The 2008 Pinewood derby will go down in history, and here's the story.......The cars were painted, the tires were sanded, the axels were polished. Henrik and Ethan had managed not to break the wheels off prior to arrival. Those pinewood derby designs are only so strong, waiting break with the pre-race home testing typically down the stairs. We entered into the Elks Club to a throng of 6-10 year olds all set on winning the big race, and screaming as loud as they could.
The first item was to compare cars with everyone else's. Even though the boys didn't have the overall polish of some the the other cars, he boy's made their own cars almost entirely by themselves and were very proud of them.
Before the cars had to be checked in, the boy's were allowed to lubricate the wheels with either white Teflon powder or graphite. I had purchased the white Teflon, but Ethan and all his internet investigation informed me that graphite is waaayyyy better than the Teflon. So, as you can see his car (and Ethan) was coated with graphite powder.
Ethan had a bye in this first round, so he automatically won a metal and moved on to the next round. Sweet!
Henrik got second in his first race and moved on to the next round. Here is Henrik sporting his metal.
Unfortunately Henrik's second round ended in disaster. His car lost 2 of its weights going down the track and his car crashed. He was pretty bummed. I was allowed to replace the weights but was told that his car would be disqualified if it happened again. I got one back in but the second kept falling out. So Henrik had to finish the heat down a 1/4 oz.
He lost the race in fourth place and was out. Bummer.
Ethan took second place in the second round and moved into the final race. It went back and forth but Ethan took second overall in the entire pack! He was really proud! You'll see in the picture that both Ethan and Henrik are holding trophies. Well, after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize trophies were awarded, it was announced that there was a 4th trophy, for...... Best Crash! Being Henrik had the only crash, he won the trophy!
So, the first year of the Pinewood Derby both took home trophies. Yeah! Let's hope for a repeat next year.
Sophie took the initiative again on the lipstick (little bugger), leading into an April-Sophie Blue Steel moment. 