Speaking of Pinewood Derby . . .

[cajuncody 10]

Our former CM (yup still the lousy one) announced at the last meeting (just jumped right in) that HE had made a "bracket" for our race. It is like football teams use in a championship, you know, a bunch of lines eliminating teams at each championship game. I said thanks but no thanks that we would be using the Near Perfect N system so he asked the parents would they rather know right away who was still in the race or not know the winner till the end. They all want to know right away who is still in the race. But if we use his bracket it will be a single elimination, not even double. The second fastest car could be eliminated in the first race if chance puts it up against the fastest. If we use this method it will only end in mad parents and unfair results. Don't get me wrong, the parents want him gone but due to the way he explained his "bracket" they want to use it tomorrow. I guess it is just another thing I will have to put my foot down on tomorrow.

stressed in TN

Kristi

[OneHour 11]

Kristi,

 

... then how would he ensure that it's a fair race? If lane 2 has a small bump on it due to warping or what have you and the car that ran on that lane jumped the track a bit. It could cost the car to jump, to slow down, or to lose the race. would that kid or any kids who have their car assigned to that lane be the only ones penalized? Ask him that would he like to have his son's car run on that lane at all times? Unless all the lanes have the same racing condition and the only factor is the boys' cars then single elimination is a very fun event and is a must! ... but wooden tracks tend to warp over time, aluminum tracks sometimes don't fit well ...

 

We use Stearn Method (using Derby Master) in our Pack due to the large number of entries (100+ cars). It is not as perfect as Perfect-N or lane rotation, but it does provide the next fairest lane rotation. Derby Master spits out the ranking based on the fastest average time. We award 1-5 at the each rank level that night and 1-5 Pack overall at B&G. Two years ago, our sensor broke and we had to resort to single elimination. That was not pretty! There were more teary eyes in the room than we would like. There were angry parents wondering why their sons' cars ran on the "bad" lanes. From then on, we vowed not to return to elimination methods. Running Stearn Method, our boys (and parents) were very satisfied ... they still cheer for the cars and their friends' cars. Their parents stop looking over our shoulders when we started to project the result of each heat on to the big screen! In sum, everyone has a great time!

 

Good luck,

 

1Hour

[SemperParatus 1]

Why couldn't the Perfect-n chart be projected on the wall so that everyone can see the points being accumulated. The Chart could be extended to the right with columns by car numbers with the placements extended. A person can easily add as the races proceeds and see who is winning.

[ScoutNut 147]

"so he asked the parents would they rather know right away who was still in the race or not know the winner till the end. They all want to know right away who is still in the race."

 

Go with your system.

 

Let the parents (& this ex-CM guy) know up front that this race is for the BOYS - not the parents, & the BOYS need to have FUN. Tell them that you will be happy to hold a single elimination race for parents only (no boys) at a later date, and if anyone wants to volunteer to put it together to see you after the boys are done having FUN at THEIR race!

 

PS - Don't get stressed Kristi. Take deep breaths, practice your sympathtic smile & keep repeating - It's for the Boys!

 

Have Fun!

 

[Prairie_Scouter 10]

Remember that the race is for the boys, not the parents who want to get going as soon as they can. There has to be a balance between giving the boys as much race time as possible without having it get "boring".

 

We've always used lane rotation. It's the only way to eliminate fast and slow lanes. In the "good old days", ie, pre-computers, we used to use brackets, but had a losers bracket so everybody raced at least twice, and that helped to eliminate the problem of having fast cars eliminated just because they were in a fast heat. Now, we use Derbymaster and display it on a projection system. To keep up the excitment, we only display overall actual results at the end. Derbymaster displays all of the individual race results, so the boys can try and figure out where they are until the final results are in.

 

We race about 50 cars each year. We have a preliminary round by rank, a final by rank, and a final for the pack. Each car races once in each lane, so everybody gets at least 4 races. Since we race by time, we don't have to worry about a car getting eliminated just because it was in a fast heat, which is a real problem with brackets unless you have a 2nd round losers bracket.

 

It's not a science, but we get a little better every year. This past race, we started registration at 10am on a Saturday, started racing at about 11am, and were completely finished by about 2pm. When we ran brackets without the computer system, we were lucky to finish by 4pm.

 

Whatever you do, just make sure you're doing what you think the boys will enjoy most. Doesn't matter what the parents think, really.