2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Discussions on race planning, preparations and how to run a "fair" and fun race.
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gpraceman
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2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by gpraceman »

Well, Saturday was my last Cub Scout race to coordinate. It was quite a successful race, if I do say so myself. Here's a wrap up.

Kit Distribution:
We distributed kits at our December pack meeting. Den leaders got them to the kids that didn't show up for the meeting. We publicized rules via email and on the pack website and gave a list of resources on the web, like Derby Talk (of course).

Workshops:
We offered two workshops, a week a part. Attendance was a bit disappointing, so I was a bit worried about race day participation.

Check-in:
We do check-in the night before the race, in the elementary school's cafeteria. This is so much better than trying to do check-in on race day. We get very good compliance with the scouts, since we do publicize (repeatedly) that if they don't check-in that night, they will race in the Open Division.

We have a small drill press setup for anyone that needs to remove wood to meet weight or to recess weights. We also have a second scale to help dial in the car weight. Some scraps of weights are left out for those that need it. A hot glue gun is available to help attach them.

The dog-gone basketball team for the school has messed us up 3 straight years by having their practice in the gym when we want to get the track setup. Each year the school told us we had the gym. Each year they also tell the coaches that they can have the gym. Well, they finally got out of the gym by about 9:15 pm, after our check-in was done. We got the track and everything else setup by 10:30 pm. I'm glad we didn't try to do that all the morning of the race.

Since we didn't have the track setup to do verifications for any belly draggers (we don't strictly enforce a 3/8" underbody clearance), we did run them each down the track once (not timed and only solo). Fortunately, none had a clearance problem and we identified one car that was going to have trouble finishing. This car got a quick tune on race day.

Race Day:
We had some fire fighters come in to do our design judging before racing got started. I handed them some guidelines (and explained them) and they did a wonderful job of determining the trophies for each rank (not an easy job IMO).

Our race started pretty close to the 10 am scheduled time. We had a total of 42 scouts attend (84% of our scouts) plus 15 Open Division entries. We gave each scout two runs down each lane of our 4 lane track. The Open Division got one run per lane. We ended up running 99 heats, in 2 hrs 10 minutes, but that included a 56 minute intermission for lunch, so the real race time was 1 hr 14 mins (about 45 seconds per heat).

We were cranking through the heats so fast, we had to slow down a bit until lunch was ready. Our pre-stage crew was staging 2 to 3 heats ahead, by going off of the schedule printout. After the lunch intermission, we finished the remaining 17 scout heats and then did the Open Division.

We threw out the slowest time for each racer and used the remaining times to determine the speed standings. Every scout car crossed the finish line, which was very satisfying to me. We helped this along, not only with the test run on check-in night, by setting the track up as a 40 footer, instead of the full 48 ft. We will likely do this from now on at our pack races and the ones we run for other packs.

This was our first year to have a full set of design trophies for each rank in addition to the set of speed awards. Each year I had been pushing the pack (and district) closer to making the design aspect more on par with speed.

We wrapped up and got tore down by a bit after 1 pm. So, it was just over 3 hrs to do the whole event, including lunch.

Overall, it was a very good race. However, I'm glad it is over. Now I can "retire", or so I think. Well, maybe not just quite yet, since I have the district race to run in April.
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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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

gpraceman wrote:We have a small drill press setup for anyone that needs to remove wood to meet weight or to recess weights. A hot glue gun is available to help attach them.
That's a good idea using a drill press instead of a cordless drill which always seems to run out of power. I'm assuming the drill press and hot glue gun were supervised. Obviously a rotating tool can be very dangerous. We used to have a hot glue gun at our races until a cub burned his finger on it.

It sounds like you ran the race very efficiently and everyone had a great time! I hope ours goes as well!
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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by pack529holycross »

Pinewood Daddy wrote:
gpraceman wrote:We have a small drill press setup for anyone that needs to remove wood to meet weight or to recess weights. A hot glue gun is available to help attach them.
That's a good idea using a drill press instead of a cordless drill which always seems to run out of power. I'm assuming the drill press and hot glue gun were supervised. Obviously a rotating tool can be very dangerous. We used to have a hot glue gun at our races until a cub burned his finger on it.

It sounds like you ran the race very efficiently and everyone had a great time! I hope ours goes as well!
I was trying to figure out where in the forum "race wrapups" should go... might I suggest a complete category for post mortems, so they are all in the same spot.,... or do you just want them in this category?

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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by blcrow33 »

Sounds like a great last event and very similar to ours a few weeks ago. We were told the basketball team would finish practice Friday night at 8:oo so we got there right at 8:00 with all the decorations and track ready to go. Well they didn't finish practice until 9:00 and even got mad at us for being there. Next year we will talk to the BB teams directly instead of going through the church.
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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by doct1010 »

Very nice job and congrats on a well run and efficient operation. Thats pretty quick racing. Just curious what software did you run? :lol: :lol:
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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by gpraceman »

pack529holycross wrote:That's a good idea using a drill press instead of a cordless drill which always seems to run out of power. I'm assuming the drill press and hot glue gun were supervised. Obviously a rotating tool can be very dangerous. We used to have a hot glue gun at our races until a cub burned his finger on it.
We do have a lot of adults right around to make sure kids don't goof off with the tools.
pack529holycross wrote:I was trying to figure out where in the forum "race wrapups" should go... might I suggest a complete category for post mortems, so they are all in the same spot.,... or do you just want them in this category?
I hesitate to add more forums. We have quite a few already.
doct1010 wrote:Very nice job and congrats on a well run and efficient operation. Thats pretty quick racing. Just curious what software did you run? :lol: :lol:
The old pencil and paper! Just kidding. Of course, I have to "battle test" GPRM under real race conditions.
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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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by blcrow33 »

gpraceman wrote: The old pencil and paper! Just kidding. Of course, I have to "battle test" GPRM under real race conditions.
Is that verison 8 you are battle testing by any chance? :D
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Re: 2008 PWD Race Wrap-up

Post by gpraceman »

blcrow33 wrote:Is that verison 8 you are battle testing by any chance? :D
I wish I was that far ahead! I have some other projects in the works before I can start to work on V8. I think I have enough of a list of possible GPRM improvements to last another 3 versions, and it keeps growing. I might have to come out with a "Pro" and a "Standard" version of GPRM, so my more computer challenged users don't get scared away by too many features.
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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