Today, we began construction on the Pinewood Derby Unleashed track. There were a lot of volunteers that came to help with this project. The wood was mainly made from scrap pieces from building the loft or donated. The timing program we used was from MiscJunk.org using an Arduino and a few electronic parts and a timing shield bought from MiscJunk.org. Here’s a link to their timer build is http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/pg_pdt.html
The races will be held on February 20th! Bring a car to race or just come to watch the competition.
We split up into two teams. There was a construction team for the actual track fabrication and a team to tackle the electronic portion of the build. Here’s Gene, Josh and Carl working on the electronics.
Tony pre-cut the track to the same specifications as the Boy Scouts of America track pieces.
With many talented volunteers, we were able to get the track pieces cut to shape and put together very quickly. Here’s Jack and Steve cutting pieces for the track supports.
Bracing the track height was one of the many challenges that we faces but were able to figure out. The track will be supported on 2×4 pieces of wood with a dowel rod to create the angle that the track will sit at. This creates no need to cut precise angles for the track to sit on. Chris made slots in the wood to hold the dowels.
After all the pieces were constructed, they were screwed and bolted together. Starting with moving the track in place. 
Once the track was in place. It was screwed onto the supports that were built 
Thank you to all the great volunteers that came to help create this awesome track.
Here’s a video of a test run down the built track.