My Lessons Learned for an AWANA Grand Prix

[chesspupil]

To the Forum:
Below the dashed line is the feedback I recorded the day after they raced in an AWANA Grand Prix. Hopefully I came across humbly enough that the suggestions will be taken to heart for next year.
----------------------------------

From my view, I felt rushed for time at the set up. I was also nervous that the program [GPRM] would not function as promised. A full hour prior to any one else showing up, minimum, would be a great improvement. There was some delay in entering the church today.


Scale:
I would suggest one scale be in the pit area and another at the registration table. The Registration table would be the ‘official scale’ in case of a conflict. Children had to be told not to push their hands down on the scale… I know, I was a child once too, and I did such things as a child.

Track Conditions:
A step stool should be placed at the rear of the track to afford shorter children the ability to eye-up their car for proper alignment.

Drop Gate:
The Commander spoke of making the piece of wood holding up the starting pins lighter and less of an impact problem for the timer. (the wire trigger for the RACEMASTER IV was bent out of alignment) The force of it dropping into the switch invalidated one race, and the Gate Master commented that repeated adjustments were needed after the solution was found. (rebending the wire) In racing terms this puts all cars at a disadvantage that are placed in a re-run of a race. Still, in the children’s events this only happened once, and for a first run in a while, this is GREAT. [Forum Note the Derby had been missing for several years]

Telling the Gate keeper to watch the flashing light to go off to know the PC was ready was missed in the process of out gate problem.


Lane conditions:
I would suggest some minor sanding on some portions or wood filling of the track. (Very Minor Nicks) Some Track jumping is almost unavoidable, and the cars I saw jump were slightly less than I have seen in previous years at other churches and scouting events.

Track Timer Circuit board:
I feel a bolt-on assembly is needed to protect the green circuit board and the costly investment the Club has made. Something sturdy enough permit stepping on since children are in such a state of excitement during the races. [Forum Note: Race Master sold only 3" or 3.5" centered strips and for some reason the track we used was 3 7/16" centered leaving one lane a full 1/4" off center. This means a very narrow car design may have a disadvantage on one lane, not apparent, but also not noticed prior to children having their cars built.]

Overall Car construction:
I feel some children were without parental help after the single cutout night. I feel either a church sponsored or simply an open invitation of a workshop night at a Leader’s garage (or on church property) would be a chance for away-from church fellowship which might be just what a shy parent needs to feel at ease enough to make the decision that more regular church visits are a choice they want to make. Of course not everyone would or could make the effort, so maybe two separate nights or a an after Sunday service workshop (one after a morning worship and another after an evening worship) Hopefully the vast majority would view this as a fun activity in keeping with Sabbath.

RACE-DAY BENEFIT: More cars in better shape and in less need of repairs during registration. More cars meeting weight requirements. Also, more persons sharing car building tips and strategies and fellowship has to be a benefit.

Tools available at Pit Row:

Lead, Graphite, Drill, Hot Glue gun, Crazy Glue, extra Wheels and axles. Sandpaper. One Dad was a little too forcefull and nicked his hand while drilling out space for fishing lures to be glued in at the last minute. Maybe the club could save money by having a big order on lead and graphite. I do not like the idea of sinkers with the wasted space they leave behind, and melting lead would get some parent or church senior upset about burn hazards.

Loose car equipment: Most Scouting Leagues do not allow racers to replace anything other than a lost wheel. If a weight falls off this obviously hurts competitors. Last minute weigh attachments may always be a part of Pinewood derbies. Those that offer plenty of Car clinics [BSA] ONLY allow weight removal on race day. I feel the AWANA Ministry is different enough that this rule is purely optional, so long as the heat is not delayed for more than 5 minutes. Attention to reweighing was overlooked although did not appear to improve the car in questions' performance.

Sound Effects System:
With the Race Program, a separate laptop would be needed with a devoted volunteer to interject well timed sound bites. Also, a larger sound system would be needed to overcome the noise of the children. Google Free Sound Effects and in about 2 hours we had 4 windows [Starting, Race, Crash, Police, Cheers] that could be quickly and easily ran.

Drivers Licenses:

A big hit at a small expense! Only one card had a typing error (Blue Hair and Brown eyes) Find a template that places 8 of them on 1 sheet of paper to save space. Also use a 3.5" width to fit the most popular quick plastic ID cards.

