So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

General discussions for car and semi-truck racers.
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sporty
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So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by sporty »

I often wonder,

After the race, those who won or did well or didnt do well.

Do you just pack it all away and put it out of your mind and come back in 8 to 10 months ?

Or will some of you tinker and build thru out the year ?

back when my oldest son first was a tiger and so forth. The first two years. I think it did not enter our minds until 1 or 2 months before the race. The pack would give the derby kit for x-mas gift. about 4 weeks before the race.

But nw with internet more main stream and so much more. I often wonder what many of you will do ?

I guess the folks, who really want to improve will start sooner or do more thru out the year, if they have the real passion.

But I asume, many of you will pop back in 8 to 10 months from now. When it becomes that time again.

And for many, this is the last scout race and perhaps you're child has decided to go into boy scouts. And now with blast cars. Perhaps some more related building will still be in the works.

I encourage the parents and viewers and members who post. If you really want to go fast and speed is what you want and your child too.

I recommend, keep with it, keep building a car every month. There is enough people around. That you could reach out to them to run the car to see how it does.

I am a true believer, the more you do something, the better you will become at it.


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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by TedBull »

For my son and I Mid America Derby is next. I am no where near ready, trying to get my dailey driver back together. Then I have to clean the garage and get working on our two cars, and build one more.

Then I plan on doing some league racing at NPWDRL. I will start in the street stock class. The hot rod class looks like fun too. But there season ends in april 27th (And I would rather run Mid America with the boy before attempting league racing). up again untill september. Guess that will give me time to build some cars.

We will continue to research and build thoughout the year, but I am sure it will slow down once summer activities take over. I would love to have a two lane besttrack and timer so the boy and I could race each other or friends, and of course for tuning. If I had proper tools like a table saw and miter saw I might attempt to build on out of wood. But, storage would be and issue when not in use.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by gpraceman »

Let's please keep in mind that Derby Talk is about the kids races. Discussions about adult league racing should be done on the league forums.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by birddog »

Next up for us is the Mid-America race. We are doing 4 cars (2 non scout kids, 1 scout kid and one adult). That will keep us busy through end of April.

After that, I try to keep an eye out for sales at places like Maximum Velocity. Last year I bought about 10 pine blocks and other supplies at a good end of season discount. That way, I'm ready with materials when we start building again.

Also, last year, we built one car over the summer to learn. I'd like to do that again this year as well.

Also, last year, we polished some axles over the summer. Of all the steps in building a car, my son finds that the most tedious. So, we try to get it done early so that the remainder of the process is fun for him.

Finally, as with anything in life, the more you put into it, the better your success will be. I try to teach this to my son as part of this whole PWD process. I ask him, how many other scouts do you think spend this much time on their cars? Why do you think we win? Is it luck? Or is it all the time we put in learning how to build a fast car and testing and tuning? This lesson applies to many things in life beyond building a PWD car.

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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by BradyS71 »

I plan on refinishing my track and running monthly races. We will be racing all year here in CT!
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by pgosselin »

For the first two or three years in Scouts, we would wait to get the kit for X-mas from the Pack, then build it over X-mas break and up until the race date in late January.

Once we really started getting serious about improving, We would take a break after districts until the end of summer. Then we would start building about the time the kids went back to school. This gave us a few month head start and allowed us to build a lot more cars from which to pick the best 3 (one for each kid and one for me to race in Open Class).

Usually, by the time we get through districts we are mentally wiped out. So building year-round wasn't going to happen. Nevertheless, we devoted a lot more time to learning and improving our skills. We may have not been smarter than other people in the Pack, but we worked harder. Most of the time it paid off, but not always.

Once we race at Mid-America this year, I will be retired from Pinewood until my boys give me grandchildren. Hopefully, that's 25 years away or so.

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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by Speedster »

Question to Sporty. How in the world do you build a car in a month? That's the time I set aside for the planning stage.

Pack 217, my love for the past 28 years, took 3 of the 1st place trophies at the District this year. I was involved with one of the winners. I'm working to get an interested group together to learn, to build and test cars this summer. My track is set up year around. I thought it would be fun to see if we could take all 5 of the 1st place trophies. The scouts would make new friends and I hope they have fun at our house. I will supply the Hot Dogs. I'm planning on doing a Derby for an Assisted Living Facility this year. Don't think for a minute an 80 year old something isn't competitive. When I explain to them they should not let anyone touch their cars, I had to stop Beth from putting a cane up the back of Grace's head. Well, Grace was warned. Most of the time it's very peaceful. I look forward to Derby time coming around because I love teaching and helping in the many workshops in our area. Sure, trophies are nice but the memories of the workshops will remain with me always.
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sporty
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by sporty »

Wow, thanks for sharing and it sounds like many of you have plans to keep tinkering and learning.


