May 20, 2015 - Start your engines! Boy Scouts from the West Valley race at UTI-Avondale
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Kyle, the winning 3rd grade racer, grins from ear to ear after winning race. |
One of the most hotly contested auto races of the year ‒ at least among the elementary school age group ‒ was held in the West Valley this spring ‒ and it wasn’t at the raceway.
On a beautiful Saturday morning, Boy Scouts, their families and troop leaders brought their aerodynamic creations to Universal Technical Institute (UTI) in Avondale to race for the Pinewood Derby, vying for the title of the fastest car in the Grand Canyon District.
The Pinewood Derby is a long-standing Boy Scout tradition ‒ boys have been building and racing derby cars since 1953. The cars are designed and built by the boys, weigh less than five ounces, use gravity for speed and are fueled by imagination.
The racetrack was set up alongside supercharged engines and high-tech equipment for life-sized cars at UTI. “At UTI we know that the love of cars starts young and we’re excited to welcome these young designers to show off their design and racing skills,” said Mike Romano, campus president.
The winning scout from each grade level got an opportunity to ride in a vehicle connected to the dynamometer (DYNO), a machine that measures force, torque and power of an engine. After a discussion about how math and physics are vital to building faster, more powerful cars the winning boys had the opportunity to feel like a race car driver in a stationary funny car, while the engine revved to the equivalent of 150 mph.
