I'd like to share a short story. 10 years ago my, now 18 year old, grandson asked me to help him build a pinewood derby car. I didn't even know what that was but after he told me I agreed to help. Unfortunately for him I knew absolutely nothing about the rules nor how to build the car but I figured I'd do my best. we cut out a nice, kind of aerodynamic, car, we put the wheels on as straight as I could after painting it with some flat green paint I had laying around and off to the races we went. Well needless to say we failed miserably. I felt terrible and I felt like I let him down. He let me keep the car, I think because it wasn't worth the wood it was made of. 3 years ago my, now 9 year old, grandson joined the cub scouts and I (Papa) got the opportunity to redeem myself in the derby races. I studied this time before starting his car. He won 1st place in his pack the first year he raced. The second year we made a few different cars and we built a practice, two lane track with a digital timer. He won 1st in his pack, 1st in an open division at another pack's race, 1st in the wolf division at districts and 2nd overall at districts. This being his third year he won 1st in his pack, 1st in the bear division at districts and 1st overall at districts. He feels like a champ and Papa eased his continence just a bit. We're ready to try something bigger but we don't have a clue what's out there. Does anyone have any suggestions of what races might be good for us rookies to try?
