A need for speed
Pint-sized wooden racers battle it out for title of speediest

Children watch as pinewood cars raced down the track Saturday morning at First Baptist Church during the Pinewood Derby 2008. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

GALLUP — With all the speeding going on, it was impossible for the police chief to keep track of the perpetrators. Luckily the chief was on hand for the Cub Scout Pack 40 annual Pinewood Derby Race, not a multitude of street racers.

Thirty scouts brought cars which started out as mere blocks of wood. With a little help from their parents, they fashioned working cars to race each other two at a time.

Each car raced six times down an inclined track 37 feet long for a total of 90 races. A computerized system recorded the times, throwing out the worst time, and averaging the totals.

It was a family event as children of all ages cheered on their favorite cars at the First Baptist Church where the race was held Saturday.

“This is one of the highlights of being a scout,” parent Tammy Hall said. “It’s a joint effort between parents and their son in putting a car together.”

She added that there is a lot of learning that takes place during the activity, such as mathematics, art and design.

Cars must meet certain specifications, such as weighing no more than 5 ounces and measuring no larger than 7 inches by 2 inches.

“It’s been a fun experience for us — a fun project,” Hall said.

For most of the scouts, they also said the race was more about fun than competition.

“It’s not really the race. It’s really the fun,” one of the scouts, Muhmmud, said.

Muhmmud was sitting with brothers Elijah and Michael as they waited for the second set of races to begin. Each said it took one-three days to construct their race cars.

Elijah and Michael were inspired by “Spiderman 3” with Michael designing his car with the black colors and Elijah designing his with the red Spiderman in mind.

Elijah said he participated in the race because “they show champions.” His brother Micheal said, “It’s really fun and I like it.”

Muhmmud said that they like the Cub Scouts because, “We make lots of friends,” which was echoed by Elijah and Michael.

Muhmmud won Best Workmanship during the awards ceremony.

Winning Most Patriotic was Scott who designed a camouflage tank for the race, which took him a couple weeks to complete with the help of his parents.

“We wanted to go out with a bang this year,” he said.
He added that he likes the derby race, “For the fun of competition.”

Winning first place overall was Wesley, who said it took him a few days to build his car.

“On the test one day, it kept on getting faster every time it raced,” he said.

Wesley added, “I like racing for fun and so I can see all the neat cars that people make.”

Also watching the races with Scott and Wesley was Muhammud, who took one week to build his red and white derby race car.

He said he entered, “Just for the fun of it.”

Though the annual race is one of the Cub Scout’s most famous traditions dating back to 1953, modern technology was employed this year with a new computerized timing system that the Cub Scouts were able to purchase with the profits from popcorn sales.

Also new this year for the pack was the aluminum racing track. Last year, they raced on a wooden track.

“This is all brand new for us,” Dave Hacker said. “We learn more each time we do it.”

He said that this the winners from this local event will go on to the regional competition. There is also a national competition.

Awards were presented for first, second and third places for the Bears, Tigers, Webelos, Wolves and over all.  Prizes were also presented for Most Aerodynamic, Best Paint Job, Most Creative and Most Realistic.

The times for the top three overall winners were separated by only one-tenth of a second. A race-off had to be held between two who had tied for third place.

Hacker, a parent, helped to organize the derby race and encouraged participation from more people.

“We’re always looking for new scouts to join us and have fun with us. It’s an opportunity for scouts and parents to get together and spend some good quality time together,” Hacker said.