Pinewood in Germany

It has been 24 years since the fateful incident. My first Pinewood derby race. I was 10 years old and had build a super-fast racer, that won (by a mile) its first race down the track. But as it was back in those days, security around the holding table was not that great, and a small child (a Russian communist spy for sure) knocked my car off the table, breaking the back right wheel...it was over, and since then I have been handed one setback after another, never coming close to the glorious winners circle.

Fast forward to 2007. In Germany, home of Michael Schumacher, I had a chance to show...er...uh, Aaron had a chance to shine forth the racing genes he inherited from me.

Over a month and a half, Aaron and I designed, cut, sanded and painted the car to perfection. I was pretty proud that Aaron helped out as much as he could at 7 years old. He pushed the electric drill to polish the nail-axles, he helped with the spray-painting, and helped to set the wheels. We did have a few cracks/splits in the wood, but nothing a little wood glue couldn't fix. We had a test run on Friday, and I was not too impressed with the speed...but we added weight, reset the wheels (after another split in the wood) and by race-time on Saturday, we were ready to go. A quick squirt of graphite, a McGyver-like tape-job of the front axle (with scotch tape instead of duct tape), and a champion was born.

Aaron got a little upset as he wanted to race EVERY race, but after a little coaxing, he understood, and waited his turn.

The first race for Aaron was a photo-finish tie between three cars...we actually had a dad taking photos of the finish...and you could not tell who won. So they raced again, and Aaron won by a nose. After that he did not loose again in the qualifying rounds. He was the "regular season" champion, and he was excited. He then raced against the top 6 racers, and came in 4th, but they were all close. He got a ribbon and everything.


To say the least we had a good time. After dominating the German circuit this year, we are ready to come back to the states and try our luck on US soil! By the way, "Aaron" Gibbs wants to challenge "Caleb" Hatch to a race some time...the media reports that "Caleb" is too scared!

Here is a video of one of his winning races!



And just to prove he is a good sport, check out Aaron's cub scout spirit after a third place finish in one of the championship race rounds!