Pinewood Derby Award Ideas

Here are some great Pinewood Derby Award Ideas for your next Pinewood Derby^® event.  This will allow everyone a chance at coming out a winner winner chicken dinner for all the hard work.  While it will always be a satisfying feeling to get a nice ribbon or trophy for winning a pinewood derby race, it is also nice to get a more personalized award.  We recognize that a pinewood derby win feels more like a victory when you receive a personal pinewood derby award certificate specific to the racer.   A nice certificate with gold foil will really make each scout feel a great accomplishment.

There are many aftermarket trophy vendors that can make or provide traditional style trophies.   These are great and look good sitting on the bed stand.  We actually love the hand made ones.  Great ideas can be found on Pinterest.  If you are into 3D printing awards trophy, then a good start is Thingiverse.

Don’t forget to make a Display Stand for your cars.  Take pride in the work you collaborated with your scout.  Show them that you are proud as well and it was not just a another event.

Alternative idea to a purchased derby award

You can make a Pinewood Derby Award Ideas Trophy using your own Pinewood Derby car. This trophy will proudly display your derby car at the top of the trophy – your car becomes part of the trophy.  Make a base.  Apply a few magnets to to the car and a strip of iron metal to the base where the car rests.  And best of all, the car is held in place by magnets, so your derby car is securely held in place while on display, but if you want to take it off to show your friends, you simply give the car a little twist and it pops right off, ready to race.

Derby Dust honestly suggests that each year, the biggest trophy should NOT be awarded to speed.  We actually believe that it should rotate between one of the events below and not be announced ahead of time so that it will be a surprise to all.  We suggest this as an alternative to making very strict rule sets and thus allows everyone to do their thing.  Some are in it for fun, some are in it for only speed.  Why should the biggest trophy only go out for speed?

Make the award personal for the win

The award categories should not stop at speed, nor should the rest of them be downplayed.   These offer the best variety of awards for any Pinewood Derby^® and are often considered the standard among race organizers.  This extensive list allows for almost every scout to receive an award or similar accolades to give kids the motivation to persevere.  Derby Dust feels if a child puts a significant amount of effort into an activity but finds himself with nothing to show for it, he may feel as if his hard work went to waste. This then tends to result in an extremely destructive “what’s the point” attitude that has him questioning why he ever exerted so much effort in the first place. Even adults will feel tempted to give up if there is nothing to show for their work – how can we expect kids to feel any different?

Personal pinewood derby award certificates are a great way to  give children tangible evidence of their hard work and thus strengthen their resolve.  Some may see it as a “participation” award.  Just know we are here to build up our children, not put them down.  Giving children a reward for their efforts is great, because it shows them the value of being present, working hard, and contributing to a team. They are shown how good it is to be reliable and how important the effort of every person is, no matter if it leads to a victory or a loss.

Pinewood Derby Award Categories Best of:

• Appearance
• Best Accessories
• Best Brakes (slowest car)
• Best Block Of Wood
• Best Classic Car Design
• Fastest Car In The Outpost
• Best Color Scheme
• Best Craftsmanship
• Best Design
• Best Detail
• Best Drag Racer
• Best Driver In the Car
• Best Engineered
• Best Flames
• Best Fuel Economy (slowest car)
• Best Funny Car
• Best Imagination
• Best Jungle Car
• Best Law Enforcement Car
• Best Military Vehicle
• Best Of Show
• Best Off Road Vehicle
• Best Paint Design
• Best Racer
• Best Resemblance to a Monster Truck
• Best Resemblance to a NASCAR
• Best Resemblance to an F1 Car
• Best Resemblance to an INDY Car
• Best Sports Theme
• Best Street Rod
• Best Truck
• Best Use of Advertising
• Best Use Of Color
• Best Use Of Imagination
• Best Use Of theme (assuming your group has a theme)
• Best Vehicle Not A Car
• Best Wedge Car
• Best Wood Carving
• Best Workmanship
• Coolest Design
• Coolest Paint Job
• Crowd Favorite

Awards for Fast Cars

• Fast and Furious
• Fastest Car In The Den
• Fastest Car In The Outpost
• Fastest Car In The Pack
• Fastest Looking Car

Other Great Pinewood Derby Award Ideas

• Funniest
• Judge`s Favorite
• Kid’s Choice (where the children themselves pick a winner)
• Least Wood Left On Car
• Most Aerodynamic
• Most Artistic
• Most Awesome
• Most Bling
• Most Colorful
• Most Complicated Wood Carving
• Most Creative
• Most Creative Use Of Material
• Most Cub Scout Pride
• Most Decals
• Most Flashing Lights
• Most Futuristic
• Most Humorous
• Most Innovative Design
• Most Lights
• Most Likely To Be On Front Cover of Motor Trend
• Most Original
• Most Patriotic
• Most Realistic
• Most Scouty
• Most Sporty
• Most Unique
• Most Unique
• Most Colorful Paint Job
• Muscle Car
• Originality
• Peoples Choice Award
• Plainest Looking
• Prettiest Car
• Racers Choice Award
• Ranger Derby Spirit Award
• Scariest Car
• Shiniest Car
• Shiniest Paint Job
• Simplest design
• Smoothest Finish
• Speed
• Spirit of Pinewood Award
• Sportiest
• Strangest Shape
• Tallest Car
• Thinnest Car
• Top Movie Or TV Show Themed Car
• Weirdest Looking
• Wildest Looking
• Workmanship