The Derby

Today was the big day.
Our first ever AWANAs Pinewood Derby.
If you aren't familiar with Pinewood Derbys, what you do is buy a $3.00 kit that has a rectangular block of wood, some wheels and some axles (which are just nails). You then can fashion this block into any shape or size you want. You mess up on the shape then you buy another kit and start again. So after 6 kits, 3 cans of spray paint, graphite wheel lube all over everyone's hands, extra weights for the cars, and lots of band-aids for wounds during the construction we had our cars.
There are 3 categories one can win in.
The fastest car, the car that looks most like a car, and the novelty category which is something that looks like something other than a car (like a baseball bat or a watermelon).

The kids all decided they wanted to try to make the fastest car and they all wanted their cars to actually look like race cars.
They all drew the shape on the block of wood that they wanted Daddy to cut out. They all drew out the designs they wanted on their cars. They helped sand and paint the cars and the boys both put their own decals on the cars and helped glue on all the metal pieces.

The other goal (we found out) is to get your car to weigh exactly 5.0oz. So we added all sorts of weights. It was crazy.

The night before the race we put on the axles and the wheels. We figured out we had problems when we realized that not all the wheels were touching on the cars and that several of them didn't even spin. We were just a little stressed and just hoping the next day that they would at least cross the finish line.

Here are the finished cars on the day of the race.



The track was pretty cool. Each division ran several heats and each car took a turn in a different lane for each heat.


This was her car. She specifically wanted a pink race car with red stripes. She also was very specific about where she wanted her weights. She's a thinker that one!

We were pretty excited when we figured out there were only 4 cars racing in the Cubbies division because we knew they had at least that many trophies.


She ended up winning 3 out of 4 heats and she won the First Place Trophy! She was so excited!

He wanted an orange race car with a firebird on the hood and a spoiler. Next year we are going to add the weights before we paint the cars. He ended up coming in 5th or 6th for speed but won a First Place trophy in the automotive division because his looked most like a car.

He wanted a very flat, black race car with flames. We were actually afraid it was too thin and had a hard time getting it exactly 5.0 oz. His actually came in first on every race he was in. We were shocked! But very excited. I don't think he even cared that he won for speed, but just that he got a first place trophy. He actually kissed the trophy when they presented it to him. And I totally did not get it on film!

Here is the competition. The boys were both in the same division.
The boys' cars coming in first and second.

Here they are with their their trophies. I think boy #2 is trying to look tough and the girl has her "just another day in the life of a superhero" look (although this was the first trophy she has ever had and she was pretty excited about it). We were pleased that all the kids in the whole competition went home with a trophy or a medal.
We ran a final race at the end with our cars just for the fun of it. It was pretty close.

We really had a good time but honestly spent more time and energy and lost more stomach lining than we had planned on. But the kids had a great time so I guess we will probably try again next year. My oldest already has plans to enter the novelty category with a car that looks like a candy bar.