The Derby Results

We went down to the church building as scheduled on Saturday night. The Derby started promptly at 5pm - with dinner! WHO WANTS TO EAT DINNER at a moment like this!?!? We ate our tube steaks and had quiet conversation. There was much hush hush talk about car structure, weight distribution, etc.

WE THOUGHT we had it made in the shade. Race #1 (or should I say Heat #1) featured Benjamin's Daytona Dreamster (complete with a Lego driver)... Ready, Set, Go! He won! The Daytona Dreamster continued to win and win and then there was a few losses but then more wins.

The Scout Master had hired this "handy dandy" computer system that came along with the track. It would keep track of all the heats and tabulate the data - SO WE THOUGHT! (More on that later!) Each car would run 8 races and then the 4 slowest times would be dropped from the results. The remaining 4 times would be averaged! PRESTO - the car with the fastest time would be declared the WINNER!

Up next was Zach's Maroon Indy Dragster. It was a sharp looking racing machine! It was sleek and stream-lined. He too won and won and won! There was one or two losses Zachary had, but most likely by Ben's Daytona Dreamster.

We were getting into an hour or so now... racing, racing, racing... There were 12 Cub Scout cars plus about 5 additional cars (leaders, siblings, Dads). We were down to the final race and I was called up to the table by the Scout Master to fill out the Certificates Of Award.

The last race was won - I looked at the man running the computer system - and I knew I knew there were problems. You could see it in his face. Then he frantically began pressing buttons, shaking his head, muttering under the collar. I was looking at our Scout Master - wondering how this would be handled. Of course, I wanted to blurt out - WHAT! YOU LOST THE DATA! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! But since we are the newest family on the block out here, that would be really really unacceptable and I didn't want to embarrass our family!

The man running the system looked at our Scout Master and said that this had never happened to him before. He continued to press keys as the Scout Master looked at me. He said to me, "Well, we will just have a run-off between the 5 fastest cars. The cars that will race will be the Johnson's, Jensen's, your two sons and the Slay Boy." I agreed and at that moment, the man running the system butted in - "I have some results. Here are your winners!"

Well, Ben & Zach came in at 5th and 6th. We didn't even make the TOP 3! BUT - we did learn that sometimes life has its ups and downs. Sometimes things get messed up and we have to just show our best side. What was kinda' hard to see though was Ben and Zach's faces - a bit let down! But... they showed great sportsmanship and we still all had a great time - WE DIDN'T COME HOME WITH THE FLAT TIRE AWARD EITHER (though it might not have been such a bad deal)!

Zachary, till next year...