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Pinewood Derby Stories and Photos from Maximum Velocity
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PINEWOOD DERBY MEMORY Better Lucky than Good
This happened years ago when my son was still racing. He is an Eagle scout now, and I am now enjoying pinewood derby racing with my grandson.
The second year my son raced his car, I had to work and was not able to be at the race. He had come in 3rd Place at the race the previous year, but came in 1st Place the second year. The top 4 finishers went to the district race.
Before the district race, we spent what seemed like hours polishing, lubing, aligning - everything we knew to do.
After the check-in at the district race, we were walking around looking at some of the other cars. One of the boys in our pack had a car that would not pass inspection. He had rounded the wheels. This was not caught at the pack race - I'm sure that he didn't know that this was not allowed. I told him that we had brought another set of wheels, and if it was OK with the judges he was welcome to use them. We had not done anything to these wheels, not even removed the mold marks. The boy added some graphite, and then put them on the car.
Even though my son's car had beaten him at the pack event, this boy placed 7th or 8th out of about 80 cars, well ahead of my son. That goes to show that it's sometimes better to be lucky than good!