From: Bob Riley (Cubmaster639@AOL.COM)
Date: Sat Nov 27 1999 - 15:37:37 CST
Hi James,
I'm not sure from your post if you've ever been involved in a derby race,
or at least maybe not in the planning part. No dissing here but, sometimes
when you're a spectator you're not aware of what went into something.
For instance, in our format each car raced once in each lane. The only
way you would have to race 260 times would be if each car raced all
by itself (65x4=260). Remember, when car A runs so does car B, C
and D. I believe the minimum # of races, heats or runs you would
need would be equal to the # of cars in the competition.
Here's an easy way to get a picture of how this would work....
Print out large, bold numbers one through 65 (in your case) in a column.
Print 4 of these. (For derby night print more for screwups.) Cut them up
into individual columns (1-65). Lay these columns of #s side by
side. These are your heats. You then stagger the columns so that the
cars race different opponents each race. I think if you line up
1, 3, 7, 13 you should not have any duplications.
Where the 2nd, 3rd and 4th columns go past #65 of the first row cut them
off and lay the cutoff portion at the top of that column. You'll see what I
mean when you do it. All you have to do is move your columns up or
down to get rid of dupes.
Then you make up a large chart with the rows the same height as those
numbers you printed. And since you don't know how many entries you
will have until you start the first race I suggest you don't tape the
columns of #s to the chart until you've cut off all entries. This way you
can cut the columns at, say 59, if that's all that show. Then you stagger
the columns as described above. And now you'll only need 59 races.
(And even if you allow some late comers can play around with the races
at the bottom to assure, as much as possible, the least # of dupes for
the late comer. This is not always possible tho.)
Why do you want to compare times? If each car runs on each track
then everyone races with all the same elements over the course of
their four races.
Ain't this fun?
There are a few web sites that can help you with many different setups.
If you want those please email me privately and I'll dig them out.
Again, sure hope this helps.
YIPDR,
Bob Riley
