Pinewood Derby

So late last year, before Thanksgiving, it looked like my son’s cub scout pack, Pack 323 in Woodstock, was going to get the full pinewood derby treatment this year. Then after Thanksgiving Omicron arrived, and the positivity count peaked again. Plans were changed to have it outside in a local park instead of the church basement, where social distancing guidelines could be better adhered to. Then within a few weeks of the date, levels dropped, and we changed plans again and decided to have it in the church basement, but keep it simple.

Our pack has uses a yellow super track that has electronic timing and is run by computer software. Quite an elaborate setup, because their are speakers to hook up, a projector display, and assembling the track and securing it to the floor is not easy either. So we decided to just setup a basic two lane drag race track using some of the blue practice track that you can buy at the scout store. That’s what we actually used when the 2021 pinewood derby was held outside in a local park.

Where am I going with all this? Well, my wife gifted me a 3D printer this past Christmas, and I was looking for printing projects. So for the pinewood derby this year on my 3D printer I printed the trophies for the den winners, a medal for the overall winner, a start gate for the blue track, and a finish gate for the blue track. I bring all this up because you will see these items in the photos I took during the derby, and may wonder how those items can be obtained. Shoot me an email and I will be happy to share the files with you. Enjoy the photos from the event! These were all shot handheld documentary style on my Canon 6D2 with a 24-70mm F2.8, using the available light from the overhead fluorescent lighting.