Pinewood Derby racers are red-hot and rolling

Twin Lakes Scouts show off their skills

By HANS MADSEN, Messenger staff writer
Scout Leader Kelly Gordon stood up in front of the crowd assembled at Shimkat Motor Co. Saturday afternoon for the annual Twin Lakes District Pinewood Derby races to get the group worked into a frenzy.

“We’re red-hot and rolling,” he shouted.

He was answered by scouts, parents and siblings yelling back, “Red-hot and rolling.”

A Pinewood Derby event is run much like a real race. Cars are registered as they arrive at the track, there is a weigh-in and a check to make sure they are within the rules and will work on the track before they are put into a pit area where everybody can look at them.

Former Packmaster Dennis Zemke, of Fort Dodge, was helping with the sign-in.

“We weight them, graphite them and make sure they don’t drag on the track,” he said while holding a colorful car and carefully applying powdered graphite into the axles. The car is placed on a small section of track to check for clearance and then it gets weighed. Each car must weigh less than five ounces.

After Zemke finished his inspection, the car went to join the others in the pit.

The pit is where the action is before the race, although for this race no special pass is needed. Comments passed back and forth between racers, parents and leaders, speculation on which of the speedy models might be winners.

There were plenty of choices, this year — 74 cars were registered, up from 44 last year.

Car design is where the creativity of the scouts really shines — among the designs: A General Lee from the “Dukes of Hazzard,” a Humvee in full camo, several cars with Lego men drivers and running in the open class, which is open to anyone, a flip-flop car modeled after a pair of flip-flop sandals.

The sandal cars were a project of Melissa Hansen and Connie Gruver, who both had a hand in planning the day.

“We built them mainly to show the girls that they can do this, too,” Hansen said.

Cub Scout Andy Schertz, 9, of Fort Dodge Pack 10, had a more conventional car built with help from his grandfather, Richard Schertz.

“I helped with cutting a hole and putting in weights,” Andy Schertz said.

This was Schertz’s third year racing, and he did well, placing second in his heat.

So what’s the secret to a winning car? According to Humboldt’s Pack 33 Cubmaster Gerald Davis, “Ohh, they’re secrets, you can’t tell them,” he joked.

He would say this, though, “Streamlining has a little bit to do with it, weight placement is more important,” he said.

And where should those weights be placed?

“That’s one of the secrets,” he said, serious this time.

Cars ran on two tracks at the event, each 30 feet long with several racing lanes and an incline to give gravity a chance to move the cars to the finish line. One of the tracks is more than 40 years old. It was built by LeRoy Clark, of Fort Dodge, and used for several years of racing in the loft of his garage in the mid-1960s.

Clark was recognized at the beginning of the day and commented on the rebuilt starting gate and the electronic finish line.

“It takes the argument out of it.” he said.

One thing that nobody could argue with — the scouts, parents and siblings had fun.



Contact Hans Madsen at (515) 573-2141 or hmadsen@messengernews.net