See You at the Finish Line! Pine Wood Derby Time

Ronin participated in his very first Scout Pine Wood Derby this week.  :)

Ronin's "wolf" car. He came up with the car's cut, design, and look all on his own.


This year the derby was done much differently.  There were two church wards participating together instead of just one, which meant a whole lotta scouts and family members attending!!!! 

First half of the room:

Second half of the room:

There were a total of 21 cars racing that evening - that's one very large and tough competition!


This year was also different because we were using a new race track!


This new track was set up electronically so that it would automatically show the results and race times as the cars passed the finish line. Not only that, but the data was sent to a computer where the results for each car were stored and flashed up on a huge white screen. It would also automatically call up the next cars for the next race.  Each car got to race eight times.


Let the races begin!

The derby was fast paced, so the kids were always keeping on eye on the screen to know when they were up next to race or to view their results:

Check out the Angry Birds car.

Ronin's car is in the number two spot (second from the right.)

 It's a fast track!  The computer also recorded the speeds too - average speed for the derby cars was 190 miles/hour.  I had to look at that twice - really, those little cars go THAT fast?!

Ronin's car did very well . . . he came in first place six times out of his eight races.  The other two races he placed in second and third. (Below: showing another first place finish for Ronin!) 

The results were calculated automatically by averaging the racing times.  Ronin took second place in our ward! (Each ward's results were separated from each other.)

Getting high fives from his fellow scouts.

Now for the final raceoff!  The top two cars from each ward were raced for the final top spots.  Good luck, Ronin! 

Each car was raced four times.  Ronin came in first place twice!  The other two times he came in third and fourth place.



 The final overall race times were averaged and Ronin ended up coming in first place! 

Great job, Ronin!  Not too shabby!  A second place for the individual ward competition and then coming in first place in the final overall competition! 

Our crazy, little scout, whatever are we going to do with him?