I survived my first pinewood derby last night. We had a little pain and suffering when it came to the weigh-in; the scale we were using wasn’t as precise as some of the electrical scales people had used to weigh their cars, and as a result several of the cars had to take weight off to match our scale. Other than that though, things seemed to go well. There weren’t any tears (that I saw) and the boys had a great time racing their cars over and over again.
As part of the awards I made little trophies for all the boys to put their cars on. This way everyone received something. The trophies were very simple, just a small board for the base with a piece of 2x4 glued and nailed onto it as the upright. Then I spray painted them all gold and called it good.
Here is the base made from scrap particle board.
After measuring two or three times for the same length of board I quickly brainstormed for an easier way. It’s not like my cuts had to be New England-furniture-perfect, after all we’re talking about pinewood derby trophies here. A line on the miter saw at the length I wanted (in this case 3 inches) turned out to be just the answer. This way I didn’t have to measure for every single cut. Halleluiah!
Nineteen 3” wood blocks later (for participation), a 4” block for bronze, a 5” block for silver, and a 6” block for our first place winner and we were done making all our cuts. Next came the “puttin together” stage and I couldn’t quite bring myself to spend the time drilling pilot holes and putting them together with screws, so instead I asked Catherine to share here wonderful nail gun (again). She helped glue and nail them after Sunday dinner at my house. Thanks Cath!
Hunter and Ashton and their award winning pinewood derby cars
We didn’t win 1st, 2nd or 3rd but we had a great time racing and Hunter was definitely one of the most enthusiastic little racers. Just watch out next year…
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