Pinewood Derby Winner!

Braden just experienced the first pivotal moment in every Cub Scout's life: the Pinewood Derby.  And--best part--he was the overall winner! 

Unfortunately, I was out of town on the day of the big event, so I couldn't watch it go down, but thanks to some pictures taken by Braden's Den Leader, Erin Casey, and an interview with Braden, I think I got the full story. 

“Braden, tell me about your pinewood derby car.”

It was fun designing the car. The car looks like an arrow. It is black with a red spider. It has metal to make more weight in the back. 

“Anything else I need to know about it?”

You can just look at it. (Daddy's note: I'm not putting our secrets on the internet!)

“Tell me what you thought when you first saw the pinewood derby track.”

I thought it looked cool. It was metal and about 13 or 14 feet long. It had 8 lanes. (note: Dad says it was 35 feet and almost stretched across the entire cafeteria. It was aluminum.).

“Did it have an electronic timer?”

No, there is no timer. There was an electronic thingy that told you the places. (Daddy’s note: There is a timer on the scoreboard down at end under the places. It didn’t show total time, it showed splits of how far each car was behind the winner).

One of the five heats of Braden's den. Braden's car crossed in the "1" position. 

“Tell me about your den’s race.”

I won every race. We raced five times because there were five cars and how many cars there are equals how many times you have to race. I won every single one and Daniel got second. His car had a Storm Trooper on it, and it fell off every single race.  Jacob had a dinosaur. His wasn’t fast. He got fourth place, but his looked cool. The other Braden got fourth all the time. I forgot what the other car looked like. (Daddy’s note: Everybody ran in a different lane every time because there were some advantages in different lanes).

“What did you do while the race was taking place?”

I watched it from the sides. I cheered.

“What did you do when you won?”

I cheered for myself. The other boys cheered for me, too.

A celebratory dance, of course. 

Braden and his buddy Daniel. 

Another celebratory dance, this time with the addition of blue tape on his cheek (?)

“Tell me about the finals.”

At one point I thought there was another yellow and red car that was going to beat me, but I was wrong. There were fifteen races because there were fifteen final cars. I think 7 people couldn’t race because there are only 8 tracks. I raced against Nate. His car was Lightning McQueen, and it was cool. I got a trophy and a pin for my uniform with a blue pinewood derby car for first. (Daddy’s note: We did enough runs so that each car ran in each of the 8 lanes. There were Wolves, Webelos Den 1 and 2, Bears, Tiger Cubs, Arrow of Light, and they kept the top 2 out of each group, and 3 out of a big group.)

One heat in the finals. Braden's car is in first. 

Den winners. 

“What does it feel like to win?”

Really good.  (big smiles!)

“You did better than mommy did when she entered a pinewood derby car when she was about your age. What do you think of that?”

I think I smoked you. (Laughs).

“How thankful are you to daddy?”

A lot. Really thankful.

“Could you have done it without him?”

Nosirree. Daddy helped with cutting out the car and gluing the metal piece to the car and painting and putting the wheels on. I told Daddy what I wanted the spider to look like, and the shape of the car. Daddy was really nice to me and was happy when I won. He was like “yeahhhhh” when I won.

The top three places in Braden's den. 

“Did Daddy pick you up or hug you or high five you when you won?”

No, he just made weird sounds. (Daddy’s comment: Weird sounds? I wasn’t even around you when you won. I didn’t really say much on the race track because I was standing up there helping run it.)

Proud winner! (and still wearing the silly blue tape on his cheeks!)

“Anything else we should tell people about your pinewood derby race?”

No that’s about it. Oh, I did help put up the track, and that was a big job because the pieces were heavy. I got to put up the special pieces. That’s pretty much it!

“You want to do it next year?”

Yessssss!