Pinewood "partial perfect"--how many heats to run?

[83Eagle 11]

Well, after much investigation and advice from the forums I am going to present to our PWD committee the idea of replacing double-elimination with a "partial perfect" format.

 

The idea is to get scouts to race more, and to have scouts feel like they are "in it" until the end.

 

The unchangable parameters of the race are that we are racing first by den, and then by pack. We have dens of the following sizes: 4, 5, 7, 10, and 13 (the last 13 are two Bear dens but they will run together for the den-level competition).

 

Two-lane track.

 

Now, the dens of 4 and 5 can probably run in a true "perfect" format, with each car racing each other on different tracks.

 

The den of 7 can probably race each other car but not again on different tracks.

 

But how many rounds would you recommend for the 10 and 13 dens, based on how long it would take? If we do 2 rounds (4 races for each car) for the 13-car den, that gives us 26 races.

 

I think overall we'd like the race part of the derby to take 90 minutes.(This message has been edited by 83eagle)

[structuralrik 11]

We run each car in each lane once and average the times. Our track is four lanes and we ran 101 cars in under 3 hours.

 

We had new timing software that had a feature I really liked. After the first heat (which were alphabetical by first name) it sorted cars by elapse time to group similarly speedy cars together. Made for far more exciting races and even slower cars looked competetive on the track. Even boys who were way down in the timing could win their heat, which made them very happy.

[resqman 108]

Why only 90 minutes for 40 cars? How many heats can you run in a minute?

 

We planned an entire Saturday. We had dens staggered to arrive about every 30-45 minutes. That way they arrived early enough to cheer the other members and get hyped to run their cars. Most stayed for the duration of the race once they arrived. Usually ran from 8am to about 2-3pm. The pack sold hot dogs, donuts, and drinks during the day as a fundraiser.

 

I think you will be really rushing to race 40 cars in 90 minutes.

[83Eagle 11]

Why only 90 minutes for 40 cars?

 

Because it's what the Pack wants to do. The preference is to keep the track up after the competitive derby for a "Run 4 Fun" event that we leave up as long as parents are there to monitor it. Regardless it's what the masses like so those are our parameters.

 

I am just trying to figure out how long a certain # of heats will take.(This message has been edited by 83eagle)

[83Eagle 11]

Just an update on this. For smaller dens (7 or less) we ran each car against every other car. For really small dens (3 or 4) we ran each car against every other car and switched lanes. (2 lane track).

 

For larger dens (10 and up) we ran each car 6 times using the partial perfect generator. A 10-car den (30 races) took about 15 minutes.

 

The advantage to using the charts was that we could call "on deck" cars which kept things moving much faster.

 

For the pack finals we ran a "perfect" race with each car racing every other car, alternating tracks.

[Basementdweller 608]

we ran 2 heats which mean with sibs and adults we ran 150 races did it in about 2 hours

 

Jerry