Pinewood Derby all stars to compete at district

POULSBO — Tigers, Wolves, Bears and Webelos from Cub Scout pack 4571 showed up to Poulsbo’s First Lutheran Church Sunday night with one mission in mind.

Bearing their hand-crafted derby cars complete with pirates, super-heroes and phantoms, the boys were ready to race.

The wooden ramp runway, which stands about four feet tall, was almost out of reach for the youngest Tigers but each racer was pumped to be able to test the cars they put so much care into.

What starts as a kit — essentially a block of wood and wheels — turns into a speed racer with a little creativity and style on the boys’ part.

“They have to weigh 5 ounces but other than that they get to come up with the design,” said Jeff Philip, Cubmaster. Weight requirements are strictly adhered to in Pinewood Derby races because heavier cars travel faster than the lighter ones. At this stage in the car-racing game, the maximum the cars are allowed to weigh is 5 ounces.

Each car is weighed prior to the first race, and, after the cars are weighed, the Scouts aren’t allowed to touch them again until they race. The night’s races were set up in four heats.

First place of the Tiger heat belonged to 6-year-old Noah North.

Wolves and Bears raced each other in the second heat and the car belonging to 7-year-old Andrew Blalock, a Bear, came out on top.

Winner of the Webelos heat was 10-year-old Alex Blalock.

The secret behind the brothers’ success: Abe Lincoln and lots of him. The pennies glued to the wooden block ensure the weight requirement and was an easy, simple way to do so said their dad, Jack Blalock.

In the fourth and final heat the winners raced each other and North came out the overall winner.

At the end of the night challenges came from all the boys wanting to race North. They said their derby cars were finally warmed up.

“I want to race him.”

“No, I’m racing him.”

“You are definitely going to lose.”

It was the conversation piece of the night and all sounded like votes of confidence to North.

“It feels good because I won,” North said.

Winners go on to compete other Cub Scouts in the Orca District April 26 at Ridgetop Junior High. More than 20 Cub Scout packs will compete in the Orca District races, Philip said.

Webelo Ewen Parkington, 10, said he competed at the district level last year.

“It’s fun,” Parkington said, “but it takes a long time to get through all the races.”

Parkington said his grandpa helped cut the car design out of the wood and his dad let him pick out lead weighted Dungeons and Dragons models of manatars and orcs to give it speed and style.

“The D&D models helped to make it weigh about 5 ounces.” Parkington said. “They do better that way.”

Even if the boys’ cars didn’t win a race, all won awards for the quality and design of their ride.

Names of the awards were anything from “Most Pirattical” to “Best Phantommobile” to “Best Use of Mythical Creatures,” which was awarded to Parkington for the manatar and orc figurines.

“I can’t believe he (Parkington’s dad) gave up his figurines,” said Corey Duval, committee chair for the pack. “I guess we all have to sacrifice some of those things for our kids.”

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