Computer program:
Check for updates to software prior to running next years race. We opted for NO standings check after round one of two. The printer we had was dreadfully slow. After we closed registration, 3 racers shy of what we planed, the schedule was created and printed. A text only version might have been a way to speed up the printer. A photo copier would have been great to but the MC was adamant that church office supplies were not going to be used.
We used an external monitor to show the on-deck and race results. Very comforting to me as I simply cannot function on a PC with someone over my shoulder.



Other Awards:
As a subcategory of Design: I suggest best use of the AWANA Club Spirit. My own daughter was blessed with two awards despite my own objections that a speed winner be excluded from design [(see my other post about this please)]

Sign in time:
We were VERY close to loosing two children from the registration due to cut off time. Stressing to the children the time that they need to be at the race by is very important. For those parents who have children that come to AWANA, but they themselves only rarely attend, a phone call or letter home 1 month prior and the week of the event maybe one way to avoid this. See also advertisement and car construction.

Registration:
A list of names of those who bought cars was a real time saver. It helped a great deal with pre-registration. Having everyone listed actually sign in was a way to verify who was actually there. As we saw with the adults, one had failed to have their name on the register. (and was mistakenly excluded from the adult races) The final role call may have avoided this problem, but I believe the adult in question was out of earshot as one adult did come to register after my announcement. The MC for the races did not understand what was involved in rebuilding the schedule or how it nullified three rounds of the results. It was just for fun for the adults anyway, but would have been devastating for kids.

We used out of the package car building rules and points for finding the winner.

Advertisement:
The amount of overtime I have worked admittedly leaves me to be a poor source here to comment. I would say a slot in the church bulletin, power point, or an insert to go home with those who only have one parent attending church would be advisable. Perhaps a link on the church website under the AWANA Ministries tab with Race rules and car construction rules and tips would also be a help.

Length of Race:
2 Rounds for (26 heats) for 13 racers took about 70 minutes from the drop first of the gate, with 1 re-run which was due to the gate and solenoid problem described above. Being our first year this is a decent time. Even with only 50% of return volunteers this time will likely improve next year. In calculating how long each heat takes: 2m:40s per round. If participation hits 20 next year I would suggest a single round.

If participants are above 20, a division of the racers should be made along some demographic that roughly splits the children in half. (Boys / girls ) (1st + 2nd yr TNT / 3rd and 4th yr) Have them arrive later/earlier.

Grand Finalist:
Other parents expressed wonderment at no ‘Grand Final Heats’. With the program I discovered too late for our races today that it was extremely easy to run another round. I could pick any number of finalists for the Final Round. The racing program explains that the top 7 is the preferred and fairest number to use and adds 7 heats to the races. (At 7 rounds, everyone has the same number of runs AND the same mix of competitors.) This essentially would have taken another 18 minutes of time.


End gate back up score keepers
They needed to be briefed that they needed to be ready to push a car across the final inches of a finish line to close out the race. Some cars needed a blanket to run in to at the end of the track. Having them hand the cars to the clubbers to return to the starting lane waiting area was a very good idea. We would have liked an option to not use DNF 5 point penalty on a 4 lane track.

We used chairs parallel to the track with rope running through the backs to rope off the track sides still the char came awfully close the the green circuit board.

I encouraged the MC to have some memory challenges and early BIBLE quiz questions ready in the event of a delay.


Food Preparation and cleanup:
No complaints at all. Again, I had a hot dog and coffee, so I don’t know of any kitchen issues. Everyone worked great together during cleanup from my point of view. I did not help prep so others may be better to comment here.

Child care:
Did not seem to be a major problem, younger children under 4 may need a diversionary activity in the nursery or a classroom where they color pictures of derby cars or Gospel themed pictures. The availability of this might be enough to encourage (or be one less excuse to hide behind) a parent who would rather stay home with a hyper child.


For the shut-in night some volunteers wanted to use the track and I know it will be abused ... I wish I could get that off the table of possibilities.
Picture Setup:
Many of our pictures were taken in front of Last years Christmas Tree. Pictures taken in front of the door with the Race Day Banner would have been better.


Your comments are welcomed.

[ameliabedelia]

It looks like a lot of your feedback is specific to your Awana Club, such as not being allowed to use the copy machine, etc... Also some other issues such as some rules, equipment, etc...