Speedster,

When you build allot of cars, you become better as it, I can build a car in two hours from start to finish. Does not mean its the best car, but often a decent car.

But I like to take my time sometimes and just enjoy the process. I stopped enjoying it for over 2 years. Only know Have I gotten a little zest back in doing so.

Sporty
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by FatSebastian »

sporty wrote:Do you just pack it all away and put it out of your mind and come back in 8 to 10 months? Or will some of you tinker and build thru out the year?
This is an interesting question. Yes, we pack it all away, but no, I don't put it completely out of mind. It gets some thought during the off-season, yet it remains primarily a seasonal thing for us.
sporty wrote:I am a true believer, the more you do something, the better you will become at it.
True, but for many, derby is one of those areas where one can have "too much of a good thing". Lots of burnout around this forum. My personal interest is not to build the fastest car ever, but to better understand what makes a car fast (physically). Nobody can do everything; DT is a great venue by which we can learn through shared experiences both in season and out of season.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by whodathunkit »

The Pinewood Derby has tought lessons beyond winning for me.

In all aspects it has tought me to cheer for the kids & adults alike & to congratulate each racer,
no matter which order they place.
It has helped me develop skills,confidence and self-esteem, that has given me a chance to learn
about sportsmanship and develop relationships.

But most of all.. lasting memories that have been made along with valuable life lesson's.

And that was thinking I wasen't any good.. but giveing it a good try anyway!
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by Noskills »

Sporty,

I tinker in the garage. Last year I built a few cars in the off season each designed to teach me a new skill. Dremel work, bandsaw work, axel hole drilling, painting, pin striping etc. I suspect I will do the same this year. I plan to buy the pro axel jig to help with pilot holes (as you suggest) then drill out a bunch of blocks with my silver bullet to practice doing this right. This is my next big hurdle.

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sporty
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by sporty »

Noskills wrote:Sporty,

I tinker in the garage. Last year I built a few cars in the off season each designed to teach me a new skill. Dremel work, bandsaw work, axel hole drilling, painting, pin striping etc. I suspect I will do the same this year. I plan to buy the pro axel jig to help with pilot holes (as you suggest) then drill out a bunch of blocks with my silver bullet to practice doing this right. This is my next big hurdle.

Noskills

Sounds awesome. One day you will be and your kids a very great builder.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by JSG »

My son has a race tomorrow and then we're done for the season. We had a friend and his son from another pack come over last week to look over his car before the race. We ran it against a "Pace Car" on our track to see how it was. It was pretty slow so we went over some things with the cub explaining weight placement and axle prep. Luckily the weights were glued to bottom so we popped them off and put them as far back as possible. He pulled the axles and polished them more. We bent them and aligned it. He ended up picking up two car lengths on the pace car. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does tomorrow.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by Curse You Red Baron! »

Wow... well, PWD has been a real character building experience for my son. This year - for the 2nd time in 3 years now - we won the entire pack (and Web II's) and are not selected to go to district. My son's Web II's ran at a different time vs the Web 1's, and the Web I times were faster per the timer (which was jostled and reset multiple times during the day) so despite being very convinced we have the fastest car in the pack by a healthy margin - nothing came within a half car length all day (there are other indicators as well.. side by side results of various car pairs at diff times of the day, etc) - we don't get to participate at districts. We're on the wrong side of the variables of race management. Two years ago, it was more of a fluke, but this time it's just bad luck.

We are going to see if we can enter the 'open class' at districts, which is not a sure thing. It's also just not the same thing. This year's car was really fast, and he put a ton of work into it, and really wanted to represent the Webelos at District for our Pack. It was very disappointing, but he handled it very well - better than I am, I think.

So we are still in race mode until mid month, but we're already transitioned into boy scouts at which point our racing will be limited to something like Mid-America (which we've considered for this year, but our car will be at a disadvantage under those rules, and we don't have time to do a new one.) We may decide to enter it anyways, but we need a free weekend to make a decision and get prepared... tax season is always a killer in our house, my wife is a CPA. For us, PWD is a winter sport, and spring and fall are baseball, summer is soccer, and Karate for the entire family all year round, so we probably won't do an extended build season.
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Re: So your scout race is done for the year, Whats next ?

Post by Scrollsawer »

I keep cutting blocks of wood for design fun. Also helps me improve my machine skills and gets the kids in front of the power tools more. :D

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