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Pinewood Derby Stories and Photos from Maximum Velocity
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A Proud Moment
There is a cub scout in my den whose name is Brett Ott. He missed out on our Pack's Pinewood Derby Race. When it came time to have the district race he showed up and said that he wanted to race. In his hands were two cars that were very obviously cub scout built, crude and rough, but of course beautiful as all cub-built cars are.
It so happens that we have an open class in our district race where anyone can enter a car as long as it passes the same inspection as the cub scout cars. Since the other classes were only for the first place finishers from the packs of our district, I told Brett that he would have to race in the open class with all of the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, etc. This included running his car against mine and some other 'pineheads' like myself. There was a large showing of open class cars this particular year, so his chances of placing seemed to be zip. But he would get to race.
He said, "I don't know which car to race," as he held out the two cars that he had brought with him. I looked both of them over and suggested the car which looked to have the best chance of performing. I weighed the car which was quite light. I took him over to the pit stop area where we quickly hot glued some lead to the top of the car. We graphited the wheels and ground in the lube by rolling the car back and forth on the counter. Then I placed the car with the rest of the open class cars, told him when they would race and then went back to the business of getting the other hundred and twenty cub scout cars registered and set in place for racing.
The races went on through the day with much excitement. Finally it came time for the open class races to occur. Off they raced with over 30 cars competing. Then the dust cleared and the results were announced. "In 3rd Place," I yelled , "In the open class racing against many adults, the winner of the Thunderbird district 3rd Place trophy is BRETT OTT!"
I think that I was every bit as proud of him as I was of my own 1st Place finish in that race, possibly even more excited as I became quite emotional and choked up when presenting him with his trophy. He had produced, nearly all by himself, one of the fastest cars in the district, without the knowledge of how to do so. This after missing out in racing with his fellow scouts in his pack. This was a proud moment.