Ah ... the Pinewood Derby. For the Blackham family, there was a little more than the usual Derby Daze. It started shortly after Landon's first derby. It wasn't great ... an old wood track, a yardstick for the starting gate, four judges attempting to eyeball the finish line. Grayson looked at his boys and realized he had MANY more years of derbies ahead of him, and he wanted a better experience. That lead to his investment in a Pinewood Derby track (and tables, and timer, and computer/software, projector/screen).
There are quite a few posts on the Blackham Blog about derby days, although it doesn't go back to the beginning (2006). Gray started doing the derby just for our ward, but with such a nice set-up, he began doing derbies for others as well. We even took a family trip to St. George to run one for Wendy's ward (2008 ... and Wendy has many DERBY posts on the Jenson Journal blog). I don't have the records for every year, but my records show 2010/26, 2011/32, 2012/36, 2016/54, 2017/43, 2018/45, 2019/52. Gray would have one of the boys come along and help, moving in the equipment, setting up the computer/projector, and running the starting gate. He wondered if maybe the boys would like to run it themselves as a little side-business when they were older.
When the LDS church announced it was cutting ties with the Boy Scouts program, Gray wondered if that would impact/eliminate pinewood derbies, or if the church's replacement program would still utilize them. Gray had invested in a lot of legos, and had done some parties/youth activities featuring a Lego Derby as an option, he'd done some family/work ones, so it wasn't just boy scouts requesting his services. Alas, it was Covid that really cancelled things. There had been a few derbies in Jan/Feb of 2020, and then... the tracks went into storage and Gray wasn't sure if he'd be getting them out again.
Gray got a request for a derby in April of 2025 ... a favor for a friend. He did it, Landon was his helper (video short here). He has a BIG trailer for his toys/RZR, which was a bit of overkill for the derby stuff, but it looked nice with his truck (first towing test for it). When Derek texted asking about derby status/possibilities, Grayson got him scheduled for November 12 and it was quite the night. Keaton was the helper here, and Gray borrowed a friend's trailer for transport. Derek took some video and made his own YouTube video (DIY Pinewood Derby Tribute to a 600,000-Mile Acura Legend) showcasing the derby, and the car he created for it.
Grayson isn't really sure what the future holds for his derby days ... it really is a huge time investment. He has accepted one request for next year, so we'll see what happens. Taking off several years, and then coming back to it ... a bit of Derby Deja Vu.
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