RACE DAY

Mid January in the midwest; it was 63 degrees today. It’s been unseasonably warm for the  past three days but you could get used to this and it would be such a bummer when the world rights itself. Yesterday was race day. In a church gymnasium in Lee’s Summit, MO, all day long, kids and their parents came and went, raced their little race cars. But the officials from the Cub Scout pack who owned the track and the technology were stuck there all day. I went for the 11:00, (second grade) session, then to lunch, bought lumber at Home Depot store and made it back in time for the 3:00, (forth grade) session. With electronic timers in each lane, each car went once in each lane and totaled the times to 1/100 sec.  Average times were in the 3.2 - 3.3 sec. range. Some cars plunged down the ramp only to bog down and die, before they could reach the finish. One of the pit crew was there to give them a boost as they all needed four times to average. If you needed a boost, you weren’t going to win any prizes. The fast time for the day, and track record was 2.97 sec. It was crystal clear which cars had been fashioned by the child and which ones had been tweaked by adults. My son, Jon, did some tweaking and the girls times were in the mid range.

If you want to be in the elite zone of Pinewood Racer culture you realize that the shape of the car is more or less irrelevant. What counts is weight and friction. The max limit on weight was 5 oz. The wooden block in the kit, plus axles and wheels were just under the limit. So the weight of the wood that gets carved off needs to be replaced and jiggered. Jon used tiny fishing sinkers, drilled a small hole on each side of the body just ahead of the back wheels and glued the weights in. We lengthened the wheel base to make the transition from steep downhill to flat out as smooth as possible. Then he polished the axels with emery paper and applied graphite lubricant to the axels and the hole in the wheels. The girls designed the car’s profile, did the sanding and painting. The axels were nails driven into the body. You need a pilot hole to help keep the angle 90 degrees perpendicular to the direction of the track and that’s tricky. We had a good drill press but some folks machine an alignment tool to guarantee a perfect angle on each wheel. 

When a truly fast car ran, it raised eyebrows on even an old geezer like me. Most of the cars looked like the work of an 8 or 9 year old. Some were shaped and painted funny and one was just the bare block of wood with wheels and a few flat washers taped on the bottom; and it was fast. The cars would separate a car length or more on the plunge down the ramp but as soon as they hit the long, flat run out, the low tech machines began to slow down; some more than others. But the long wheel based, 5.0 oz. cars with highly polished and perfectly angled axels seemed to accelerate all the way through the finish. The awards were fun and the kids all got something. Mahala and Cecilia both ran in the 3.23 sec. range and Cecilia won one of her heats. Everybody left happy and they still had three more session to complete before they pulled the track down and went home. 

I expect we will do it again next year. Jon hasn’t indicated yet if he wants to spend more time and energy on their cars but I’m sure we will be sawing and sanding in the basement again. If nothing else, the girls like to wear the safety glasses and clean up with the shop vac.