Hey folks, OK so this is a bit of a read but hey... can't help myself being an expert at jibber jabbin and I love telling stories. And this is a fun one.
So as I realize I am now thoroughly addicted to Pinewood Derby Racing I have to look at what got me started. That is our Churches Awana Grand Prix. So I want to share that here since I see PWDO had a forum for Awana. Now my son started his first year as a Cub Scout this year as a Tiger Scout but our churches 2nd annual Awana Grand Prix was the same day as the Scouts Derby. I gave him the choice and he picked the Awana GP. I am glad he did as it allowed him to race with and also ultimately against his sister and he really loves being at church. That and well, to be honest he could care less about going to Scouts and I doubt we do it again next year. He is very involved though in Awana and on Sundays so it's all good. Give the kid a chance and he'll tell ya who God is and what's up! Gotta love that.
So our churches first annual Awana GP was last year and it was such a great turn out we got our own 42' Best Track with timer and added an Open Class for kids past 5th grade and up and also adults so the dads can build their own cars once they are done building their kids.
Unfortunately for the other kids racing, this daddy found Pinewood Derby Online. #### Now I don't have tooling and even drilled the canted rear axle holes by hand using my eye balls alone and messing them up in the process which lead to tuning DFW and also the rears. That stunk but still turned out OK. Though I also drilled into my wife's kitchen stool since it doubled as my work table/clamp surface.
But I'll post more about that building mess/adventure in a later thread. Some of the speed tricks I did pull off and it paid out.
So the 2nd Annual Crosspointe Christian Churches Awana Grand Prix was an even bigger success than last year. The new track was issue free and the timer system was a champ. We had a ton of kids racing in the 3 Awana classes. The Cubbies (2-4), Sparks (5-7) and TNT (8-10). And as stated earlier this year we added the open class for anyone else who wanted to take a shot at the aluminum raceway.
We ran 4 heats with everyone as usual racing once in each lane against racers in their own class. After 4 heats each of the 4 classes had the best 4 race in the finals and then the 3 kids classes each had their champ race in the All Class Finals for the coveted Awana GP Cup. No Open class racers were allowed in the finals since this was the Awana GP. Tho that would not have mattered since the number 1 & 2 finishers in the AGP Cup cars were the fastest on the track that day.
It was a rough first hour for the kids and I tho. With so many racers it was almost an hour before my kids got their shot at their first runs which had all 3 of us wiggin out. lol I even walked over the the staging tables to make sure they were still on there. But then my kids finally got their shots... and finally... validation... My daughter Bailey's first run was almost like a single race by herself. Yes there were some kids whose parents literally gave them the kits and walked away, or really just had no clue what to do. Some poor kids cars didn't even make it down the track and had to be pushed. BUT... the timer showed a 3.111, fastest run of the day so far. VALIDATION! LOL Then my son Noah's first run came and he ran a 3.171. He had a Bat-mobile hot on his heals tho so it was game on!
There was a Cubbie young girl whose mom is an engineer and they walked away with everything last year in total dominance. Not this year. Tho she did win the Cubbie title.
So The TNT group was heavily dominated by Bailey's Rainbow Beast. The Sparks group actually had more faster cars on average than the TNTers did. Noah won all his runs but was chased close on that first run but after that kept at least a car length or more after that.
It was so great watching my kids take their respective titles tho. Then the All Class Final for the AGP Cup came and it was Bailey with the win barely putting a car length on her little brother Noah who then put a solid 2 car lengths on the quick Cubbie.
What a great day. My kiddos each got 2 trophies... Noah got 2nd place for design and 2nd place for Sparks (an oopsey as he was first, they are getting him that trophy) and Bailey got The TNT title and the Awana GP Cup. I wish they had a trophy for fastest time as Bailey ended up clocking a 3.008 on her 2nd run. No one, even the engineer mom (who WD40'd hers and her kids wheels) got under 3.150 (except Noah) And it even got greater... as I mentioned they goofed and gave Noah's 1st place Sparks title trophy to the wrong racer who was a young girl who brought a friend with her and gave him the 2nd place trophy. I didn't want to be THAT parent who complained so I let it go then stewed about it ALL day. The next morning at church we were talking about it and my son looks at me and smiles and says "dad, she brought a friend to church so she was probably able to tell her about God!" That boy was just happy to have 2 trophies and have fun. Lesson in humility and thankfulness served up 1st class by God through my boy.
