Being our first year in Cub Scouts, the Pinewood Derby has been an interesting experience. Tonight was practice, weigh-in and impound. Sean and Sierra had a blast. Sean's car was running 2nd probably 80% of the races he was practicing in. Finally, I told him it was time to weigh-in and impound it so we can go home. Well, his car had some room to grow and he decided to add some weight. Below his car is on the right, coming in 2nd.
Racing it again, it had obviously lost speed. Thinking it was the weights, he had me remove them but the car did not regain its speed. Graphite was reapplied to the wheels. This seemed to help some but it was late and he was racing against different cars than he had earlier. He was not handling coming in 4th in every practice run before we left and then he did not handle having his car stolen ("impounded") for tomorrow's race. I realized then that we had stayed way too long. We should have left much earlier when the car was running well and he wasn't so tired.
I was very pleased when an older scout, but not by much, tried to console Sean by telling him that he might win when he races against his den and that he might even get first. So sweet. I told Sean later that I hope when he's older that he will be able to help a younger scout in the same way if he sees one that is upset like he was.
Races are tomorrow. I hope that he does not come in 4th every time he races or it will not go well. He can handle 3rd I think, but not last. I reminded him how much fun he had when he was placing well and that he will get to sit his car on his shelf and look forward to next year.
