BE PREPARED … TO HAVE FUN

Frontiersman

WASILLA — NASCAR fans know No. 8 as one of the fastest cars on the track. On Saturday, another No. 8 scorched a local racetrack as 8-year-old Danny Waitman cruised to a second place finish in the district Pinewood Derby competition.

Like Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s famous No. 8 car, Waitman’s green bullet was quick on the straight-away as dozens of Valley Cub Scouts cheered loudly. The race was the culmination of Scout-O-Rama at Wasilla High School, an annual gathering of about 200 Mat-Su Cub and Boy Scouts.

“This is the grand race,” said Kathy Towns, district commissioner, praising the creativity the boys show in making their 5-ounce race cars. “I think they’re just great, awesome. There’s a lot of ingenuity that goes into those cars.”

Gus Boyer, 10, built one of the most unusual Pinewood Derby cars, creating a miniature bowling alley on top of the wheel base. He won Best of Show for Pack 359 and said the process “only took us not even 24 hours.”

Waitman spend more time on his speedster, and his experience as a first-place winner in 2008 made him think his car this year would be fast. Like a gourmet chef protecting his signature recipe, Waitman declined to give up his secrets for building a fast Pinewood Derby car.

“I’m not telling you,” he said. “I’ve only told one soul.”

Parent Judy Hutchinson said she was impressed with the imagination of some of the Scouts.

“Some of these cars have torpedoes on them, people hanging out of them,” she said. “Some are trains, some are buses. My son makes a basic design.”

Running on aluminum tracks with electronic timers, the Pinewood Derby has come a long way over the decades, Hutchinson said. But the basic principle is the same: every Scout starts with an identical block of wood, four small nails and four plastic wheels.

While the Pinewood Derby was the highlight for Cub Scouts, Valley Boy Scouts spent an eventful weekend camping, Towns said. Troop 338 of Wasilla set up the highlight of Scout-O-Rama by creating a merry-go-round and Ferris wheel from rope and logs.

The Scouts spend about four hours Friday evening setting up the rides, lashing the logs together to make supports and seats for the rides, said Andrew Reynolds, scoutmaster for Troop 338.

With the exception of a few bolts and a large metal bar for the Ferris wheel, the contraptions “are all knots and ropes,” he said. “The boys tied 99 percent of those knots and they worked hard. It’s a lot of fun, though.”

Sam Lund, 13, is senior patrol leader for the troop and said making the rides taught the teens about teamwork.

“It takes a lot of work from everybody,” he said. “It’s a lot of lashing and a lot of rope, but it’s awesome.”

Riding the Ferris wheel is better in some ways than an amusement park, Lund said, because the trip around isn’t slow or methodical.

“Right when you get to the top, you’re on top of the world, then you come zooming on down,” he said. “It’s really fast, faster than the big (amusement park) rides. It’s more scary.”

Although the rides looked rustic, Robin Jeska of Wasilla had no qualms about letting her son, a Cub Scout, take a whirl. After all, she said, if you can’t trust the knot-tying of Boy Scouts, who can you trust?

“These rides are really great,” she said. “I want to make one for my backyard. This is a really good idea, because it gets the kids out and active in the community.”

That’s one of the goals of Scout-O-Rama, Towns said. While the Cub Scouts have fun with the Pinewood Derby and other activities, they also see the projects and adventures the Boy Scouts undertake, which excites the younger boys to want to continue in Scouting.

“It’s all about that sportsmanship, camaraderie and fun — fun with a capital F,” she said. “They all have fun and see what everybody’s doing. The Cub Scouts get to see the cool stuff they get to build when they’re Boy Scouts.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.