So now that I had my revenge on the mom who smoked every other kids chances last year ... by doing so I smoked every other kids chances THIS year. Time to step back and re-evaluate. Seeing my kids pure joy and success was great. BUT ... seeing a lot of the other cars not even making it down the track and also eliminating other parents chances at seeing their kids jump for joy means next year I think I need to change things up. There was even a dad (THAT parent) who insisted on having them pull Bailey's car to check for rule breaking. I have always been heavily involved with the children's program so I will jump in for next year. I was already asked about running their pit nights and doing a class on speed tricks. I'll go a few steps further. I love what 5KidsRacing did a few years back offering up prepped kits to the kids. Now while I wont have the time to mod up a bunch of kits I will offer up more pit nights early on for folks to come and have me drill blocks for them, prep axles & wheels and also tune. We will also open up Race Day weigh in earlier too and not only will each car be checked for regulation but also be test rolled and any car that doesn't go will be quick fixed so that they at least get down and pop the timer on their own. I'll even have a spare pile of prepped axles & wheels so if there are any real basket cases I'll just throw a better set on them. There were cars with glue and paint even on the wheels.
Next years theme will be NO CAR LEFT BEHIND!!! 
So that means I need to sharpen my skills and understanding of these little beasties so that I don't steer people wrong. I will do a secrets revealed video I'll post on our Awana page early on so that parents so inclined will at least have the general knowledge and then they will also know they can come in on the many pit nights we'll put on and we can physically help them with their cars. I'll point them all here as well. Now I wont go too crazy about all the ins and out since I wont know them all anyways but at least I'll help parents and kids know where to go find them. Some of the more elaborate tricks I wont even try to teach them but I will certainly be employing them all on my OWN open class racer.
adults and older kids LOOK OUT! I was bummed I didn't race in the open class this year since I was too busy working on my kids cars. That won't be the case next year. I will bring it as best as I can.
So this was all just an awesome adventure and it also brought me here to see how much more fun this super cool hobby can be even AFTER Scouts age passes. Though I am WAY too intimidated about running a car in the league races right now hopefully I will get good enough to do that eventually as I try to step up our Awana GP's level of fun and fair play.
I've posted a bunch of pics and might post vids too. I recorded every race of my kids except Noah's 3rd run which was when I was stuffing my face with a hot dog and missed his call. I watched but didn't get to record.
Thanks for reading and going on this long winded journey with me!!! And thanks to everyone here that helps slow pokes quicken their steps!
God bless!
Jimmy
ps... wow that was a huge post and adding a bunch of pics.. hope this works. I will post more pics and vids in the next post.
So as I realize I am now thoroughly addicted to Pinewood Derby Racing I have to look at what got me started. That is our Churches Awana Grand Prix. So I want to share that here since I see PWDO had a forum for Awana. Now my son started his first year as a Cub Scout this year as a Tiger Scout but our churches 2nd annual Awana Grand Prix was the same day as the Scouts Derby. I gave him the choice and he picked the Awana GP. I am glad he did as it allowed him to race with and also ultimately against his sister and he really loves being at church. That and well, to be honest he could care less about going to Scouts and I doubt we do it again next year. He is very involved though in Awana and on Sundays so it's all good. Give the kid a chance and he'll tell ya who God is and what's up! Gotta love that.
So our churches first annual Awana GP was last year and it was such a great turn out we got our own 42' Best Track with timer and added an Open Class for kids past 5th grade and up and also adults so the dads can build their own cars once they are done building their kids.
Unfortunately for the other kids racing, this daddy found Pinewood Derby Online. #### Now I don't have tooling and even drilled the canted rear axle holes by hand using my eye balls alone and messing them up in the process which lead to tuning DFW and also the rears. That stunk but still turned out OK. Though I also drilled into my wife's kitchen stool since it doubled as my work table/clamp surface.
But I'll post more about that building mess/adventure in a later thread. Some of the speed tricks I did pull off and it paid out.So the 2nd Annual Crosspointe Christian Churches Awana Grand Prix was an even bigger success than last year. The new track was issue free and the timer system was a champ. We had a ton of kids racing in the 3 Awana classes. The Cubbies (2-4), Sparks (5-7) and TNT (8-10). And as stated earlier this year we added the open class for anyone else who wanted to take a shot at the aluminum raceway.
We ran 4 heats with everyone as usual racing once in each lane against racers in their own class. After 4 heats each of the 4 classes had the best 4 race in the finals and then the 3 kids classes each had their champ race in the All Class Finals for the coveted Awana GP Cup. No Open class racers were allowed in the finals since this was the Awana GP. Tho that would not have mattered since the number 1 & 2 finishers in the AGP Cup cars were the fastest on the track that day.