Did you submit this feedback to your Awana Club's Race Commissioner?

What is your role in your Awana Club's race? Are you planning on assisting next year with planning and Race Night (since you have some good suggestions, you should assist)?

Here's some of my comments/questions about your comments:

Scale: you would like a scale at the pit table and at the registration table...When you say "registration" table, do you mean the check-in/inspection table? Because our clubbers are registered when they buy the car kit. When they check in at the inspection table, that's the final say on whether the car complies with the weight requirement. Why do you need a scale at the pit table?

Awards: we award 6 trophies, 3 for Speed and 3 for Design, and Speed winners cannot get a Design trophy--we make that clear in the rules which are given out prior to car kit purchase, and on Race Night. Design judges select the 6 top designs, 3 of those are for just-in-case a speed winner was also selected for design. We do not announce those 3 from the list of 6 who did not get design awards, either because they won for speed and were crossed off the list, or because they were 4th, 5th or 6th on the list and did not get moved up because of a speed winner being crossed off.

Registration/list of names: we always start with a list of names of who bought cars. We have that list on Race Night, but go by who checks in & pass inspection...they receive a "passed inspection" slip of paper with their name & car # to take to the Pit Table where the cars are kept until it's their turn to race. If a car is brought to the Pit Table without the "passed inspection" paper, the Pit Crew sends the clubber back to the check-in/inspection table. The slip of paper is then passed from the Pit Table to the scorekeeping table to be entered in the computer as a race participant. THATS when we know that a car that has been bought is here on Race Night and ready to race.

Length of Race/number of racers: It sounds like you have about 13 racers. We usually have between 13-17, depending on the year. This year we have 14 registered. We also use a 4 lane track and 2 rounds, so each car races twice on each lane. I'm not sure about the time for each round, as I've never timed it, but 1 hr 10 minutes doesn't sound too bad--sounds comparable to us. I agree that if you reach 20 racers, you could go to 1 round (4 times down the track per car). That's still fair, since some other race methods (like double or triple elim) would allow some cars to go only 2 or 3 times. We do not have an electronic finish line though, although that does not seem to add too much time--we have 2-3 finish line judges (Awana leaders) who call out the finish places for the scorekeeper. We might have an electronic judge this year (borrowed track, last year the electronic judge was broken, so we continued with the subjective method we've always used). If you go to a single round with 20, you shouldn't need to split them up into groups.

Grand Finalist: We have a final round that takes the top 7 scorers (we use a point system) and races them in groups of 3 for 7 heats to determine the top 3 finishers (by points).

End gate/pushing a car across: I can see where you'd need to do that if you have an electronic finish line judge. We never have had one, so we score according to how far the car went if it did not cross the finish line. For example, if cars 1 & 2 crossed the line, the judges would call out 1st & 2nd place, and if cars 3 & 4 stopped before the line, the one closer to the finish linen is given 3rd place, and the other is given 4th. No "did not finish".

Chairs parallel to the track: we line up chairs parallel to the track, about 7-10 feet back from the track, and also tape to the floor strings of racing flag pennants about 2-3 feet from the track (parallel again). Most clubbers prefer to sit on the floor, and although we usually announce it, most know instinctively that they are not to cross the line of pennants. The adults usually sit in the chairs.

[Darin McGrew]

Scale: you would like a scale at the pit table and at the registration table...When you say "registration" table, do you mean the check-in/inspection table? Because our clubbers are registered when they buy the car kit. When they check in at the inspection table, that's the final say on whether the car complies with the weight requirement. Why do you need a scale at the pit table?

FWIW, we have a scale at the pit table, but we find that it never quite matches the scale at the check-in table. We use it for the initial adjustment of weight, but if a car doesn't pass at the check-in table, we put a yellow sticky on it with the number of grams to add/remove. The crew at the pit table uses these yellow stickies for later weight adjustments.

Awards: we award 6 trophies, 3 for Speed and 3 for Design, and Speed winners cannot get a Design trophy--we make that clear in the rules which are given out prior to car kit purchase, and on Race Night.

So if a kid really wants a design award, he has to make sure his car is slow?

[gpraceman]

I was also nervous that the program [GPRM] would not function as promised.

Can you elaborate?

