Pinewood Pride

It’s the winter of 1999 and I’m sitting in the pew of an old church in metro Detroit on a Wednesday night. It’s dark out, and I’m half-listening to the scoutmaster at the pulpit drone on about the latest canned food drive. “Scouting for food. Scouting for food. Scouting for food…” he goes on. I’m donned in my orange Cub Scouts T-shirt, wondering if one day I’ll be a Wolf Scout and wear a yellow bandana.

The clock isn’t moving. My mind is wandering. They’ve all but lost me. My six-year-old body is sitting on that musty cushion, picking away at the gold foil pages of the hymn book. My mind is somewhere else. Christmas is coming up…

Then, after what seems like forever, the scoutmaster adjourns the meeting. He mentions that there’s a special guest in town, and that we should meet him outside the chapel. We all march over in a single-file line. Nobody could believe it—it was Santa Claus himself.

Mr. Claus came bearing gifts, and I remember hoping with all my heart that he had a boxcar for my burgeoning model train collection. Well, he did not. Instead, he gave us all individually wrapped blocks of wood—with wheels. These, we learned, were the basis for our Pinewood Derby racers.

I have plenty of pinewood derby tales that I’ll share another day, but I figure this is a good start. My Pinewood Derby entries took many forms through the years (mainly due to my grandfather’s handiwork), but I would have loved to build a hot rod version.

This week, I found these photos posted by Randy Goodrich of Boise, Idaho, with the following note:

One of the nicest pieces I have picked up was this beautiful wooden hot rod made back in 1946. This is about 1/18th scale, maybe a bit bigger. Not sure if there was a kit or if it was all home made. Wood, plastic steel and leather, a true work of art.

I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since. The proportions, the color—everything—is what young hot rodders dreamt of in the immediate post-war years. From the T-body and heavy channel to the hot flathead and column shift, it had it all. It’s so much like a Keith Weesner illustration, it’s almost unbelievable.

This may negate my intro, but if Randy’s information is correct, then this couldn’t have been a Pinewood Derby competitor. The Derby started in 1953. Alas, it’s in the same vein, and I’m so glad to see it survived.

—Joey Ukrop

Photos by Randy Goodrich. As an added bonus, check out this Pinewood Plan from 1954.