When his 7-inch-long, wooden race car was put on the scale Saturday afternoon, Jake Powers, 7, of Pottsville, saw it came out to only 4.65 ounces.
Determined to give it a bit more weight, in an effort to make an impression at the Cub Scout Pack 604 Pinewood Derby race at Fairlane Village mall, Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out six cents, a penny and a nickel specifically. Then he glued them to the top of his car.
“Instead of regular weights, he wanted to use the coins,” his mother, Paula Powers, said.
“The car shall not exceed 5.0 ounces,” according to the derby car weight rules at www.pinewoodpro.com.
“So we looked online to see how much coins weighed and we figured out what the right amount would be and we got it right to 4.95,” his father, John R. Powers Jr., said.
In competition with the more than 20 scouts in the pack, Jake came home with a trophy for fourth place.
The race was held at the mall’s center court and more than 125 people gathered for the event.
Edward M. Koropchak, 6, of Saint Clair, and his father, Edward A., worked to make the boy’s racer look like a tank.
It received a special trophy, “Cub Scout Favorite,” called so since most of the scouts in the pack voted for it as their favorite looking vehicle in the race.
“We looked for images on the Internet, ideas to help us make a tank out of a block of wood. He kind of helped me draw it. I bought a dremel with a guard on it so that he could hold the dremel with me. We carved it down enough so we could use weights to assemble what looks like a canon barrel. We kept designing on it, and he wanted to paint it so it looked camouflaged. It took us one day. We spent the entire day working on it. It’s all we did all day,” the elder Koropchak said.
When the father-son team put it on the scale, their tank weighed in at 4.9 ounces, so the father glued an aluminum square, which weighed “a tenth of an ounce” to the car’s roof.
“Using the weights as decor worked out nice because it gave it that Army battlefield look to it,” his father said.
Among those in the crowd was Rachel Bensinger, the director of organization development for Gillingham Charter School, Pottsville. She was cheering for her nephew, Craig Bensinger, 7.
The trophy winners and their Cub Scout ranks are as follows:
• 1st place: Luke Bercher, Webelos 2
• 2nd place: Gavyn Hylka, Bear
• 3rd place: Nathaniel Webber, Webelos 1
• 4th place: Jake Powers, Tiger
• 5th place: Noah Rhode, Wolf
• 6th place: Brayden Tokonitz, Lion
Trophies were also given in three special categories. The winners and their ranks are as follows:
• “Cub Scout Favorite”: Edward Koropchak, Tiger
• “Most Original”: William Mongrain, Webelos 1
• “Boy Scout Favorite”: Zachary Eiler, Bear