LOL, the Pinewood Derby has been the bane of my existence for the past three years. Everytime I think “this is finally the year” me and my son have a real fast car, only to once again find ourselves solidly in the middle of the pack....oh well, next year is going to be THE YEAR!
Here is some advice:
Put your axl’s (really just nails in the BSA Kit) pointy end first into your drill, get some emory cloth (black sandpaper) and get it wet, turn your drill on and get the ribs near the top of your nail smoothed off, also sand hard against the top of the nail, on this inside, the part that will touch the wheel. Let’s say your wheel spins for 12 seconds before sanding, afterwards it will spin for over a minute, that means way, way less friction. Then, if your pack allows it use the black graphite, there’s lots more too it, my sons always finished very high, two years ago my son one the big trophy, first out of 66 drivers.