The Commander spoke of making the piece of wood holding up the starting pins lighter and less of an impact problem for the timer. (the wire trigger for the RACEMASTER IV was bent out of alignment) The force of it dropping into the switch invalidated one race, and the Gate Master commented that repeated adjustments were needed after the solution was found. (rebending the wire)

I'm not terribly fond of that wisker switch either.

Telling the Gate keeper to watch the flashing light to go off to know the PC was ready was missed in the process of out gate problem.

If you run GPRM in Hands-Free mode, the computer will ready itself and the timer. This will help prevent this type of issue.

Computer program:
Check for updates to software prior to running next years race.

That is something that I highly recommend. Maybe it would have helped with the software issue you mentioned. I wish more people would, as it would save them from some problems and save me a lot of tech support calls and emails. That is why I recently added an automatic check for software updates feature, assuming the computer has an Internet connection at the time. Then users will be notified whenever I release even a minor tweak.

The printer we had was dreadfully slow. ... A text only version might have been a way to speed up the printer.

The latest update does include better support for printer settings. You can now set print settings like to print in fast draft and black and white modes. This really speeds up the printing.

Registration:
A list of names of those who bought cars was a real time saver. It helped a great deal with pre-registration. Having everyone listed actually sign in was a way to verify who was actually there. As we saw with the adults, one had failed to have their name on the register. (and was mistakenly excluded from the adult races) The final role call may have avoided this problem, but I believe the adult in question was out of earshot as one adult did come to register after my announcement. The MC for the races did not understand what was involved in rebuilding the schedule or how it nullified three rounds of the results. It was just for fun for the adults anyway, but would have been devastating for kids.

Prior to creating a schedule, we always verify the car numbers of those that are on the staging table with what has been entered into the software. This has helped on several occasions to find missed check-ins or cars that really weren't there.

They needed to be briefed that they needed to be ready to push a car across the final inches of a finish line to close out the race.

You could have simply pressed the Escape key on the computer to end the heat, instead of pushing cars across.

In my experience, two things can be done at check-in to help ensure cars will cross the finish line.
1) Make sure they are not far off of 5.0 ounces.
2) Make sure they have been lubed. If not obvious, ask (the adult) if it had been lubed.

There are some cars that have more severe problems, but these two things, if done, can help greatly.

We would have liked an option to not use DNF 5 point penalty on a 4 lane track.

Why? A car not finishing should not get the same number of points as a car that did finish but came in last.

[ameliabedelia]

Scale: you would like a scale at the pit table and at the registration table...When you say "registration" table, do you mean the check-in/inspection table? Because our clubbers are registered when they buy the car kit. When they check in at the inspection table, that's the final say on whether the car complies with the weight requirement. Why do you need a scale at the pit table?

FWIW, we have a scale at the pit table, but we find that it never quite matches the scale at the check-in table. We use it for the initial adjustment of weight, but if a car doesn't pass at the check-in table, we put a yellow sticky on it with the number of grams to add/remove. The crew at the pit table uses these yellow stickies for later weight adjustments.

Clarification: our "pit table" is the staging table. I understand now why you have a scale at the pit table...that's for last minute adjustments prior to inspection & check in, right? Our repair/adjustment area is just a small area at one end of the check-in table. I'd like to do more with it, but we have our race on club night (Wed.), and we have just 15 minutes to check everyone in.

Awards: we award 6 trophies, 3 for Speed and 3 for Design, and Speed winners cannot get a Design trophy--we make that clear in the rules which are given out prior to car kit purchase, and on Race Night.

So if a kid really wants a design award, he has to make sure his car is slow?

I see the problem. The idea was to give awards to 6 different kids (we average about 15 participants each year). They all race together, we don't have enough to break them up into smaller groups. Do you have a suggestion for awarding to 6 different kids, but not favoring speed over design?

[derbyspeed]

They all race together, we don't have enough to break them up into smaller groups. Do you have a suggestion for awarding to 6 different kids, but not favoring speed over design?

This may not award 6 "different" kids but I have seen some packs hand out two cars and they can build one for speed and one for design. Either way the ones who put the most time in their cars are usually trophy winners, which is the premises of a pinewood derby - not to be a trophy winner but father and son time together. Hopefully the trophies encourage that time together.

