I think we put together a GREAT pinewood derby this year. Our biggest goal going into the event was to keep the Cubs more involved in the racing by
à doing more racing in less time.
à no long delays waiting for your den to race (or after your den raced)
à making sure all cubs get in at least 8 races – no cubs get “two races and out”
à concluding the entire event sooner
Using Grand Prix Race Manager software allowed us to move from “Double Elimination” to “Chart Based” racing really effectively. The software, and its direct connection to the finish gate, enabled us to turn over a lot of heats a lot faster than we had in the past using manual scoring and random lane assignment methods.
The new finish gate built by Barry Duncan was a vast improvement over the “blanket brake” stopping technique of years past.
Running the movie “Cars” was kind of a last minute addition to the program, but it worked really well to fill the downtime between cubs showing up and the beginning of racing. Also, it gave cubs who’d lost some interest in the racing something to watch. I was worried that the placement of the screen might distract from the racing but that didn’t seem to be a problem. Kids watched what they wanted to watch.
I think we succeeded here, where it counts. All the feedback was that the Cubs were way more engaged in watching/participating in the event, and we seem to have held everyone’s interest to the end. More than one person told me they thought this was Pack 204’s best Pinewood Derby ever.
No event is perfect, and there were some things we could have improved. Some things that were noted were:
1. Shortage of race officials when registration opened. I messed up here, a couple of officials knew they had responsibilities DURING the racing, but they didn’t quite understand what their role was at the time that check-in began.
2. Shortage of Race Officials period. During racing, I believe we could fully make use of the following officials:
- Starter
- Two Pit Officials
- Finish Judge
- Photographer
- Scorer/Race Chair
3. Shortage of help for cleanup. Having one or two extra parents signed on specifically for tear-down help would have been nice.
4. Emergency backup didn’t work out as hoped. I’d hoped to be able to keep a pencil/paper backup of the scoring as the racing proceeded, so that in the event of any electronic part of the system, we’d be able to continue (albeit a bit more slowly) by using pencil and paper. This didn’t work out; I lost track of many heats on paper. There’s room for improvement here. Perhaps this could become part of the Finish Judge’s responsibilities, once an additional pit official is added. Fortunately, we didn’t experience any significant system failures during the event, so we didn’t need to fall back on our backup system.
5. Our new finish brake still had a disappointing number of wipeouts. I don’t think there was any way to anticipate this other than using the new system “in anger” with real cars on a large number of heats. For “Version 2.0” we’ll likely try to improve this by increasing the length of the runout, and perhaps changing the friction characteristics of the surface, to help prevent the tumbling of cars with a higher center of gravity.
6. Lack of clarity on rules/procedures for clearing the track of obstacles/debris spotted during the racing. Some parents were unhappy about the “change in track conditions” as a result of the track wipe-down during the grand finals round. I propose to add the following rule:
If debris or obstacles are spotted on the track, the condition may be brought to the attention of the Finish Judge. The debris/obstacles must be EASILY visible to the naked eye. The Finish Judge, at his/her sole discretion may halt the racing and remove the pieces of debris by picking them up with his/her fingers, or by operating a hand held vacuum cleaner (such as a “dustbuster”) only in the local area where the debris is located.
If liquids are spilled on the track, The Finish Judge, at his/her sole discretion may halt the racing and wipe up the liquid a towel or paper towel. The Finish Judge may but is not required to follow up by cleaning the local area of the spill with some type of cleaner (such as 409.)
These rules would apply clarity of procedure, and in my opinion, minimize the impact on the racing.
Suggestions may be sent to StevenSJHartman AT pacbell DOT net. I ask that suggestions be constructive in nature. Problems/rants without suggestions for solution in the future are not helpful. Suggestions that will involve the Race Officials spending significantly more time than they already do on the event will probably NOT be adopted. Like all of you we have jobs, families, other obligations, etc…
Grand Prix Race Manager allows preparation of a variety of statistics reports. For those who can’t get enough Pinewood Derby, here are some detailed reports on this years racing prepared using Grand Prix Race Manager. Thanks to those who suggested posting statistics on the web. There’s more info here than we could possibly (or would want to) distribute to all the cubs via printouts.
PreliminaryRoundRanking.pdf – Ranking of all cubs, in the 62 heat preliminary round, from top to bottom. NOTE: I’m not sure this detailed report takes into account the “one throwout” rule we used in determining the standings for awards.
Yes, the best track time posted in that report is faster than the fastest time that was showing on the screen as the “track record” at the conclusion of the racing. No, I’m not sure why that happened. Since there was a UI dialog box click required every time a new track record was set, the most likely explanation is that I simply clicked on the wrong screen button when that particular “track record” time came up.
FinalRoundRanking.pdf – Ranking of all cubs in the “Grand Final” round. Same note about the “throwout.”
HeatResults.pdf – Raw data of all heats run; scouts, times, finish order, everything.
LaneStatistics.pdf – Calculation of average times across all lanes, with fastest and slowest times in that lane.
Average (mean) time for the “fastest” lane varies from the average (mean) time for the “slowest” lane by 4/1000ths of a second. That’s pretty close. I know that observing “which lane is the fastest/slowest” is a favorite activity of the participants. To ensure fair and accurate competition, the race officials make every effort to ensure that the lanes are as equal as possible. We use an aluminum track surface, align the track, level the joints, file/smooth down any bumps at the joints, then wipe the track down with a tack rag before any racing is done. In addition, our chart based racing ensures that each car runs the same number of heats in each lane, and furthermore, in the Grand Finals round, every car races every other car with perfect equality of lane opposition. (If I race you with me in lane 1 and you in lane 3, then there will be another heat where I face you again with me in lane 3 and you in lane 1.)
TurnaroundTimeStatistics.pdf – I was pleased to see that once we got the racing going, we were able to run 76 heats encompassing both the preliminary round and the Grand Finals round in a total elapsed time of 1 hour and 29 minutes for an average of 1 minute and 11 seconds. This included time necessary to generate the grand finals round. As we refine our technique, we may get slightly faster, but overall I’m pleased with our efficiency.