Sunday, February 8, 2009

Pinewood Derby! (aka, Shape-n-Race)

For decades, since long before my husband was a boy in Stockade, the Stockade program has organized the Pinewood Derby. Each boy designs his own race car, makes it with his dad or a Stockade leader, and then gathers together to race them. They have local races and regional races, and I'm assuming that regional winners go on to compete at the state level. For some reason, Stockade changed the name to "Shape and Race", but in our minds it will always be the Pinewood Derby. Yesterday was our first experience as a family with this time-honored tradition. Our 8 and 9 year old boys both competed. Oh my! Computerized scoring and everything.

Here they are sanding their cars.



We quickly learned that the wheels you happen to get in your car kit are the biggest indicator of success, even more than car design. It so happens that our son L had great wheels! He won first place for his age division!! Way to go L!



Our son G won 4th place in his age division. Way to go G!!

It was very fun, and they have already begun designing cars for next year's race. :-)

3 comments:

votemom said...

shape & race? weird.

wtg L! that's terrific for him! we still have our boys box of derby cars in the basement. we never won for speed but a few times for design. R's favorite was his flintstone-mobile.

Susanne Barrett said...

Our boys did these this past summer as part of or summer art program. We had the coolest track! Prizes were given for race winning and for coolest design/paint job as voted on by participants. T and B each won for their age divisions for the design/painting. They really had fun. :) Glad your boys enjoyed it, too.

ascrivens said...

congradulations to both boys!!