Fort Mill Cub Scout is a Pinewood Derby world champ

There isn’t much faster than a Jack Dollyhigh pinewood car – except him telling someone about it.

Dollyhigh, 10, has plenty to tell folks after his world championship win June 25 in New York City. Mean Green, five ounces and seven inches of lightning on wheels, was the fastest Webelos 1 — fourth grade — entry and third fastest overall in Times Square at the Pinewood Derby World Championship.

The second-year Cub Scout event brought about 400 racers from across the country. Dollyhigh earned his way there by winning his Pack 1790 race in Fort Mill and the York District race in Lake Wylie this winter. And by behaving at Pleasant Knoll Elementary School the rest of the year, earning A/B honor roll. Dad Sam set those prerequisites for the New York trip.

“He did it, and I couldn’t back out,” Sam said.

The first step inside the Dollyhigh home reveals how the pair paced a nationwide set of Scouts aiming to beat their times. It’s a speed factory, complete with tracking, trophies and the seven-foot tuning board dad and son built together.

“It’s a crazy setup, a practice track to work on the alignment,” Jack said. “If they’re not aligned, they can’t run fast.”

Jack nearly forgets to breathe as he talks speed secrets. Fast Pinewood Derby cars generally take a door-stop-with-wheels shape. He gives pros and cons of fender use. He talks grooved axles and extended wheel base, disallowed in local races, but sanctioned for nationals. Thus explaining the three new cars Jack and Sam built for New York, taking the fastest.

“It’s very aerodynamic, so the wind doesn’t slam on it and push it back,” Jack said. “You don’t want too much friction on the wheels and axles.”

Jack can explain particulars of alignment, and how to track wheels straight on an aluminum lane down to degrees of drift.

“There is no ‘right,’” he said. “You’ve just got to find it.”

Sam, who works for Continental Tire, never participated in Cub Scouts. His teacher, and Jack’s to a dizzying degree in recent years, was a mouse click away.

“When I was growing up, we didn’t have the Internet,” Sam said. “He’s learned a lot. I still don’t let him use the power tools, but he does the weight. He does the wood filler, sanding, nail buffing. He painted that.”

The other secret weapon, perhaps the main one, is Pack 1790.

Roy Cleeland began as Cubmaster when the pack formed five years ago. About 25 boys, first to fifth grade, meet at Carolinas Cornerstone Church off Dam Road. Every Cub Scout pack has a culture, Cleeland said, and part of theirs involves racing.

“It’s some dads and some kids, we sort of focus on Pinewood Derbys,” he said.

Adults teach the physics of a race, where to put the weight and why. They teach friction and design. They have had several cars do well at the district level, the highest a local Scout could go until the nationals began two years ago. But the Dollyhighs well exceeded expectations when Jack and Sam decided to go to New York.

“He won the world championship for his division,” Cleeland said. “It’s pretty remarkable. It certainly turned out to be a worthwhile event for Jack and his father.”

Sam said he and Jack couldn’t have won in New York except for their pack, from adult leaders setting up the track just for Jack to test the new cars, to late-night help along the way.

“We try to learn from each other,” Cleeland said.

Early on, the Dollyhighs had plenty of learning to do. Jack finished 16th out of 32 cars in just his pack as a Tiger, the youngest group in Cub Scouts. The next year he was sixth.

“We decided we’re not building the cool car,” Jack said. “We’re building a car meant for speed.”

Last year he won his pack race, finishing second at the district event among Scouts from all of York County and Indian Land. This year he finished first.

“Each year we got more and more tips, and the car got faster and faster,” Sam said.

A Scout can build a block-with-wheels car in a day. The Dollyhighs spend a month or more on each. Sam Dollyhigh doesn’t take that time together lightly.

In 2014, Jack was involved in a wreck on S.C. 160 with mom Laura and younger brother Archer. It required an airlift to a Charlotte hospital. Jack broke his leg, while Laura and Archer suffered traumatic brain injuries. It’s “almost like a full-time job” caring for the family at home, Sam said, but one bright side of the extensive care is all the extra time together.

A project to work on together can be a gift, and derby racing certainly is a project.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Sam said.

Jack sees derby racing, despite his individual success, more as a team event.

“At the district race it was about our pack doing good,” he said.

The part he likes about racing is, there are several ways to go about it. Some cars look incredible, but won’t be mistaken for speedsters. Others have the opposite issues.

“It doesn’t really matter if you win or lose, it’s whether you have fun,” Jack said. “If you want a fast car, you need some tips.”

Jack isn’t shy with them, from alignment, which is critical, to paint which is, well, more for fun.

“It doesn’t really help the speed,” he said, “but it does make it look cooler.”

The only challenge following a world championship win is, Jack still has a year of Cub Scouts remaining.

“We could try to make it faster, or my dad and I talked about making a very cool-looking car,” he said.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Fort Mill Cub Scout is a Pinewood Derby world champ."