Three Annapolis area students raced to top spots in the 2012 Capital District Pinewood Derby Competition.

The event, held this past weekend at Westfield Annapolis mall, was open to all Cub Scouts from each pack in the district, according to a release.

Hillsmere Elementary third-grader Nathan Lynch of Black Walnut Cove walked away with first place. He is a part of Pack 366 at Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis, said his mother Kathi Lynch in an email.

Also earning top spots were:

• Scott Stoneburner of West Annapolis Elementary and Cub Scout Pack 366—Third place in the final completion within the district.
• Mitchell Macey of St. Andrew’s Day School and Pack 366—Third Place within the Bear Group in the district.

Kathi Lynch said it was a challenging road to victory:

Nathan first participated in our Pack 366 Pinewood Derby race on January 28, 2012.  A few days before the January race he used a hammer to tweak his wheel alignment and broke an entire front chunk of wood off the right side of the car. 

We were all devastated because his car was painted and almost completely finished until the ‘accident’ occurred. I felt horrible because he worked with his dad for a month on the car.

This is our third year racing and he has improved the speed each year.

So once the panic set in, Nathan started on the patch work. He used some wood glue, a nail and more paint to fix the car. He didn’t have time to tweak the wheel alignment again, but raced anyway with his Cub Scout Pack 366 at Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis. His car placed fourth, racing against the Bears, Weblos I and Weblos II.

Once we heard about the Capitol District Derby races coming up the next week, Nathan improved the wheel alignment and used some serious amounts of graphite on the wheel axles.