Pinewood Derby Cars – Cub Scouts Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is important in every competition…including pinewood derby car racing. What does sportsmanship mean? Sportsmanship is simply your behavior (or reaction) when you win or lose.

I always tried in instill good sportsmanship in my son by making the following statement before every race, “Remember, win or lose, we did our best. And doing your best is the most important thing.”

The important thing is to have fun on the journey and to follow the cub scout motto, “do your best ”.

I have an interesting story that demonstrates pinewood derby sportsmanship. One year when I was managing our pinewood derby race for our Cub Scout Pack, a boy handed me his car during the weigh-in that shocked me. The wheels were cut in half vertically and each wheel had five large holes drilled through them from the side to make them lighter.

The axles were machined rods that went through the entire block. They were not even pinewood derby axles . Pre-cut cars , polished axles and wheels that have been “cleaned up” with light lathing were fine, even expected for serious racers, but this car was patently illegal using any interpretation of the derby rules.

Unfortunately, the person submitting the car was none other than my son’s best friend! I called over his father and said that these modifications were not allowed. He argued with me (in a nice way) saying that the rules were not specific enough to say he couldn’t cut the wheels in half! I was shocked. This was incredible.

I took a closer look at the car to see if there was something I could do. I could ask him to change the wheels. Problem was the rods went deep into the block and were permanently glued. They were not coming out.

What should I do? I was the pinewood derby race manager …I had to decide.

Should I disqualify the car and send this boy home? I’ve never disqualified a car because no one ever grossly violated the rules . So I thought - who has the most to lose??? It would be the second place winner. Well, guess who was the first place winner two years running? My son! If I allowed this illegal car, surely my son would lose his first place streak.

I talked it over with my pinewood derby race management team. We all knew the car was illegal but no one wanted to make the final decision to toss this car out.

It was up to me and my son had the most to lose!

Pinewood Pro and Pinewood Derby Car Racing

Welcome to my first entry in my Pinewood Pro pinewood derby car racing blog.

I am the owner of Pinewood Pro, the pinewood derby experts since 1995. (Yes, the picture is a little dated, but I will post many more up-to-date pictures soon). I am a Pinewood Derby enthusiast with years of experience building cars, managing races, inventing pinewood derby products, volunteering and donating back to BSA and many other groups. My company offers high quality derby car products along with lots of free articles and guides to help you build and design a winning car.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts, insights and humor to entertain and educate my pinewood derby friends.

I vividly remember carving my very own pinewood derby car when I was a little Cub Scout tyke, many years ago. I couldn’t wait to turn that block of wood into a cool little car. Yes, Dad, you helped me cut the block and do the hard stuff but this car was going to be mine!
I wanted it to have my car design, my paint job and my cool decals...but unfortunately I had no idea how to make it fast, except perhaps to pick a “fast color”. “Blue cars are really fast, aren’t they Dad? We better add some silver streaks, just in case.”

Well, perhaps blue isn’t the fastest color…I went down in Cub Scout Pack history as having come in second to the last in every race I entered. Why second last? Because my brother had the distinction of coming in dead last! Well, dead last would have been better than what happened to his car. Read about the incredible pinewood derby that defied gravity at About Pinewood Pro .
Notwithstanding my own humble pinewood derby experiences, I always followed the Cub Scout motto, “Do your best” the rest of my life and managed to emerge from a tough inner city neighborhood in New Haven, CT to earn a degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University.

Some say that college is a waste of time unless you apply what you learn…Well, low and behold, when my son Steven was ready to build his very own pinewood derby car as a cute little Tiger Cub Scout, I put my engineering knowledge to work to help him with the “speed part” of his derby car design (axles, wheels, weight placement, etc…see our free guide how to build a fast car ).

Steven (and yes, with a little help from his Dad) went on to save the Gargiulo name 30 years later by winning the Cub Scout Pack 468 derby race. He brought a tear to his Dad’s eye when he said, “Dad, I’ll never forget this night.”. He went on to win the District race as well. Wow, the fastest car in the district!!

From that point on, with our winning pinewood derby secrets, we were now the team to beat…every year.

So, follow the Cub Scout motto, “Do your best”, listen to your Dad / parents and work hard in school. That college degree WILL come in handy some day!

…more about Pinewood Pro and Winning Pinewood Derby Secrets in my next blog log.