It’s Cub Scout Pinewood Derby season in Lake County.
On Sunday, the Cub Scout Pack 627 of Gurnee Pinewood Derby featured handmade cars crafted by most of the pack’s 40 Scouts, with the event held in the gym at Woodland Elementary School in Gages Lake.
The Pinewood Derby, a popular part of the Scouting program, strives to propel derby cars using gravity. Cars have a five-ounce weight limit, and are crafted from provided official kits.
Each kit has a small block of wood. The wood is cut and typically sanded and painted, using the kit’s axles and wheels.
Some cars are designed for speed, others for looks, and sometimes for both. Themes of cars evolve over the years depending on what’s popular or simply classic.
This year, there were several Tesla-inspired Cybertrucks rolling down the pack’s 45-foot aluminum track.
Pack 627 Scouts received their kits in December. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) principles go into the making of each derby car.
“My son and I have been building them for five years — He tells me what he wants, and I try to do my best to cut it out,” said Dave Johnson, pack committee chair and father of Nathan, 10. And yes, Nathan made a Tesla Cybertruck.
“It’s pretty ugly but it has good technology,” Nathan said.
His mother Beth, co-den leader for the fourth-grade Webelos, added, “To Nathan’s point, the technology is quite impressive. It’s amazing the data that they’re able to capture so, from that perspective, it’s a pretty innovative design.”
One Cub Scout in the pack is female: Charlotte Martinez, 8, of Lindenhurst. She made a blue “Sonic the Hedgehog” car.
“I put a lot of detail in it,” she said, adding that being the lone girl in the group was “kind of cool.”
Dave Johnson said, “We are open to both boys and girls. We’re what we call a family pack.”
About the Pinewood Derby, he said, “It’s family. We have grandparents here, brothers and sisters. We want to make it a family event. Ultimately, it’s just all about having fun.
“We have a lot of different varieties and creativity with our Scouts,” Johnson continued. “This is the premiere event for Cub Scouts. They love it. We make it fun. We have it interactive.
“Kids are designing their cars,” he said. “They’re painting their cars. They’re coming up with ideas and things I’ve never seen before or heard of. But then they’re also working on the STEM part of it, with dealing with angles, dealing with friction, some of that physics that gets involved with how you’re creating the wheels so they spin faster. Where do they put the weight on the car so that it pushes it down the track faster?”
The derby was live-streamed on YouTube. Concessions were available for purchase. A loop fixture feature was added for fun to the track after the competition so kids could see if their car could make it through the loop. Ribbons, medals and trophies were part of memories made.
Teresa Pajor of Gurnee, celebrated with son William, 6, a kindergartner, who won for best designed car in his group and used gold LEGO pieces.
Kindergartners made LEGO brick cars to ease them into the actual Pinewood Derby official kit process.
“It was fun,” she said. “It was really a great experience. He loves building with LEGOs, and he loves being creative.”
Pack Cubmaster Jeff Semler of Gurnee served as emcee and announcer during the countdown to the release of cars down the track.
“I think it’s a big deal for the kids because they get to use their creativity to make whatever they want,” he said. “It’s a great time.”
