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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Verbena Baptist Church hosted a pinewood derby for the community on June 22.

Each attendee started out with the same basic car that they could paint and decorate with stickers.

In the youth division, Nick Trace won, and Jackson Huett placed second.

Hope Eiland won the award for best design.

Nick said he enjoyed winning the competition.

For his design, Nick said he “thought of a rainbow.”

His mom also helped him decorate the wooden car for the contest. He said while he was painting his car, he found a sticker someone put on his back and decided to put it on his car.

Hope said she was “really excited” when it was announced that her car won best design.

“I liked the green against the yellow,” Hope said. “I like the combination of green and yellow. Yellow is my favorite color.”

In the adult division, Jason Bryant won both the race portion and the award for best design.

Bryant said he chose red for the color of his car because it is his favorite color. Once the paint had dried, Bryant added stickers for some added flair.

Jammie Hicks placed second.

Bryant said it was hard to know who would win because all of the cars had to be within the same weight range.

Bryant said he was surprised when his name was called as the fastest car.

He said he enjoyed the camaraderie of the event and the opportunity to meet people in the community.

Each of the cars raced on all four lanes of the tracks and the average of the four runs was used to determine a winner.

Darrell Baldwin said the four-lane approach was used because every track has a lane that is fastest and on that is slowest.
“It’s fun to see the adults have as much fun as the kids do,” Baldwin said.

While the participants waited for the paint on their cars to dry, Sheriff John Shearon spoke to the contestants about how to become a Christian and know Jesus.

Baldwin said Verbena Baptist does about five or six derby events in the region and was available to help any church that was interested in having them come. For more information, contact the church at 205-755-1725.