Here's a story that a software customer of mine, Jim Swartwood, shared with me, that you may be interested in.
FYI, 2 years ago I built 2 tracks and shipped them along with 160 pinewood cars to Moldova (an old russian republic). We did a youth outreach as part of a mission trip and the kids went CRAZY over the pinewood derby. They had never seen anything like it and built some of the most creative cars I have ever seen. Pinewood Derbys ROCK......... I had cut the blocks into a shape and got screw on wheels so we could build and race cars in an afternoon. Most of the work was paint and decorating but these kids got so involved, we expected them to maybe work on them for an hour maybe.... they spent all afternoon on them and it was all team work. We broke kids into teams and had races within the teams and then took the best and raced between the teams.... ... Jim
If anyone wants to know how we did the outreach, send them my way. I can give them how I built the track, made the blocks and found the screw on wheels. I made (2) 32ft tracks for less then $150 and I had Home Depot do all the cutting for me so all I had to do was glue and screw everything together. It took me 1 evening to build both tracks. It cost me less then $40 to make 150 cars also and an evening to prep them.
I think it is a great outreach for the kids. If anyone wants to be put in touch with Jim, let me know.