Cub Scout JJ Habres not only won the Pinewood Derby World Championship on Saturday, June 25, in New York City – he also broke the record.
As a first year Tiger Cub from Pack 36 of Gilbertsville, JJ decided that he wanted to participate in the Pinewood Derby. He was six years old at the time.
“We decided to go with it and help him a lot,” said Joe Brewster, JJ’s grandfather, adding how JJ is a little young to work with certain machinery. “We won the pack and den races; set the track record there. That gave us hope.”
By winning those races, the team was invited to compete at the Scouts’ Cradle of Liberty Council race. Several districts were represented.
“We went to that event and did really well there,” said Brewster. “When you start winning like that, even though it’s not just about winning, it gets you more excited – especially the kids. They see that and it gets you motivated to keep going farther.”
After winning the district race, the team was invited to the Pinewood Derby World Championships held in the heart of Times Square.
“It just doesn’t get to be a bigger event than Times Square,” said Brewster. “If you just imagine – racing in the middle of NYC, in Times Square, with all the tourists walking by. It was an incredible event.”
At the championship, the team had two classes to pick from – stock and pro-stock.
“We decided to enter the pro-stock class since we were doing so well locally. They’re the faster cars; we were not sure how we would do there,” said Brewster. “We didn’t go with any expectation of winning anything.”
After the first run – the team realized they may do better than they thought.
The race involved an eight-track lane; each competitor had to race in each lane once. Each lane brings its own set of variables. The scores are then totaled and the average determines the winner.
“We thought we’d do well but you just never know until it’s over,” said Brewster. “He set the track record in NYC with a 2.93 second run, which wasn’t even approached by any other car up there.”
JJ’s car was apparently the only car at the event to average under 3 seconds. Brewster says 3 seconds is sort of the “holy grail” of the Pinewood Derby Racing Leagues.
“If you can get your car anywhere near 3 seconds, you’ve done really well; if you can get it under 3 seconds – you’ve done extremely well. Every one of his runs was under 3 seconds. His was the only car there to do that.”
Brewster estimates there were about 300 cars competing in NYC. In regards to the speed, he says it has a lot do with the weight and the physics of the car. The team did a lot of research to find of what was needed to get the job done. “When you start building a car for speed, you have to follow the universal laws on physics,” he said. “The more weight you have further back in the car, the faster the car is going to be. The reason for that – it’s on an incline.”
The cars raced at Pinewood are considered gravity cars — their only source of power is gravity.
Brewster says if ask JJ, now 7 years old, he does understand the overall concepts. The wheels, axles, and the overall car body all need to be smooth. JJ helped out a lot with sanding those materials.
As the team progressed through the different races, they built different cars along the way to meet the different rules.
“We were learned along the way what works and what doesn’t work. Each car got progressively faster than the previous car,” said Brewster, admitting they got so involved that they bought a track for their basement in order to test the cars.
“If you want to get real competitive – you have to tune the car and the only way to do that is with a track,” said Brewster. “It’s a big advantage if you can test the car before.”
JJ received two trophies in New York City – one for his division, Tiger Den, and the championship cup.
He was one of 15 of the fastest cars to compete for the cup.
“We didn’t expect to win anything up there. We just wanted to do our best and it turned out we did really well,” said Brewster. “He was very fortunate in that he has the fastest car there.”
It was JJ’s first time in New York City.
“We wanted to take JJ there more for the totality of the event, not just to race cars, but for the experience of being in New York City and seeing everything that is NYC like Times Square. The event as a whole was a real prize,” said Brewster. “You don’t get a bigger venue than Times Square.”
In the fall, JJ will be begin second grade at Boyertown Elementary School.
