Derby Talk

but I hear from leaders, it is just for fun. Then don't give trophys!! Yup. That's a BIG Pet Peeve of mine. You cannot teach a boy to lose gracefully unless he had a stake in winning. You can not teach a boy to win gracefully unless there was something at risk by losing. The lesson of "sportsm...

Hello, all. I have about 40 scouts racing on a 6 lane track with a timer. Overall finish order is determined by time, but we are considering doing a little something for heat winners to keep each race interesting. Our race order will be determined by an older software package the pack owns. I don't ...

[Another thing to consider when drafting your rules: It should be possible to "just build the car" without worrying about violating some obscure rule. Good idea. My (pack level) rules will be constrained by the need to match the district rules, but I'll be highlighting any peculiarities o...

Design awards need to be as impressive, though quite different that, speed awards. I'm curious why you think design awards should be quite different from the speed awards. We use exactly the same trophies for the top design and speed awards, and the same medals for the remaining design and speed aw...

I have a basic 10" Delta bandsaw and have cut 1/4" aluminim bar stock using a metal cutting blade.

I don't know if that applies to your situation or not.

Anyone consider track visibility? It might be a luxury to be able to worry about this, but knowing that I'd be running our race this year, I attended several races last year looking for inspiration, and the most common irritation I noticed was how hard it was for spectators past the first or second ...

As I have seen well summarized (I thought) in another post (I don't recall which one), some characteristics of good rules are: Easy (for the boys) to understand Easy (for the boys) to achieve Easy (for the leaders) to enforce yet designed (by the leaders) so as to retain a vital, enjoyable race exp...

Some Ideas I've had that seem wise, but many of you are wiser than I so please comment as need be: 1> Design awards need to be as impressive, though quite different that, speed awards. I'm planning to use display-stand type trophies for design that show off the winning car, combined with some sort o...

This approach turns design awards into consolation prizes. Agree. And that's already a danger when design awards aren't as visually impressive as speed awards. (i.e. trophies for one and certificates for the other) This year I'm going to try balancing the "big honkin' trophy" speed awards...

Super glue kicker! It depends on your climate, but where I live it's so dry that super glue doesn't set quite instantly. It's easy to foul the axels with a drop of glue that you thought has set but hadn't, quite, and dribbled off in to the wrong spot. The problem is even worse when using the odor-fr...

Pack's Regatta was today, as was my fist stint as an event chair. I think we pulled off a pretty good event. We ran about 30 boats in right about 2 hours. Food was available for purchase throughout. (BTW, I can't say enough about getting a good food subcomittee going. The people that handled food fo...

Our rules require stock parts. We ran a catamaran last year with a rudder and cup sail, no keel. It was the only "not like the picture" boat, and it was a heads-above winner. And got some grumbling. I also got asked to run the event this year. (-: This year multi-hulls were prohibited, so ...

If they find themselves giving different answers, then perhaps they'll start to realize that there is a problem. If you find them giving the same answers to almost every question, then perhaps you don't have a problem. Thanks for the suggestion. I think my problem is most likely to be that they com...

In the two district races I researched last year, they didn't.

They assumed that time variances from run to run do not exist, so all they had to worry about is lane bias.

Lane bias is easily overcome by running on each lane and averaging, but other sources of error are ignored.

#13 is wise.

Many people "feel" that cambering and lifting are not allowed because the instructions don't mention them. Mentioning them reminds those that have forgotton about the idea, and prevents hurt feelings because of misinterpretation.