first, and much to our excitement, Cole won the first heat!  We were really, really excited, thinking that he had won the whole thing (and also thinking, wow, that was a lot of work for that short race!) until we realized they had several heats.  But it was still really cool that he won the very first one.  Cole ended up coming in 4th out of 7.  He was so happy and proud!  Cole also showed some good sportsmanship because his best friend Cardell came in 2nd, and therefore would race again against the top two finishers from each Den.  Cole was very happy for him and cheered him on.

Cole with his best friend Cardell, and Kara the cheerleader

Kara was very cute as the cheerleader for the boys.  She had mentioned that she would like to make signs for them.  So we went to Hobby Lobby after preschool was over and got some sign making supplies.  We made two for Cole and one for Cardell, and kept them a surprise until we got there.  Our original thought was that Cardell's mom, Kara, and I would hold the signs while cheering for the boys.  But as it turns out the boys didn't actually go by their cars as they were racing.  Older boys and leaders were in charge of starting the cars (to make sure everyone had a fair start) and the boys were part of the audience.  So the boys and Kara each held up a sign and cheered for each other.  

Den Leader Bob and the Tiger Den

It was a good experience and lots of fun for everyone.  We're glad Cole was able to participate and had success in his first race!