Pinewood season never ends

By Joe McAdory

Published: March 22, 2009

Back from my Daytona Beach vacation and the first thing at hand Sunday was my son’s Pinewood Derby race at Philadelphia Baptist in Smiths Station.

Our Richard Petty car performed well, which is pleasing when you spend lots of time drilling holes for weights, inserting the weights, testing, painting, then adding the final decals. To watch the 43 car zoom past a good bit of the competition, and even beat the overall champ in one heat, gives a bit of satisfaction in knowing we did a good job.

But Joseph’s STP machine finished fourth overall out of about 15 cars or so. Que sera. There was some incredible competition. Gotta tip the hat to those guys. The overall winner was Peyton Burton in a sleek gold car. It’s the one in the photo next to our Petty car.

My “research and development” car, a wooden replica of Sir Malcolm Campbell’s famed Bluebird, brought a smile to my face. Actually, the sucker (pictured on my cool leopard-skin bed sheets) burned up the track in pre-race warm-ups and whipped anything it raced. Funny thing, I didn’t even put graphite on the axles. I’m amazed that I’ve never had a car win so easily. Then again, I’ve never had a car so illegal. Yeah, I put Razor wheels on it for less friction, fully-knowing it wasn’t within the rules. Heck, I was only racing it for fun, just to see what it could do. I had my fun, and put it away.

I’m not quite finished with it. I’ve still got to re-paint it with a glossy shade of blue, then add decals sent to me from a buddy in England. The Bluebird was made in England and Campbell’s a British hero. The car set a land speed record of 276 mph in 1935 on the beach in Daytona. It later exceeded 300 mph out on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. For further information, check out http://www.sirmalcolmcampbell.com

Last week, I even drilled a smidgen of sand from Daytona into my Bluebird, for nostaglia’s sake. I look forward to finishing the car’s exterior, then putting it on the shelf ... until an ‘anything goes’ race comes along.

That said, is Pinewood Derby season now finished? I’m not sure. Regardless, I’ve got a couple of other prototypes in the works. Development began on one last week in a Daytona Beach garage of all places. Yes, I believe another historic stock car is coming. The other? Nostalgia is not important. Speed, however, is.