Pit Stop Stadium

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derbyspeed
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Pit Stop Stadium

Post by derbyspeed »

Here is our "Official Pack 118 Pit Stop Stadium" that I built for our races this year. Every year I would come to the Scout Pinewood Derby and they would never have anything to keep the cars from rolling off the table.

I spent about 1 1/2 hour making this with my new band saw - got it for my birthday :wink: Used toothpick flags and put the car numbers on them with small labels so each scout had their own parking place. Made it much easier for the "Best of Show" Judge also.

Had many compliments on it - may have to apply for patent :mrgreen:

Empty View
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Parking Number Flags
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Loaded - few extra spaces left for new scouts next year!
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Let me know what you think - anyone else have a setup for parking derby cars?
Mike Webb

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gpraceman
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by gpraceman »

Very nice setup!

Here's a commercial car stadium, http://pinewoodderbytrack.com/options.html. I think your's provides more flair. :wink:

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Randy Lisano
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CM924
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by CM924 »

I like it Mike. I had to improvise at the last minute this year and used a broom handle to keep cars from rolling off the table. Your idea is just a tad more classy.
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Pinewood Daddy
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

Previously we used a few strips of 1 x 3's or divided boxes to keep the cars from rolling off of the table. Last year I took a piece of carpet anti-slip stuff (not the technical name!) and drew boxes with numbers on it. the cars can't roll and it easily folds up for storage (added plus). It's no where near as great looking as yours but since we only use it for 2 hours per year it's very functional.

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derbyspeed
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by derbyspeed »

Pinewood Daddy wrote:Previously we used a few strips of 1 x 3's or divided boxes to keep the cars from rolling off of the table. Last year I took a piece of carpet anti-slip stuff (not the technical name!) and drew boxes with numbers on it. the cars can't roll and it easily folds up for storage (added plus). It's no where near as great looking as yours but since we only use it for 2 hours per year it's very functional.
Thanks for the compliments, I didn't know they had a commercial setup similar - I just thought it up in my head figured it would be cool to build.

I did have that thought (Pinewood Daddy) - what am I going to do with it after the races! :lol: I like the "ease of use" with your anti-slip carpet.

Our city is asking me to come and run a race for them as a fundraiser for their Main Street Program so it will come in handy once again. Great way for the Scouts to help out the town who bought popcorn so we could buy a new Best Track and Timer this year also!

I also added a really nice engraved plate to it after I took the pictures so it displays the Pack Leaders and the year we bought our new track.
Mike Webb

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ohiofitter
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by ohiofitter »

I like the looks of your grandstands...I think it might be a project to do...our is just a piece of 1x1/4 underneath the cars..if the kids get to wild grabbing for there cars,they could knock of someone else's...but we haven't had any problems with that yet.
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by altontoth »

I like that non-slip mat idea. The past two years we have simply used masking tape to create bounding boxes on the 2 folding tables we use. We have never had a car roll off, and for the couple times a year we may hold races, a roll of tape is sure easier to store than a car stand.
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Pinewood Daddy
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

The mat just folds up and takes up little room.
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sporty
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by sporty »

Looks really nice Mike !


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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Gear Dog »

Great job!!! How easy is it to transport? I'm not sure what our Pack has but I'm thinking I might be building one of these for next years race.
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Rod Turnbull
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Rod Turnbull »

Nice, I like... but are we the only ones who just number the bottoms of the cars and place them on the table upside down to keep the wheels clean, axles in line and not rolling around? I like your way better, much more classy.
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Astep@atime »

Rod Turnbull wrote:are we the only ones who just number the bottoms of the cars and place them on the table upside down to keep the wheels clean, axles in line and not rolling around?
This is what we've done in the past - using separate boxes for each den with the cars upside down with the registration label showing. The problem of course is that spectators can't see all the beautiful cars the scouts worked so hard on.

So I borrowed a concept saw on another thread here and built a stand. There were two key design considerations:
1) The Pack's PWD equipment is stored in the attic of our sponsor church and has to break down into pieces that fit through a 3'x3' opening
2) It has to hold 90-100 cars. I think we had 70 entries last year, but we have 120 scouts plus an Akela race so could have a lot of cars!

Here is the stand. It hasn't been finished - some sanding and stain work, but you get the idea. The shelves are 1x10s with a 1x3 strip down the middle. Everything held together with bolts and nuts so it can be disassembled. Almost 5 feet wide by 5.5 tall. Pretty big. I think we can get about 16 cars per shelf, so 96 cars.

I'll hopefully post another picture from our race this Saturday with it fully loaded with cars!

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Eskimo Joe
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Eskimo Joe »

Can't wait to see it loaded up. Good luck this weekend.

I like this stand alot. Can you add more details with regard to design and building of it? For example, are the shelves notched to fit around the uprights?

In addition to a safe staging area. This type of stand may actually solve two issues for us:
1. People's Choice Award - I think with proper "fencing" this would be more accessible for the boys to view and choose than the standard table set up with strips of wood we have historically used.
2. Mobility - We have the race on one end of the hall and trophy presentation and car distribution at the other end. We currently transport the cars in cardboard boxes from end to other, since carrying the tables is just too risky. Do think it would be stable enough with locking casters added to the bottom to move the cars from a display are for voting, to a staging area for the race, and then to a distribution area for trophies and awards?
Also thought about adding non-slip shelving liner material on the middle strip to prevent cars from sliding around. Your thoughts?
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Astep@atime »

Here are pictures with the rack in use at our Pack race. Didn't get time to stain it - that will be before next year.

The first picture is from the front. We did our award judging and you can see a couple of the cars are marked on the front for the prize they won (best paint, etc). We gave out their trophy for the award when it was their time to race.

There are about 90 cars in this and you can see it would hold more yet.

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This picture is from the back (on the race side). Note the masking tape along the shelves. We wrote in the number of the car (there is a sticker from registration on the bottom of the car). This made it easy to find each car. Next year we'll put new masking tape down for new numbers!

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EskimoJoe - to your questions.
1. Yes, we had fencing (chairs as a barrier) in front. This allowed everyone to look at all the cars at once. It was a fun location and drew a crowd all day long
2. This one isn't mobile, but I guess with locking casters it could be. The problem with this design is that I used 1x3" for the middle strip. The cars that are heavy backloaded wouldn't sit on it - they tended to tilt back and not be as secure. so if you rolled it, they might be a problem. Maybe 1x2 or better yet, 3/8 inch high strips (so the wheels straddled it but couldn't roll off) would be secure enough to move it.

The design on this was pretty simple. I'll post some more details at a later time. The significant other says I need to take her to dinner :D
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Rod Turnbull
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Re: Pit Stop Stadium

Post by Rod Turnbull »

That's just great... now I want one for my rec-room just to hold mine and the boys stuff. :)
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