Photos by Courtney Pedroza
Short Leash Hot Dogs held its first adult Pinewood Classic event on Saturday, with 50 little wooden cars competing on a full pinewood derby race track.
The event also featured live music, a beer tent and a raffle for charity.
The Real London Bus Company provided a double-decker bus for the audience to sit in while watching the races, and transportation company Uber offered free rides from Short Leash for first-time users of the service.
Local organizations including Four Peaks Brewing Company and Local Motors, Inc. donated items for a raffle at the event. All of the money from the raffle tickets went to the New Pathways for Youth mentoring program.
Short Leash started selling the car kits in their restaurant about two months ago, and manager Brad Moore said all 50 kits were purchased within four days. He said the event has nostalgic value for those who made pinewood derby cars when they were kids.
“Hopefully it’s something we can do every year, maybe even more often than that,” he said.
Moore said the event took about five weeks to plan, with about 400 people attending. The first and second place winners received trophies, medals and gift cards to restaurants and coffee shops in downtown Phoenix, including Short Leash, Carly’s Bistro and Royal Coffee Bar.
Chris Groppi won first prize with a simple design featuring a small car body and the attachment of washers for weight. Other car designs included a tiki carving and paintings of cartoon characters such as Gumby and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Graphic designer Doug Penick came up with the idea to bring the Pinewood Classic to Phoenix after discovering adult pinewood derby events in other cities.
Penick was involved in Pedal Craft, an annual event that started in 2011 and showcases the art of graphic designers and the downtown bike community. He said last year may have been the final event for Pedal Craft, but he still wanted to work on a project that engages the community in a creative way.
Penick said he anticipated that the turnout of the event would be around a few hundred people, and that his expectations may have been beaten.
“The amount of excitement that our racers had was indicative of how many people might come,” Penick said. “Our racers got very into this.”
Penick said he hopes the Pinewood Classic shows the community that there are always cool events happening in downtown Phoenix, and that it is easy for anyone here to see their ideas happen because the community is so supportive.
“It’s great to live in this city because of that,” he said. “I hope that people continue to have that bravery — if they want to see something happening to just do it.”
Contestants Aaron Kimberlin and Lindsay Kinkade, who represented the Dapper+Dash bow tie company in the competition, modeled their car after a 1932 Ford Roadster.
They incorporated elements of their company into their car with its vintage design and red-and-black color scheme present in the Dapper+Dash logo. Kimberlin said it took about one week to complete the car.
Kimberlin said this event is more inclusive than Pedal Craft, which had a smaller number of designated competitors. Kinkade said those competing included designers, builders, architects and engineers, and that the event is special because of the creative nature of the competitors.
“By making new things together, we can also feel empowered to make our city together,” she said.
Contact the reporter at sajarvis@asu.edu
