Rick’s Rants and Raves

Today was Nathan’s third Pinewood Derby. In the previous two derbies, he’d done well. OK, let me back up….

Today was our third Pinewood Derby. In the previous two derbies, we’d done well. I say “we” because it is intended as a parent-son activity. It is intended that the parents will help the scout with some of the more difficult bits of designing, shaping, and finishing their car. So, although we try to call it the scouts car, it is really the product of the parent’s and scout’s work.

As such, I felt a reasonable amount of pride that Nathan’s our car has made it to the finals the last two years. I figured I’d come across a reasonably successful formula of preparation techniques to produce a good car, and that over the years I’d perfect those techniques to help Nathan win some time. We spent a fair bit of time working on his our car.

Today was the test of those techniques. In the “standard” race, in which only the scouts participate, our car came in second-to-last in the final point standing. I think the only races that our car wasn’t 4th (of 4) was when another car jumped the track. More often than not, it wasn’t even close. Nathan was visibly upset but maintained his composure very well.

After the scouts’ race was finished, I looked at his car and made some adjustments that I thought would help. For example, the spray-paint finish seemed to be a bit tacky, so I put some tape on the body to protect the wheels from rubbing on the paint. I also adjusted the axels a bit and added some more lubrication. I also added a car of my own to the race: a completely unfinished pinewood derby kit. Its a block of wood with four wheels. It was called “Blockhead”. I really wanted to see just how much difference all the work made on a car.

Unfortunately, the blockhead car beat the car we’d spent ours designing and finishing. Out of 14 racers, the blockhead car came in 10th. Our “highly tuned” car came in 13th. Clearly something was wrong with the car. I still can’t tell what.

So, in one respect, we utterly failed to make a decent pinewood derby car.

But in the part that matters, it was a total Win. I was very proud of the way Nathan behaved. He was disappointed, but he didn’t throw a temper tantrum. He didn’t cry; he didn’t stomp out of the race; he didn’t blame me or himself. He was puzzled at the results (as I am) but he didn’t beat himself up about it. He was a great kid that demonstrated wonderfully one of the other lessons of the pinewood derby: not everyone is a winner. He managed one of the best smiles I’ve ever seen after two defeats.