During our district derby on the 12th, we only had two cars show up with major problems. (Several overweight, a couple of overlength limits, but those were all fixed quickly) One car showed up with illegal wheels, (lightened and beveled tread). They were given the option of replacing the wheels or racing in the open class. They decided to change the wheels, no problem.
The other car, (also from the same pack I found out later), was a dead ringer to this e-bay car, right down to the decals, only the color was different:
Now, I'm a firm believer in just because a car LOOKS like an e-bay car or a kit, doesn't mean that it is, it just means we ask a few questions. When I looked at the bottom, it made me a little more suspicious, a beautifully mounted tungsten round, and tungsten plates, only ones I saw all day. Also, the wheels had obviously been turned on a lathe or shaved, basically, they were 2.2g speed wheels. So I asked mom and webelos to tell me how he made the car. He giggled and said it was a trade secret. I said if he wanted it to race, he had to tell me. So he looked at his mom and said "well, does painting it and putting the stickers on count?" Then mom asked what the problem was, since he painted it and put the stickers on, it was "his" car. So I asked him what they had done to the wheels and axles, and he said nothing, just put them on..... I said I'd get back to them and had a discussion with the DE that I was going to DQ the car and why and he supported it completely. Went and continued to talk to the mom off to the side and she admitted that she had paid a client who was an engineer for a major company just to "cut out the design". So I asked her where she got the tungsten weights. She didn't know what I was talking about, so I pointed out the $40 in weights on the car. I told her that we couldn't allow the car to race in the Cub division but we would allow it to race in the Open division where it would probably win a trophy. She stated that he HAD built a car in the Pack workshop, but didn't like it, so the "got" this one, and since he painted it, it was his car, so why couldn't he race. I told them since he had nothing to do with building the car, he didn't work on the car, the weight, or the wheels, just took a car that someone else built, it wouldn't be fair to the other scouts to let it run. Well, they didn't like it, so they decided to leave, and one of the dad's ran it in the open class. (came in 2nd, probably would've finished 4th in the cub class)
Well fast forward a few days, and the wife of that packs CM calls me. She's also very active at the district level. Blessing me out for not allowing the car to race. "How could we run a district event where a scout left the event very upset"! She stated she "knew" the lady very well and was sure that she didn't think it was cheating!!!!!!! When I mentioned the other car from her pack she stated "well I could believe the HE would try to get something by" (so I guess it depends on WHO you are) She said that the lady had told her she had just paid to have someone cut it for them since they didn't have a saw. When I asked about the tungsten weights, she didn't know anything about them and "maybe she got them at the scout shop"...... She also said that they didn't do anything to the wheels or axles, they were "straight" from the box. I asked if she had ever worked on building a PWD car, and she said no, the men in the pack, and her husband handled that. I told her to ask her husband what would happen if you just took the wheels and axles from the box and put them on a 5oz car, it probably wouldn't even make it down the entire 42'! She said that this mom and son were never very competitive so she couldn't imagine them trying to cheat. I told her intentional or not, it was a blatant violation of the rules then I asked her: Lets say her son is in highschool, mainly getting B's and C's and has a major research paper due for school. Would it be ok for mom to go online and find someone else's research paper and print it out and have her son re-type it and turn it in as his work? She said of course not. I said "Why not? He typed it, it was his work?" (she REALLY didn't like that - but this had been going on for 20 minutes) I also said maybe she should ask the kids and parents in her pack, that raced the car that they built in their pack workshop and lost out on a trophy to this car if they thought what they had done was "fair" and showed scouting "honesty" and "integrity". She stated that she didn't think it would be fair to accuse the scout of cheating. I told her that was the first comment she made that I agreed with, because it wasn't the scout's "client" or the scout that paid for it. Then she brought up how wasn't it funny since I was the derby chairman that MY son's took 1st and 2nd! (I almost lost it) I told her she could talk to my boys any time she wanted, THEY could tell her how THEY cut out the cars, how THEY sanded it, how THEY put the wheels on the drill mandrels and sanded the wheels, how THEY filed and polished the axles, how THEY put the weights on the car, how THEY painted it and lubed it. All dad did was work with them and do a lot of the alignment.
She finally ended that she still didn't think it was right and if we have another district derby next year we can just count their pack out because they won't have anything to do with it. I stated that it's too bad that just because she's embarrassed for her friend that the scouts who want to play by the rules will miss out on that opportunity.
The bad part is, like I said, she's very active in District. I found out that before she even talked to me to find out the details, she had been spreading comments to others about how bad the derby was! The DE is fed up with them. I told him I won't bring it up, but if someone asks me, I will give them the FULL details, including the pictures of the cars!
Sorry for the length, but I needed to rant a little, and figured this would be the most receptive, (if not captive) audience!
Had that happened, and they at least had some type of believable lie, I would have had to let it go.
