The Pinewood Derby Competition brought many MSMS students together on Oct. 14 to test their innovation skills and compete to see who had the fastest car. The Engineering Club hosted this event to encourage students to use their shop located in Shackleford to create a car to race against other students.

The competition is divided into two branches: the traditional competition and the “anything goes” competition. All students are provided a kit, but for the traditional competition, they received a list of rules they must follow to be qualified to participate. The “anything goes” just had to meet three requirements: cost under $25, be materials made from the shop and fit on the track. The cars were set on a 30 foot track that sloped downwards to test which car was the fastest.

For the traditional competition, junior Trey Fant won. For the “anything goes” competition, Joshua Seid took first place. Eight teams competed overall, and Trey Fant’s car won in the overall competition with a time just over two seconds against “Dat Boi” by Richie Andersen’s team.

Junior Joshua Seid, winner of the “anything goes” competition, said, “It was a really fun experience to compete. It was good teamwork for everyone and a good way to show off creativity in the race. I really wished we had more competitors, and I look forward to next year!”

Daniel Smothers, Engineering Club President, talked about the success and purpose of the competition.

“Pretty much what we wanted to do was to have a lot of people come out and have some fun, hang out, race, and get to play around, but also to realize that the shop is open to everyone. We want to bridge the gap between the shop and the students. We want students to realize that the shop is somewhere people can hang out and do stuff,” Smothers explained.

Josh Crowson, the club sponsor, supervised this event and discussed what he wanted to improve on.

“For next year, we plan to create a better start mechanism and a smoother transition between the ramp and the finish line,” Crowson said.

The Engineering Club hopes to have more success with upcoming events in order to get more students involved in the field of engineering.