Pinewood Derby
Pinewood Derby General Rules and Information
The plan calls for following our Scout Sunday activity, the Pack will hold its annual Pine Wood Derby event. The Pinewood Derby has become a very largely attended program that all our scouts enjoy. All family members are welcome to attend. Lunch will be available for purchase. This event has become a very popular event for all our families and our scouts will be very excited for the derby.
Please see below for a few reminders about the Derby.
A. Maintain Perspective - the event is about celebrating the time each scout took with their parent to create their car.
B. Volunteers Needed—this event will need support to work through all the races. Judges, setup crew, inspection, and food counter are the most needed areas.
C. Follow the Scout Law—scouts are going to be excited about the event, but parents need to help leaders maintain order so each scout can enjoy their race.
D. Establish Rules—fairness is important therefore we want to make sure everyone is clear on our derby rules.
What is the Pinewood Derby?
The Pinewood Derby is an annual race held at the Fellowship Hall on Scout Sunday following the church service. The scouts along with their parents build the derby car throughout January. The process of building the derby car with your scout is a bonding experience. Building a derby car is more about spending time with your scout to create something unique they can be proud of. We then all gather on race day to see who has the fastest and most creative cars.
When:
Thursday February 1st, weigh ins starting at 6:45.
Thursday February 1st, 7:30 PM will be preliminary voting for best in show. Cars must be present to be eligible.
Sunday February 4th, 2024 following the church service is race day. (Approx. 12:00PM - 3:00PM)
Where: Fellowship Hall
General Information: The pack currently plans on running a lunch counter for that day following the service. The menu has not been determined yet.
Do you have questions or need some tips?
Cub Pack 154 scouts can contact Phil or Andy with general questions but for more tips see below!
Scout Life put together a pretty cool website. It has some FAQs, it has videos on how they make the Derby Kits that get sold, pictures of Derby cars from around the US and much more.
Click here to check out their Pinewood Derby HQ website!
Mark Rober, former NASA engineer has a great video below on how Pinewood Derby cars work and what makes them fast. This is a great video for new scouts and scouts looking to step up their game.
Scoring for the Race:
Each pinewood car will race at least once on each lane. This ensures that no scouts have an unfair advantage from lane conditions.
The top three fastest cars from each den will be recognized.
The top 8 cars fastest cards advance to the Grand Finale. This will determine the fastest car overall in our pack.
Last years 1st Place winner was Cooper with an average time of 3.1828 seconds!
The video below is the Grand Final races from 2021. This will give you an idea of how the races work.