Pinewood Derby Times - Vol 8 Issue 5

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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gpraceman
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Pinewood Derby Times - Vol 8 Issue 5

Post by gpraceman »

There's a good set of articles in the latest Pinewood Derby Times.

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pinewoo ... imes-v8i5/

I especially like the Reader Feedback and the unusual tracks. Actually, I like it all. I may have to use that humor on my boys, which will be driving in not too long. :shock: :cry:

MaxV - A very nice newsletter :thumbup:
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Pinewood Derby Times - Vol 8 Issue 5

Post by Darin McGrew »

On the topic of unusual tracks, our current track was built with a "hill" section, but we've never used it. The idea was for the cars to do something other than roll down the slope and along the flat. From what I've heard, the hill tended to launch the faster cars. :shock:

I can sympathize with Dave Mikulka's comment about keeping the derby local. For us, our local derby is the culmination of a month of planning, building, painting, and other workshop activities. We've never felt a need for a regional derby.
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Stan Pope
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Re: Pinewood Derby Times - Vol 8 Issue 5

Post by Stan Pope »

Darin McGrew wrote:I can sympathize with Dave Mikulka's comment about keeping the derby local. For us, our local derby is the culmination of a month of planning, building, painting, and other workshop activities. We've never felt a need for a regional derby.
Viewed from the point of view of "incremental value received by the organization" vs. "incremental effort expended" ...

In and of itself, the regional/district/council derby should serve the organization (directly) by having as many as possible participate in it and (indirectly) by motivating even more participation at the local level. If one must "qualify" for the district/council/regional derby, then the local leadership is more motivated to actually have a derby and, if the qualifiation standard is not too high, the kids are more excited to do well.

But, I don't see a need for both a district and council derby where one qualifies to the council derby by doing well in the district derby. The council derby (directly) serves too small a percentage of the membership and does not increase the (indirect) service to the units ... the district derby has already done that!

<edited to clarify context>
Last edited by Stan Pope on Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pinewood Derby Times - Vol 8 Issue 5

Post by Stan Pope »

gpraceman wrote:There's a good set of articles in the latest Pinewood Derby Times.

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pinewoo ... imes-v8i5/

MaxV - A very nice newsletter :thumbup:
Yes, excellent.

The downside is that I should remove the "test" from my book! Two recent related articles answer both test questions ... in order! :)
Stan
"If it's not for the boys, it's for the birds!"
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