13/365

Here's Riley's car in all its glory. We took it over to the church tonight for a test run. The track is pretty epic. Maybe 25' long or so, with a finish line and sensors that tell you place of finish and time.

Apparently the cars can be up to 5oz and Riley's was 3.5 or something, so that silver chunk you see under the nose are some graphite weights. It's pretty much at 5oz now.

He raced with another boy's car tonight and kept getting beat. Apparently we need to put the weights toward the rear of the car (which we haven't done yet).

When we got home, he was in a little mood and it turned out that he was having second thoughts about racing tomorrow night as he didn't think he would win.

We told him the standard "it's not about winning; it's about participating" line, but, in reality, it would be cool to win.

However, I did see one guy's car (one of the dads that's been doing it for years). It was red, basically shaped like a doorstop, with the notches below (where the wheel nails go) filled to minimize drag. In addition, it was painted and shellacked and probably had less wind resistance than an arrow.

That car flew down the track.

Our car? With all the swoops and cuts, well, it may win the Most Asthetically Pleasing prize, but I'm hoping we don't finish last in the actual races.

More from our Pinewood Derby tomorrow.