Pinewood Derby 2022

Niles Bolton Associates’ Pinewood Derby event returned for its second year with 20+ entries from our Atlanta, DC and remote NBAers! As always, everyone brought their “A game” in both determination and design. Creativity with the car designs ranged from a hot dog and beach theme to some teams (cough, Dale McClain’s studio, cough) going the simple route, taking the original Derby Car Kit box, adding wheels on and calling it a day. “Work smarter, not harder” is how the saying goes, right guys?

This year’s awards included 1st and 2nd Place for the fastest cars, and Most Beautiful. Shawn Turanchik and Rowan Stewart claimed the first and second place awards. Remoting in from Orlando, Florida, David Flesher virtually took home the Most Beautiful Award.

1st Place
Shawn Turanchik

2nd Place
Rowan Stewart

“Most Beautiful” Award
David Flesher

Our Landscape Architecture studio is always repping the Dawgs!

Post official race, a few NBAers got innovative trying to improve upon their individual performances by stacking cars on top of each other. Landscape Architecture studio’s UGA Dawgs car was placed on top of Ken Koett studio’s Bad to the Bone car. The result of this hybrid? Give a Dawg a Bone. Going up against returning competitor The Fat and The Furious, the hybrid car won by a landslide. The team didn’t win anything other than bragging rights for beating a stick of butter, but maybe we’ll see more of these collaborations among studios in next year’s competition!

The Fat and The Furious vs Give a Dawg a Bone

Congratulations to all the winners and shoutout to DYE | NBA Aviation President Mercer Dye’s long-time friend, Roy Garren, for letting us borrow his 40-foot long derby track! Fun fact: Roy’s daughter, Alexa Garren, is a national competitor in the All-American Soap Box Derby! She represented Georgia in the 2022 World Championship and placed 3rd in the Rally Super Stock category. Our aviation studio is very proud to be one of her sponsors!