This Close!

This is a picture of the final race of the double-elimination adult pinewood derby our Elder's Quorum organized last Saturday. The car on the left (not my car) won 1st place. The car on the right (my car) took second place. We each were beating other contenders by a car length or more. After 50 feet of track, he beat me by just two inches (give or take).

I had a lot of fun building my car. To be honest, at first I was just doing it because I was the 1st councilor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency (recently released) and I felt like I should since I had helped organize it.

We had two heats. The first one we called the "Limited" class where we followed the cub scout rules and the "Unlimited" class which had more relaxed rules such as a maximum of 2 pounds instead of 5 ounces, allowing larger car sizes, and so on.

In the picture above you can see my car on the left. I took a hack saw to an old dumbbell weight and made my car convertible from 5 ounces to just under 2 pounds. My car won the "Unlimited" class! Second place in the "Limited" class is fine with me. I won the "Unlimited" class!

The picture shows me on the left (I am trying to keep my 2 pound car from prematurely tripping the latch that unblocks the cars and starts the race. It had already tripped it twice). Next to me is Derrick Peterson (He used to be my Elder's Quorum President in the Elder's Quorum Presidency with me and is now the Bishop of our ward). Next to Derrick in the background is Jackie Brock (her facial expression was not uncommon among the wives who came that day to support their husbands). Next to her is Scot Nattrass (who does in fact have a propeller on his car).

Other noteworthy two pound cars include the following:

• A very large yellow bus full of lead with pictures of his family of six taped to the side
• A hollowed out block car with 2 pounds of wrenches hot glued to it

It was difficult to find a way to add 2 pounds to a pinewood derby car.