District Race Results (better late than never)

[4my4boys]

My son attended his first district race this past march. He finished our pack race in 2nd place for his rank (wolves), and due to them only advancing the top finishers from each rank he didn't get to race in the grand finals. However, using the times from the finals, he had the third fastest car in the pack. He was very excited, but we were both a bit disappointed as we were hoping to defend his pack title from the year before. (Obviously some folks stepped up their preparation after letting a first year cub win last year.)

Knowing that there would be at least 2 cars at districts that were faster than his, we knew we had some work to do. We happen to belong to one of those packs whose rules are way stricter than the districts are, so we knew we had to change our "4 on the floor" to a "3-wheeler". Since we were going to be pulling the car apart anyway, I talked him into converting it over to a rail-rider. We ordered the rail-rider tool, and the pro-body tool from derby champs. The tools arrived quickly, and in one evening we were able to touch up the axels, bend them, redrill the block and get it aligned. We ended up with 2" of drift in 4'. We didn't have a track to test on, so we ran it on an 8' board w/ lattice guides on a soft slope. We ran it against last years pack champion car and were now at least as fast. Before the pack race we did this same test, and could not beat last years car. The morning of the race, i was doing some last minute research on derby talk and saw a post about negative cant on the DFW. After a quick adjustment we were able to get our drift back to 2" in 4' with the new canted DFW.

After his first race at districts, i was a bit worried. While he had won his heat, he had posted only the third fastest time of the morning. Well, it must of been staged poorly or in a slow lane or something because he kept getting faster with each heat. He even set the track record on his third run. He ended up 1st in his wolf rank, and moved on to the grand finals where the top three from the tigers, wolves, bears, and Weblos I & II, raced for the top overall spot. He ended up finishing 7th overall, several cars were using the lightened wheels and extended wheelbases that weren't allowed at our pack race. Nothing in the rules said you couldn't use those things, but being it was his first district race we thought it best to not test the parameters of the rules. The best part was knowing that his car was significantly faster that the car that won our pack race. Needless to say, we both are sold on rail-riding.

We both can't wait till next year, and are already looking for next years design. (after two years of wedges, it might be time to try something with a bit more design) Anyway, as a long time lurker here I'd like to thank you all for all your posts, and willingness to share info on how anyone (and if we can do it, i mean anyone) can build a winning pinewood derby car. I'll admit that last year i was almost one of those dads who bought a car off of ebay. I am so thankful i didn't. I look back at these past two derby seasons i've spent with my son and can't fathom not spending every january for the next eight years with my boys building these little wooden cars. I know that they will remember these days for the rest of their lives, but i'm just a bit selfish. I know that I'll remember them for the rest of my life. And that is the only reason I need.

[PWD_addict]

Welcome to PDA (Pinewood Derby Anonymous). Glad to hear it worked out. Railriding is the ticket. All hail WarpSpeed!!!

[pwrd by tungsten]

Awesome!!!

You may need to spin in the lube. May have accounted for the slow first run?

[quadad]

Congrats !!!

Just to understand though - did you go from positive cant to negative cant on your FDW ?

I think the RR tool instructions say positive cant on all front wheels (would have to check though).

The debate continues on this board about positive or negative cant for the FDW, but positive cant seems to be winning lately.

[4my4boys]

We initially followed the directions and had a positive cant. But after reading several posts on here, we made the switch the morning of the race to a negative cant. About 2 seconds after getting the drift back where we wanted it, i started to understand the need for a test track and timer. Hmm...., wonder if my wife will let that be a summer project?

[PWD_addict]

Congrats !!!

Just to understand though - did you go from positive cant to negative cant on your FDW ?

I think the RR tool instructions say positive cant on all front wheels (would have to check though).

The debate continues on this board about positive or negative cant for the FDW, but positive cant seems to be winning lately.

Yes, RR tool states positive cant. IMO, negative cant makes more sense.