We are giving away Turtle trophies this year and calling them "Under the Speed Limit" awards. This will give you more different winners. Note: I didn't announce that we are giving away these awards, didn't want anyone to not try to go faster and to do their best. I will announce it at the Derby race itself. This will keep most if not all kids interested as we post the standings during the race.

It's not a bad thing to have winners and losers, without them we wouldn't be able to teach sportsmanship, healthy competition and even camaraderie among the kids. I think it's sometimes harder on us as parents than it is on the kids, they are resilient!

[gpraceman]

We are giving away Turtle trophies this year and calling them "Under the Speed Limit" awards. This will give you more different winners. Note: I didn't announce that we are giving away these awards, didn't want anyone to not try to go faster and to do their best. I will announce it at the Derby race itself. This will keep most if not all kids interested as we post the standings during the race.

We did turtle awards for our Awana club and called them the "Best Gas Mileage" award. The main requirement for the award, other than the slowest overall time, was that the car must still finish.

We would advertise it and would actually get kids trying to get that award. Not everyone can build a fast car, so this gave them another goal to shoot for. We would, of course, have design awards as well.

Here's a thread about having a slowest car award, http://derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=126

[derbyspeed]

Here's a thread about having a slowest car award, http://derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=126

Thanks for the thread on that topic. We had struggled with what to call the award also. Some others we came up with were "Sunday Driver", "Slow Rider" and "Most Cautious Driver". Didn't think of "Best Gas Mileage".

Next year if we do it, of course we will announce it early on. I thought it would be a nice surprise to this year's race, without them knowing. It does give way to the scouts who may not have the skill, knowledge or tools to make a speedy car - I didn't think of all that until I read your thread.

Thanks!

[ameliabedelia]

Last year I did a Turtle Award--a certificate for it. I also gave design certificates out, like fastest-looking, shiniest, most polka-dotty (we have both boys and girls since it's Awana), etc...

Our race is this coming Wednesday--March 5. I can't/won't change the structure of the Speed/Design trophies now, for this year's race, but would you recommend changing it next year to allow a Speed winner to win a Design trophy too? We do frequently have Speed trophy winners in the top 3 for Design.

[Darin McGrew]

I understand now why you have a scale at the pit table...that's for last minute adjustments prior to inspection & check in, right?

Right. No modifications are done at the check-in table. They're done only at the pit table. (That's also where we help kids lube and mount their wheels and axles.)

Our repair/adjustment area is just a small area at one end of the check-in table. I'd like to do more with it, but we have our race on club night (Wed.), and we have just 15 minutes to check everyone in.

This year we had 80-90 cars. It took us more than 90 minutes to register them all. We used to do the check-in immediately before the derby, but things go much smoother now that we do check-in the Wednesday evening before the derby.

Awards: we award 6 trophies, 3 for Speed and 3 for Design, and Speed winners cannot get a Design trophy--we make that clear in the rules which are given out prior to car kit purchase, and on Race Night.

So if a kid really wants a design award, he has to make sure his car is slow?

I see the problem. The idea was to give awards to 6 different kids (we average about 15 participants each year). They all race together, we don't have enough to break them up into smaller groups. Do you have a suggestion for awarding to 6 different kids, but not favoring speed over design?

If the goal is to present awards to 6 different kids, then I'd go 4 deep for both design and speed. That's 8 awards total. You might end up giving awards to 8 kids, but it's unlikely that you'd give awards to fewer than 6 kids.

[RMoose]

Here's what we did this year with our RA/GA races:
We treated the design competition as totally separate from the racing, so we awarded the same number of awards for it as we did for the race. A child can have a fast car with a unique design, so they were eligible for awards in both.

We gave out awards for the top 3 in speed and design and raced by groups, (this year GAs, Lads, and Crusaders), so members of each group were eligible for up to 6 awards. We had some kids who won both speed and design awards, but even so, we had around 50% of the kids in each group win some type of award - which I think is a good balance between spreading the awards out and keeping them meaningful.

Now the design aspect is really my favorite part of the racing experience, but I know most people focus on the racing. So if you are limited in the number of awards you can give out and don't want to have duplicate awards, you could just give awards to the top 6 in the race and ignore design! Personally, I would just add an extra medal or trophy and let the best car win (and win)!

Also, we had a total of 28 cars racing so a relatively small number this year. For larger groups you could get ribbons or pins cheaper than trophies and award those for design awards or for racers finishing lower than the top three positions.