Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

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ah8tk
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Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

Post by ah8tk »

Early last year I started planning a pinewood derby for a car club I am a member of, I brought up the possibility of holding a pinewood derby, at a meeting in February of 2105. There seemed to be some interest in this event.

The first thing I did was to establish classes for racing along with rules for each class. I started with Vintage Cub Scout, I figured if anyone was a scout as a kid they may have their old car to race. I limited the vintage scout to 2009, using the old wheels. Then the stock PWD class, 5 oz. non-modified wheels. A real street class, this class was for cars that look like cars you could see on the street. The Real Street was used because this is a car club so members may want to build a real looking car to race. The last class was an unlimited 10 oz. class, any wheel modifications (controlled size), etc.. I also wanted some design awards to be given, so we chose Best Paint, Most Resembling a Car and Best Sedan Delivery (the club is called the Sedan Deliveries).

The planning continued, rules were adopted, now it was time to find a large enough space to hold this event. I contacted a VFW and another venue that were large enough to hold this event in. I was told the rental fee would be $350 with a $200 deposit. I looked to find another venue, as this seemed very high to me for a Thursday night event. I spoke with another club member whose spouse does work for the local chamber of commerce, he said she was working on some chamber events and would speak with the venues to see what we could get the space rented for our Thursday night event.

We were finally able to book the VFW for a $100 cleaning fee, they would provide a bar tender and we could order food from their menu. Now we had a place to hold the event.

I work with a guy that runs pinewood derby races for scout packs, Awana and corporate venues (Harmon Race Management). I volunteer my time to help setup and run the races. I asked Brad, the owner, if I could use his track for our club pinewood derby and he said the track is not normally used on Thursdays so it would be no trouble to use the track.

The track is a 42’ BestTrack that has been highly polished. It is up on custom stands with red and white/black checkered fabric covers. The track also has a double length stop section with lane barriers and 2 light trees which trigger the solenoid start gate. Here is a picture of the setup:

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Now I had a place to hold the race, some rules for the race and a track to use to run the race. I just needed trophies and to build some cars to race.

Every meeting I attended, I would seek out the host and ask if I could setup a small display of cars to promote the new event. It was a 4’ table with cars that Noah and I have built throughout the years, rules and contact cards.

I priced out trophies from my favorite trophy supplier, TrophyKits. I figured I would need 15 trophies (1, 2 & 3 for 4 classes and 3 design trophies). I could get the trophies for about $165, but then I had an idea… These ideas are not always (almost never) a good idea.

I could make the bases and lids out of clear pine, this would save some money so I could make some custom vinyl wrapped columns with flames with the club logo on them:

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I figured I probably should use ABS pipe, because it is black, so if I miss wrap a column it would just show the black. I drew the flames and added the logo, I had another contact I work with print the vinyl wraps. Then I wrapped the ABS pipes, here is how it looked:

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custom_columns.jpg[/img]

When I put the columns together with the custom column I decided that I needed to stain the wood to complement the custom columns:

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The trophy looked much better with the stained bases and lids:

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The design trophies needed something to differentiate them from the speed trophies, so I changed the side trim from a number (1st, 2nd…) to a star insert holder. Then I needed to create some custom inserts for these. I ordered my trophy parts from TrophyKits. This included the figures, trophy trim, custom labels and the 2” trophy inserts. Here is the best paint trophy:

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I cut the bases and lids on my tablesaw, then sanded, stained and sealed the bases and lids. The trophies were assembled and were ready for the race.

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I will be posting some of the cars we built for this car club race fairly soon, just need to get the pictures assembled.
Last edited by ah8tk on Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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sporty
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Re: Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

Post by sporty »

Very nice..
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Vitamin K
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Re: Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

Post by Vitamin K »

Very nice indeed!
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gpraceman
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Re: Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

Post by gpraceman »

:bigups:
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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FatSebastian
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Re: Car Club PWD, idea & trophies

Post by FatSebastian »

:goodjob:
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