Boys Toys and Lots of Noise: Down and Derby

Friday, April 18, 2014

Down and Derby

I call this the great pine wood derby debacle of 2014.

Over a month before our cub packs pinewood derby I was in the scout shop buying TWO kits so we would have enough pieces for Ty's car. Bryan and his brother Cory worked most of a Saturday on Ty's car and it was all but done weeks in advance. It worked out that this weekend was Easter weekend so Cory and his family, Heather and her three kids and my in laws could all come and see him race. We get there and our family made up like half of the people there. We were all excited to see him win! We totally thought he would win. Cory's kids cars had all won and even went to region competitions and placed at those. We were a shoe in to at least place.

Ty was so excited! He even prayed before he could win. Then his first race down the track- he gets third. Third? Really? Then he races again- he gets third again. (his is the green car)

And the night kept going the same way- losing-

and losing. It was sad. Really, really sad. He lost to a wood block for crying out loud! How does this happen! Seriously like 10 hours spent on a little car and you would think it would win a little! He was being a pretty good sport but you could see it on his face. We couldn't figure out what we did wrong!

He did get second once but that was the best he did. I was cool with him not winning the whole thing but could he win at least one race please???

After awhile of losing his face started to look like this:

And the men's faces like this:

And yet when it was done Ty still had a smile on his face. Then they announced the winners and he CHEERED for them! I was really proud of his attitude.

He got 8th out of 9th place. =( Always fun to have them read though every place and have your kid come up second to last. I wish they would have just done the top 5. It's embarrassing.

And then it happened. Cory and Bryan started looking at Ty's car. What was wrong with it? They bent the wheel a little and put it on the track with a few kids that were racing for fun. (and those kids cars had done very well all night.) And Ty's little green machine SMOKED THEM! And for the next 5 or 6 races he won EVERY RACE! The kid who won first place Ty beat twice! And by a full car's length!

Redemption!

Oh it felt good. And the look on my boys face was priceless. Even though the real race was over he didn't care. And I don't care either. We all know his little green car was a winner. And after a LOT of teasing Bryan is already planning his car for next year.

After we went to Charlies ice cream and bought everyone who came a treat. It was fun to have family there. Too bad most of the time his car was crap. At least those of us who were there at the end saw what it could really do!