First Pinewood Derby

Date: May 15, 1953 • Location: Washington, United States

Don Murphy organized the first pinewood derby, an event for Cub Scouts of the Boy Scouts of America where wooden cars built by the scouts are raced.

The Pinewood Derby is the wood car racing event of the Cub Scout Program of Scouting America. Pinewood derbies are often run by packs of the Cub Scouts program. With the help of adults, Cub Scouts build their own unpowered, unmanned miniature cars from wood, usually from kits containing a block of pine wood, plastic wheels, stickers with numbers, and metal axles. With the popularity of the pinewood derby, other organizations have developed similar events. Pinewood derby is a registered trademark of Scouting America so most use different names. Each derby has slightly different rules for making and racing their cars. A small industry has developed to provide organizer equipment and awards.