I don't necessarily endorse the plan, but what our district does is have separate entry categories. This was changed in the mid 90's, a few years after my 5th grade son won a first racing and a second in unusual designdarin_mcgrew wrote:
So when a car wins two awards, what do they do? Do they award one trophy for both (e.g., "2nd Place Speed and 3rd Place Design")? Do they ask which award the kid wants to give up?
I've known kids who would prefer any design award to a first place speed award. And vice versa.
A few years of seeing a few boys carrying two or three trophies while others carried none "got to" some people.
One car may be entered for only one of the categories: racing, race car design or unusual design. Some scouts will enter cars in more than one category We judge the cars that are entered in the show events. Judges rank more than the three place trophies. The chairman holds the ranked list until completion of racing in that event. Racing place trophies take precedence (since the results are known) and the ranked list of show cars is edited accordingly. Then the trophies are awarded in a joint ceremony.
The intent was to push district trophies as widely as possible.
For unit competition, most will have the racing entry also judged for the other categories.
For district races with 50 to 100 cars in the racing pit, stopping for 20 minutes between inspection and racing isn't practical. Judging during the racing creates some problems, too. (anonymity, boys and cars coming and going, etc.) Suggestions, anyone?
The number of entries in racing tends to be greater (ten to one) than the number intered in either show category.