It was a rough first hour for the kids and I tho. With so many racers it was almost an hour before my kids got their shot at their first runs which had all 3 of us wiggin out. lol I even walked over the the staging tables to make sure they were still on there. But then my kids finally got their shots... and finally... validation... My daughter Bailey's first run was almost like a single race by herself. Yes there were some kids whose parents literally gave them the kits and walked away, or really just had no clue what to do. Some poor kids cars didn't even make it down the track and had to be pushed. BUT... the timer showed a 3.111, fastest run of the day so far. VALIDATION! LOL Then my son Noah's first run came and he ran a 3.171. He had a Bat-mobile hot on his heals tho so it was game on!
There was a Cubbie young girl whose mom is an engineer and they walked away with everything last year in total dominance. Not this year. Tho she did win the Cubbie title.
So The TNT group was heavily dominated by Bailey's Rainbow Beast. The Sparks group actually had more faster cars on average than the TNTers did. Noah won all his runs but was chased close on that first run but after that kept at least a car length or more after that.
It was so great watching my kids take their respective titles tho. Then the All Class Final for the AGP Cup came and it was Bailey with the win barely putting a car length on her little brother Noah who then put a solid 2 car lengths on the quick Cubbie.
What a great day. My kiddos each got 2 trophies... Noah got 2nd place for design and 2nd place for Sparks (an oopsey as he was first, they are getting him that trophy) and Bailey got The TNT title and the Awana GP Cup. I wish they had a trophy for fastest time as Bailey ended up clocking a 3.008 on her 2nd run. No one, even the engineer mom (who WD40'd hers and her kids wheels) got under 3.150 (except Noah) And it even got greater... as I mentioned they goofed and gave Noah's 1st place Sparks title trophy to the wrong racer who was a young girl who brought a friend with her and gave him the 2nd place trophy. I didn't want to be THAT parent who complained so I let it go then stewed about it ALL day. The next morning at church we were talking about it and my son looks at me and smiles and says "dad, she brought a friend to church so she was probably able to tell her about God!" That boy was just happy to have 2 trophies and have fun. Lesson in humility and thankfulness served up 1st class by God through my boy.
So now that I had my revenge on the mom who smoked every other kids chances last year ... by doing so I smoked every other kids chances THIS year. Time to step back and re-evaluate. Seeing my kids pure joy and success was great. BUT ... seeing a lot of the other cars not even making it down the track and also eliminating other parents chances at seeing their kids jump for joy means next year I think I need to change things up. There was even a dad (THAT parent) who insisted on having them pull Bailey's car to check for rule breaking. I have always been heavily involved with the children's program so I will jump in for next year. I was already asked about running their pit nights and doing a class on speed tricks. I'll go a few steps further. I love what 5KidsRacing did a few years back offering up prepped kits to the kids. Now while I wont have the time to mod up a bunch of kits I will offer up more pit nights early on for folks to come and have me drill blocks for them, prep axles & wheels and also tune. We will also open up Race Day weigh in earlier too and not only will each car be checked for regulation but also be test rolled and any car that doesn't go will be quick fixed so that they at least get down and pop the timer on their own. I'll even have a spare pile of prepped axles & wheels so if there are any real basket cases I'll just throw a better set on them. There were cars with glue and paint even on the wheels.
Next years theme will be NO CAR LEFT BEHIND!!! So that means I need to sharpen my skills and understanding of these little beasties so that I don't steer people wrong. I will do a secrets revealed video I'll post on our Awana page early on so that parents so inclined will at least have the general knowledge and then they will also know they can come in on the many pit nights we'll put on and we can physically help them with their cars. I'll point them all here as well. Now I wont go too crazy about all the ins and out since I wont know them all anyways but at least I'll help parents and kids know where to go find them. Some of the more elaborate tricks I wont even try to teach them but I will certainly be employing them all on my OWN open class racer.
adults and older kids LOOK OUT! I was bummed I didn't race in the open class this year since I was too busy working on my kids cars. That won't be the case next year. I will bring it as best as I can. So this was all just an awesome adventure and it also brought me here to see how much more fun this super cool hobby can be even AFTER Scouts age passes. Though I am WAY too intimidated about running a car in the league races right now hopefully I will get good enough to do that eventually as I try to step up our Awana GP's level of fun and fair play.
I've posted a bunch of pics and might post vids too. I recorded every race of my kids except Noah's 3rd run which was when I was stuffing my face with a hot dog and missed his call. I watched but didn't get to record.
Thanks for reading and going on this long winded journey with me!!! And thanks to everyone here that helps slow pokes quicken their steps!
God bless!
Jimmy
ps... wow that was a huge post and adding a bunch of pics.. hope this works. I will post more pics and vids in the next post.
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