Kotick Cubs held their first Pinewood Derby on Wednesday April 16th 1997. For those outside North America, a Pinewood Derby is a race between wooden cars, built by cubs, down a slope. The track consists of lanes designed to keep the cars in a straight line. Tracks can have any number of lanes, the Kotick track has three lanes and is 30cm wide.

 This is the story of the event, related by Akela.

 With the advice and assistance of American scouters, I built a track, found a supplier of wheels, found some sponsors willing to donate prizes, and then crossed my fingers hoping that the boys would develop the enthusiasm I had.

 Before Easter we had two pack meetings devoted to building and testing the cars. The boys were then encouraged to "improve" their vehicles over the Easter break before the Big Night.

 On the Wednesday night, I was nervous, hoping that a reasonable number of boys would (remember to) bring their cars. I wished for a multiple of 7 so that I could use the Perfect 7 chart (for three lane tracks) that I had found on Stan Pope's excellent web pages. My wife and younger son (a Beaver, the English version of Tiger Cubs) came to add support and help judge the "Best Looking Car". So then the cars arrived, some boys had worked in 2's and 3's but everyone had a car to race (hooray!). I counted up the cars, 20 cub cars! My beaver son has brought a car as well so I had three groups of 7, Wonderful!

 Then there were the cars themselves. Some of the boys had spent a lot of time decorating their cars and there were some imaginative designs. I had some example photos from Jim Peterson in Wisconsin (thanks, Jim), and these gave the boys some ideas, but they had obviously thought about their work themselves.

 The racing went well, the three groups raced in turn and I awarded points for first, second and third in each race (3,2,1 points). Fortunately all the races were easy to call, no finish was closer than about a car length. The groups produced three 3-win cars which raced in a three-way round robin to find the grand champion. This was close with one car winning one race and another winning two. So we found our Champion. The winning boy was one of the quieter members of the pack who had, it seems, spent a lot of time thinking about building a fast car. Remember, we don't have all the Hint and Tips that are taken for granted in the U.S. The top three drivers then received their prizes, donated by the local Jaguar dealership of baseball caps and Jaguar pencil boxes.

 Finally, we chose the top three "Best Looking Cars". This was not too hard, the best three, especially the winner, were quite clear. The winning vehicle was a "Tango" truck (semi-trailer, in american?). "Tango" is an orange-flavoured soft drink in the style of 7-Up. I was pleased to see that the winning driver was one of the younger, boys in the pack who has been working very hard on his badgework lately. More prizes of caps, boxes, and Formula 1 posters. All competitors left with a prize, if only a Land Rover key fob or a Lotus balloon (or four!).

 All in all I was excited and delighted with the success of the evening. Everything went according to plan and all the boys had a great night. We will certainly be having another event next year and I'm sure it will become a regular and popular part of our calendar.

 If there are any UK packs interested in more details, please E-Mail me and I will help as much as I can.

 Particular thanks go to Dusty Fletcher of Pack 165, Cary, North Carolina for help and support in making this exciting First for our pack possible. Thanks also to the subscribers to the Scouts-L mailing list for their advice and assistance. For non-American readers, if you are interested in holding a Pinewood Derby, there are many pages on the Web about the subject.

Here are some photographs of the event.

	Setting up the track
	Starting the race
	Discussing a Car
	The Race is On
	The Winners - the three fastest cars
	The Winners - the three best looking cars