Becker Cub Scout Pack 92 held their annual Pinewood Derby race event Saturday to a packed gym at the Becker Primary School. Cubmaster Nathan Ward said his pack has grown from 18 boys last year to 46 registered kids this year.
“Yeah, that’s super exciting,” he said. “We more than doubled our numbers.”
Saturday, the Cubs and their parents and families gathered in the gym about 11 a.m. The cars — some designed for show and some designed for go — were checked in, weighed (under five ounces) and put on display on a long table behind the 27-foot sloping track.
The races were broken down into age groups of K-5, a 15U and 15 and over categories for scouts family members.
As the noon start for racing approached, Ward gave a stirring speech about the Cub Scouts, the derby and everyone saluted when the colors of the U.S. Flag were presented to kick things off. Ward has been cubmaster for the last eight months. He began his love for scouting when he was a youth cub scout, boy scout and eagle scout. Nathan and his wife Gina, have two boys in the program.
“I like bringing my own kids up in the same tradition,” said Nathan. “It’s good family-bonding time, participating in activities and learning. That’s what it’s all about.”
Pack 92’s derby is a series of races for each car in different starting points on the track. It’s not a head-to-head race with each vehicle, but instead the races are timed and the ones with the best times move on to the championship rounds.
The starting gate is at the top of a four-foot high slope and Ward had a couple of his scouts tend to the gate and ensure the cars were ready to speed down the long track. An adult Scout volunteer was in charge of managing the computer that timed the vehicles and displayed the results on a screen in real time.
“Timed” races replaced the head-to-head competitions in 1991 when Stuart Ferguson formed Micro Wizard to supply Pinewood Derby racers with microelectronic finish line timers. Ferguson’s son was a Scout and he said he found races were often too close for human perception, or mechanical tools, to call.
“About every 40 races you see a win separated by about 1/1000th of a second,” Ferguson said. “That's a tight race, and you sometimes heard stories about fights breaking out between parents. It really is humanly impossible to judge a race that close objectively.”
The top two in each age group have a chance to go on to the Scouts’ district championship in March.
“Some people really get into this.” said Ward. “The kids and families study YouTube videos and learn from others to make the best car they can.”
The top three races from each age group receives a wooden trophy created by “Mickey”. Also at the climax of the event, all the volunteers at the race get together and vote on whose vehicle was best designed and that youth gets a special trophy just for that.
Cub Scouting is part of the Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), available to boys from first through fifth grade, or 7 to 11½ years of age and their families. The purpose of Scouting is to build character, learn the responsibilities of citizenship, and develop personal fitness.
Pack 92 consists of Cubmaster Ward, Asst. Cubmaster Tabatha Petitt, Committee Chair Gina Ward, Secretary Kelly Kothrade and Treasurer Ryan Olson.
For more information, visit the scout’s web page at pack92becker.scoutlander.com and click, “contact our pack”.
