Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby

The Pinewood Derby is a huge tradition in the world of Cub Scouts. Benjy has memories of working on the derby car with his dad. So he was excited to carry on the tradition with Reece for the first time. They investigated a few ideas on the internet and Reece chose his design and cut it and sanded it and painted it.

A huge thanks goes out to our friend Larry Ellison (who raised his own 3 boys and has a little derby experience under his belt). Larry showed Reece how to use his band saw and helped him assemble the axels (after a bit of a last minute panic at our house the morning of the race when what we wrongly assumed was a quick and simple task turned into the requirement of just a wee bit more precision and tools) Thank you Larry - you saved the day!

Here is our handsome Cub Scout with his hot car on the morning of the race...

And then the visit to the pit stop to check all of the weight and size restrictions. Reece's car was underweight and so Daddy and Reece added a few quarters and pennies to get closer to the ideal weight.

Some of the fierce competition...

And....theeeeyyyyyy'rrrrreeeeeee off!

Here is a quick (no pun intended!!) glance at one of Reece's early heats (listen carefully to Pierce's voice of awe!!)

One of my favorite parts of this day was watching Reece walk back and forth between the starting line and the finish line (each car had 8 races)...almost bursting with joy (but doing a darn good job of not smiling - he was so serious and so adorably humble!) And the other thing I loved was watching Reece's little brothers cheer him on. I seriously think Chase was more thrilled than even Reece was - he was jumping up and down every time Reece's car was on the track. I caught this perfect photo of Chase giving big bro a high 5 as he passed by.

And with complete and total surprise...Reece's car was fast. He won second place and a rather large trophy to declare his efforts!!!! Quite a shock since my personal hope was that it would simply go down the track like it was supposed to :) Shows what little I know about pinewood derby racing!!

Daddy and son - both so happy!

The official race results! (we could sense a few of the other Dad's were a little disappointed that this new kid on the block came in and took their trophy :) )

And the happy brothers who cheered so well!

What fun and unexpectedly surprising success.