THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702090058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 73 lines
These parents, eyes glued to the speedway, didn't fool too many people.
Ostensibly, the Pinewood Derby - Cub Scouting's premier pint-size race for model cars - is for their young boys, designed to promote the virtues of competition, sportsmanship and parent-child teamwork. The kids also get to stick decals of cool jet-black racing stripes and neon lightning bolts on their cars.
But for many mothers and fathers at Saturday's Merrimac Council Cub Scout Pinewood Derby finals at the Chesapeake Square Mall, that's only half the story.
In homes in Portsmouth and the Western Branch and Deep Creek sections of Chesapeake, these elders and their offspring spent many a night carving a 7-inch wood bar into something they hoped resembled a car - and applying coats of paint till it shone under the mall's fluorescent lights.
``My son put on the first three coats. I put on the last one,'' derby second-timer Steve Bradshaw of Portsmouth said of his son Zachary and their model red Corvette.
Seven-year-old competitor Tyler Britt fell asleep recently with a piece of sandpaper in one hand and his Pinewood Derby block of wood in the other, his father and mother recalled proudly.
Derby veterans pondered nuanced issues like how much graphite to put on the wheels and where to embed the weights in the car's belly.
More than one told their boy to ``line it up, please!'' at the starting gate before their car took on the competition for 32 agonizing feet of track.
The moment was intense.
``I can't take this,'' Bradshaw said with a laugh, watching the heats of competing cars. ``Where's the lounge?''
There were even a couple of speed bumps on the road to the mall's raceway.
Some parents, caught by a scarcity of official Boy Scouts of America Grand Prix Pinewood Derby Car Kits, bought non-regulation kits from local toy stores and built a car with a solid metal axle from wheel to wheel. Steve Chappell, co-owner of Mike's Trainland in Suffolk, said he has sold twice the number of Pine Car kits over last year.
No, no, said district officials, who insisted on four aluminum nails to secure the cars' wheels.
There was a rumor of a protest circulating last week if those non-official cars were turned away. The boys had, after all, won their preliminary heats at the pack level.
In the end, all of the cars were modified on Friday night to fit regulations for axles and weight, said district commissioner Mike Coley.
Each of the 91 Cub Scouts participating, all winners of their earlier heats at one of 17 pack races in the Merrimac Council, got a plaque and a patch.
The computerized track, though, had problems of its own. Thanks to a power surge from a nearby microphone, district activities chairwoman Judie Middleton said the electronic finish-line judge was miscalling the races.
And those eagle-eyed parents noticed it right away.
The glitch forced racing officials to redo the second-graders of the Wolf Divison races and go back to a human judge at the finish line.
All the fuss over computer accuracy, racing regulations and hyped parents never did reach the practice track, where scouts Joshua Thompson, 10, Steven Gallagher, 9, and Michael Dyson, 10, played most of the day.
``We just like racing them,'' Gallagher said, as he ran down the track to retrieve his car for another non-competitive run. ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Antwon Darden, a 6-year-old Cub Scout, places his homemade 7-inch
derby racer at the top of the speed ramp as he prepares to race it
in the Merrimac Council Cub Scout Pinewood Derby inside Chesapeake
Square Mall on Saturday.
Before Saturday's race, model cars built from blocks of wood were
lined up, waiting. The Cub Scouts' interest in the race was
surpassed, at times, only by their parents' - who had, after all,
helped build the cars.