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The teachable lessons with the Pinewood Derby Race can be the basics of how to use sandpaper, paint or even a saw to build their car—but it can also be a chance to imagine that car as yours and to build it into the car of your dreams. We got the car kit and rules about six weeks before the big event.
Our car was carved into a Bonneville Streamliner shape, with much of the weight towards the back. The above question to my son was posed on the way home from our Pack meeting. His response was about what I expected, he’s got a competitive streak about as wide as my own. We read the rules, researched the concepts and shared the building process. We found some particularly good videos on Youtube that gave us some ideas.
As the event neared, we each got more and more excited to see how our car would perform. Seriously, I’ve had fewer butterflies in my stomach at the start of a club road race than the morning of our first Pinewood Derby race. I can only imagine how my son was feeling—that rush of nerves and adrenalin is intoxicating.
Based upon his rapid-fire questions—When are we going to race? How fast is it going to go? And Do you think we’ll win?—that he’s enjoying his first hit.
