Pinewood Derby

[agdparker]

Ok, so this is my first year running a Pinewood Derby as Cubmaster. It's about a month away. I've been reading over at the USSSP site and the material is great, as usual. I'll be sending out the rules via email today to the parents and tonight we're handing out the kits. They'll get them at a viewing we're doing of Down & Derby, so it should be fun.

We've got a track lined up and one of the parents will be setting it up. We're a small Pack (~23 boys), so I don't forsee too many problems with procedures and rules. We're planning on a committee of folks to judge the cars for some simple certificates. We're also planning on awards for places 1 - 3 for each den and then 1 -3 overall. I also purchased the Photo Op item from the Scout Stuff site. An adult will man this station.

I'm planning on using the electronic interface and purchasing a program to handle that interface and the race structure. Any suggestions or recommendations? I see multiple options online.

I'm a little concerned about what people will do when their boys/siblings are not racing. I'm planning on adults to get the next heat ready, one to keep an eye on the pit, one to work the track release and I'll probably do the announcing. I'm also planning on using a projector to put up the results as they occur.

Any other tips or tricks?

Thanks in advance!

[Mrw]

We found that letting the BOYS vote on which cars they liked best for things like Most colorful, Best in Show, etc was better than having adults choose. The adults will gravitate towards the ones that are best made while the kids ignore workmanship and the kids who did it all themselves are not locked out of this competition. These certificates were handed out after the actual race awards were determined so that no boy got more than one award.

We had about 80 boys when my kids were in Cubs, so we gave race awrds for overall winners (3 places), age level winners (3 places each) and the ones the boys voted on (4-5 categories I think). So while not every kid earned more than a participation ribbon reading "I did my best." they all had a chance to earn something. Seeing the kid who had a lopsided and hideously painted car win for something the boys voted on is priceless!

We had family races after the cubs were done for the sibs and adults that wanted to race cars. That helped give the dads a chance to make a "perfect" car without taking the boy's project away from him too.

We had a few moms who made and sold snacks like hot dogs and walking tacos during the races to both keep kids from getting too hungry or cranky and to add to the carnival atmosphere. This was priced to about break even on the food costs.

[Quailman]

Theme awards help add to the total number of trophies given out. My pack had a kid-built (judged only on appearance - not speed). The more obviously kid-built, the better. Another category was food theme - my son worked the label off an A-1 bottle and used the cap. With the shiny Testor's paint it looked like a real bottle. They rotated the themes. One year was patriotic. Another was Fun at the Beach.

[lambeausam]

We, too, had awards based on appearance and originality. Our track had six lanes. We bought stickers with 1-6 cut with star edges. At the end of each heat, the corresponding "place" sticker went on the bottom of the car. At the end of the day, most scouts had 10-12 stickers.

[agdparker]

Ok, I found out that the track has a Microwizard FastTrack K2 Digital gate system. In looking at Microwizard's site, they appear to interface with multiple different software programs. I'm leaning towards GrandPrix Race Management, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with GrandPrix Race Mgmt, DerbyMaster and RacePro? What I'm hoping to do is run the races, then have the software give me the winners I mentioned earlier, e.g. Overall 1-3, Wolf 1-3, Bear 1-3 and Webelos 1-3.

Thanks!

[FrankJ]

I use Derbymaster. It has a bit of a learning curve, but does everything I need. If you are good at manipulating text files, you can merge your member file from troopmaster or other sources. No experience with the others so I cannot compare them.

With any of them, you should familiarize your self with the program prior to race day.

[smtroop168]

I'm still a proponent of taking the block of wood out of the box, add some paint, stickers and the wheels and go race without the fancy timing that costs units hundreds on dollars.

This is the #1 Scouting activity that has been taken over and overtaken by adults.

[agdparker]

The track comes with the timer, so the only outlay is the $50 - $60 in software cost. Since it does the brackets, records the times automatically, has a display with the boys' picture who are racing, shows the brackets as the races progress, generates certificates, for me it seems like a good investment.

[tonkatim]

I'm still a proponent of taking the block of wood out of the box, add some paint, stickers and the wheels and go race without the fancy timing that costs units hundreds on dollars.

This is the #1 Scouting activity that has been taken over and overtaken by adults.

Amen to that. This is the one time of year that I really do not like being a Leader.

[6yearscouter]

make sure you know how to set up the track ahead of time, and that everything works right.
wipe the track down to make sure there is no yucky leftover graphite ahead of time
put up some flags around the track and make a rule nobody steps over the track.
bring a footstool so the kids can reach to put their own cars in place if at all possible.
bring extra tool kit to fix the cars that are not working right or show up in pieces, or for tires that fall off.
have a weigh in a few days before so if there are any issues there is time to do fixes of cars and makes race night go faster
we have usually some giant car coloring pages,
a game of some kind (match box car shuffleboard was a hit, with a few pieces of candy to give winner of the games)
maybe a cubmobile or cubanapolis 500 car around with a den chief or 2 to watch over it
Our Webelos 2's usually sell pizza, sodas, snacks at the race for a reasonable price. the pizza place always cuts them a deal, they ge the sodas and snacks on sale. they use the $ to give them a boost to cover any costs of crossover.

be prepared in case any electronics don't work.

[tonkatim]

Wheels that don't wobble, win... a scouts dad is trustworthy?

I hate this day and if I could, I would not do it.

[ThunderingWind]

My Crew got to help a new Pack in our district run thier Derby. They had never really done it on thier own before and this was the first time the Pack Leaders did all the work with only a little supoervision. The Crew runs the Pit and checks the cars for rules violations and helps kids repair or build.

This pack is mostly immigrants from northern Africa and the Middle East. Many familes do not have tools.

It was a great learning experience for me with people of this culture and religious background.

[kwildman]

our pack had a workshop day where kids could bring in their cars and someone would help them cut them out or assist with design and woodworking. This really helped the single moms and dads that arent skilled craftsmen. It was well received.

[WVBeaver05]

make sure you know how to set up the track ahead of time, and that everything works right.
wipe the track down to make sure there is no yucky leftover graphite ahead of time
put up some flags around the track and make a rule nobody steps over the track.
bring a footstool so the kids can reach to put their own cars in place if at all possible.
bring extra tool kit to fix the cars that are not working right or show up in pieces, or for tires that fall off.
have a weigh in a few days before so if there are any issues there is time to do fixes of cars and makes race night go faster
we have usually some giant car coloring pages,
a game of some kind (match box car shuffleboard was a hit, with a few pieces of candy to give winner of the games)
maybe a cubmobile or cubanapolis 500 car around with a den chief or 2 to watch over it
Our Webelos 2's usually sell pizza, sodas, snacks at the race for a reasonable price. the pizza place always cuts them a deal, they ge the sodas and snacks on sale. they use the $ to give them a boost to cover any costs of crossover.

be prepared in case any electronics don't work.

Yep. We do almost every one of these.

In our case, the Cub pack asks the Boy Scout Troop to run the race each year. It works great. Lets the Cub Leaders focus on thier own Cub's car and lets the Scouts show some leadership (and advertise that Scouts is different than Cubs).

We setup the track, run the starting and finish lines, announce the races, and provide and keep track of the brackets (after years of trying still not able to convince them to run a round robin format rather than an elimination one.)

YiS