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It’s all about fun at the Pinewood Derby!

Winner holding trophy

Jake Van Vechten holds his winning car and trophy from the Cub Scout Pack 856 Pinewood Derby held on January 28.

By Elean Gersack with photo courtesy of the Van Vechten family

In his second year as a Cub Scout, local third-grader Jacob Van Vechten came out on top of his pack at this year’s Pinewood Derby (Derby) held on January 12. With a scale speed of 133 mph, Van Vechten was all grins on race day.

The roots of this famous race go back 60 years when founder, Don Murphy, wanted a father-son activity for his 10-year old son who was too young to take part in powered car competition. Working with other Cub Scout Pack committee members, Murphy created non-powered miniature gravity cars and indoor tracks, and the first race was held in Manhattan Beach, California on May 15, 1953. Many Packs continue this tradition year after year (source: www.scouting.org).

Van Vechten’s Cub Scout Pack 856 includes several Dens – first graders (Tigers), second graders (Wolves), third graders (Bears), and fourth and fifth graders (Webelos). In the Derby, there is competition among Dens as well as the pack. Each racer has a turn down each of four tracks and the speeds are averaged.

Derby sets include a block of wood, tires, and screws. Scouts carve the wood, attach weights and add paint and stickers for decoration. For Van Vechten, who spent about a week working on his car, the special ingredient was the placement of his weights. “I had some weights in back but I evened it out by adding weight to the front of the car,” he said.

In addition to Fastest Car, there were winners in several other categories —

Best Paint Job: Ian Grubbs;
Most Scout Spirit: Kyle Dawson;
Fastest Tiger: Matt Kochevar;
Fastest Wolf: Peter Hutcheon;
Fastest Bear: Jason McDonald and
Fastest Webelo: Ryan Tierney.

Van Vechten was certainly happy when he won, but he shared that his favorite part of the competition was simply watching all of the cars race.

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