Scouts compete in district championship derby
By Emily Tuttle
Special to the Sun Journal

AUBURN – The annual Boy Scout Pinewood Derby has been a male-bonding tradition that combines ingenuity and competition for the past 50 years.

As nervous as their sons, fathers watched triple and double elimination heats at Saturday’s Abenaki District championship held at the Central Maine Community College. After all, they helped shape those small blocks of wood into racing machines.

“It’s important to the boys,” said Arthur Boivin of Rumford, who was watching his grandson’s car make the final rounds of competition. “But sometimes it may be more important to the dads.”

Boivin remembered working with his sons, who are now 40 and 35 years old, on cars and learning over time what made them faster.

“We’ve never gotten this far until this little feller,” said Boivin, pointing to grandson Cody Boivin. “We didn’t realize with the first cars how much the weight of the car makes a difference. If you can get it right to the maximum weight, that seems to give it a better chance of winning.”

Cody Boivin said that making his car gave him a chance to spend time with his step-father, who was unable to attend Saturday’s derby. Before qualifying at his Pack 566 derby in Greenfield, he and his stepdad spent about a week together shaping, sanding, painting, and testing out the wheels.

“It’s kind of fun to do stuff together,” said the Webelo. “And I like to build stuff.”

About 100 boy scouts from 22 packs in Androscoggin and Oxford counties had earned their places in Saturday’s event. For more than seven hours, they watched a digital finish gate read out first, second and third places in each heat.

The derby took about 20 volunteers to set up and officiate and countless donations in food and prizes from local businesses, said Robert Reed, Pack 160 committee member and derby organizer.

Before the actual racing began, Scout officials meticulously checked each car to ensure no rules were violated. The width of the wheels, the weight of the car and the clearance from the track all had to be verified and approved.

A crowd that included mothers, grandparents and siblings sitting in bleachers remained hushed during the opening ceremonies. But once the scouts shouted upon cue, “Gentlemen, start your engines,” the noise level grew as the morning wore on and spectators continuously asked, “Did he win?”

There were winners from each of the four scouting age groups of Tigers, Wolves, Webelos and Boy Scouts. The grand champions for the entire district were Webelo Jake Dumas of Lewiston, first place; Webelo Shane Tanguay of Lisbon Falls, second place; Tiger Ben Rancourt of Turner, third place; and Webelo Phillip Moon of Turner, fourth place.

“The Tigers may get a lot of help from their dads as they learn about the derby and gain skills,” said Reed. “But by the time they’re Webelos, the boys are able to use most of the tools themselves.”

While the derby rules may change from year to year, the process of taking a chunk of wood and whittling it down to a 5-oz car has stayed the same for as long as Reed can remember.

“This race has been going on longer than I know about,” said Reed. “Over the years, I’ve seen cars shaped like a candy bar, a hotdog mobile, an army tank and even a bathtub.”

Some of the cars lined up for Saturday had coins taped to their bodies for extra weight, or metal screws and paper clips in the nose. Regardless of how imaginative the boys had been with shapes, they all seemed to have figured out the secret: It’s all in the weight.

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