Five-year-old Swampscott resident William Roosevelt won the Pinewood Derby at First Church, taking home the top prize in his very first competition.

The Pinewood Derby is an iconic Cub Scout racing event. Children build, paint and race their own miniature cars from kits. The cars are powered solely by gravity as they race down a track about 30 feet long.

“The idea is what can you do and how can you use this to create something that’s going to go faster than everybody else when everybody has the exact same items to start with to build their car,” his dad, Jack Roosevelt, said. “It’s about using physics to take a block of wood and what shape am I going to cut my wood to and how am I going to make this go faster.”

The Pinewood Derby took place at First Church, where William’s Cub Scout troop, Pack 55, meets on Thursdays. His mom, Cameron Burnham, said the group, which is for both boys and girls, teaches “important values for kids” and is “really family-oriented.”

Roosevelt saw the event as an opportunity to “teach him the basics of physics.” The two did some research – taking to many YouTube videos – and learned about everything from friction to tire alignment.

William got to design the car, from its colors to the name. He picked “American Destroyer.”

“He won every single race except for one,” Roosevelt said. “It was so much fun to watch. The best part to be honest with you was at the end of it, I don’t think he actually understood what he just had done. He’s jumping around and he’s happy but was like ‘Did I win?’ It was like “Yeah, you won the whole thing, buddy.”

The overall event is geared toward families working together as well. 

“I was just excited for him to be participating with his dad and to have done this great project together,” Burnham said. “It’s just a fun experience to start learning how to compete but also teamwork and having a sense of community. All o f that has been really fun for him in scouting.”

Outside of building cars, William’s parents said he loves spending time with his brothers and making new friends, especially in his kindergarten class.