The Pinewood Derby: The Blue Bruiser

Bentley's pinewood derby car was finished on Tuesday night and Wednesday was the derby. Matt was in Barrow so opa took Bentley and Jake to the derby. 

Since this is the first pinewood derby that the children have attended, we did not have high expectations as to how B's car would do in the races. Yes, we read about how to build a fast car and Bentley followed the tips that he could given the materials he had. We had heard that one family in the ward always won the pinewood derby. They had a fast car design that they used with each of their five sons. They obviously knew more about derby cars than our family did.

Bentley, opa and Jake arrived on time to the derby. The first half hour was spent weighing the cars. We knew that a car could weigh up to, but not more than, five ounces. B's car was way under five before the lead was added and then it was a little over five ounces, so some wood had to be removed from the underside. After the alterations the car was exactly five ounces.

After weighing in the derby began. The cars were raced down a three lane track. There were nine cars at the derby and each car was raced sixteen times. The first heat that Bentley's car raced in, he went up against the boy with the fast car design. Can you believe it...B's car won! (We heard that there was a problem with the fast car's front bumper paperclip and adjustments were made thereafter.)

I did not attend the derby. I was home with Lincoln and Evan. Kara took Viva to gymnastics and then she drove over to check out the derby. She was quite surprised to find out that Bentley won the first six of his heats! Kara reported to me that Bentley was quite pleased with the results, but in a quiet way. Opa, on the other hand, was cheering loudly. Opa told me that Bentley became more animated as the derby went on.

When Bentley came home he reported to me how the race went: His car won all sixteen of the heats he raced in. He placed first in his den and first in the pack! Awesome! The race officials gave his car a name: The Blue Bruiser. Opa told me some of the heats were very close. We were all quite surprised. (But maybe we shouldn't have been? Opa has an engineering degree and google is a great source of information.)

Of course it was exciting to win, but this sets the bar awfully high for next  year and the next year and the next year…with four boys in the house we will be doing the pinewood derby for the next decade. 

FYI: This post was written by Grandma Julia, not Kara. We both started  posts on the pinewood derby. Kara had gotten as far as putting photos online and I had the text, so we combined our work. To give full due credit I must add that three of the photos in the post were taken by opa.