SAN BERNARDINO – Some of Floyd Huyler’s fondest memories are those he spent as a boy with his father, shaping blocks of pinewood into the likeness of race cars for the Boy Scouts of America’s annual Pinewood Derby.

The spirit of the Scouts, and the Pinewood Derby, stayed with Huyler into his adult years. Now a Cub Scout pack leader himself, Huyler partnered with his 10-year-old grandson, Zane Bracken, to prepare a slim, gravity-defying car for Saturday’s Pinewood Derby at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Bernardino.

“He thinks his grandpa can build anything and fix anything,” said Huyler. “We have a close relationship, but this just brings us that much closer.”

The event, held in the gymnasium of the church, saw Cub Scout packs 20, 111 and 114, composed of boys ages 8 to 10, race their cars down a three-lane angled wood track as a throng of boys and girls sitting on the floor cheered them on.

Zane’s car took first place in the Webelo division, coming in first place during all three runs on all three lanes of the track. He also took home the coveted first-place overall trophy.

His secret to a superfast car?

“Graphite and weights,” said Zane, a San Bernardino resident who attends Bloomington Christian School.

Coating the wheel axles, which are really nails, with dry graphite allow the wheels to spin faster, and small weights give the car the extra thrust it needs to stay ahead of the game.

To keep his car at the regulation weight of five ounces, Zane said he baked his pinewood block in the oven at 250 degrees for four hours to suck all the moisture out of it, which allowed him to affix more weights to the back of the car for extra thrust.

But the car was still too heavy, so Zane’s father, Tim Bracken, helped him hollow out the bottom of the car and drill some holes in it to get the car to the right weight.

The Pinewood Derby was founded in 1953 by Don Murphy, a Manhattan Beach Cub Scout leader who wanted to create a wholesome and constructive activity that would foster a closer father-son relationship and promote craftsmanship and good sportsmanship through competition