Goofy rule or just me?

[FastBob]

Our council added this rule to what most people thought were already good rules.

"The derby officials reserve the right to determine a cars eligibility or
ineligibility to race if an unfair practice is discovered that is not covered in the rules".

Whatdaya think? If it's not covered in the rules how can it be an unfair practice? Hope the officials aren't on a witch hunt this year.

[gpraceman]

The day of the race is NOT the time to be changing the rules, especially based on the whims of the officials. It seems like a kid's game, where you make up the rules as you go along and if you don't like how things are turning out, you change them to suit you.

Rule changes should be evaluated after the race is over, in preparation for next year's race.

[Go Bubba Go]

Our council added this rule to what most people thought were already good rules.

"The derby officials reserve the right to determine a cars eligibility or
ineligibility to race if an unfair practice is discovered that is not covered in the rules".

Whatdaya think? If it's not covered in the rules how can it be an unfair practice? Hope the officials aren't on a witch hunt this year.

As long as they've decided to change rules at the last minute, why not wait until the very last minute. You know, wait until after the finals are run and winners announced, then publicly "out" the "unfair" cars.

Further comments withheld as they were not nice.

Bubba

[Darin McGrew]

The last revision of our rules was prompted by a family that came up with a technique that wasn't covered in our previous rules.

But we let them race that year. When we updated the rules, we updated the rules only for the following years.

[PWD_addict]

The last revision of our rules was prompted by a family that came up with a technique that wasn't covered in our previous rules.

But we let them race that year. When we updated the rules, we updated the rules only for the following years.

That, IMO, is the way to do it. FastBob--that is ludicrous. Ask them to define "unfair". If it means that the practice allowed the car to be faster than the others, why not give everyone a 1st place trophy!

[ohiofitter]

Now that's a crock............If you find something at inspection the yes the car should not race.....But if it is found during the race or after the race change your rules for the next year

[Darin McGrew]

Now that's a crock............If you find something at inspection the yes the car should not race.....But if it is found during the race or after the race change your rules for the next year

I agree that the rule is a crock, but let's be clear about why it's a crock.

The derby officials reserve the right to determine a cars eligibility or ineligibility to race if an unfair practice is discovered that is not covered in the rules.

That sounds like they're reserving the right to disqualify cars during the pre-race inspection based on practices they consider "unfair", but which are not actually prohibited by the rules. That's a different issue from disqualifying cars during/after the race, after the cars passed the pre-race inspection.

[FastBob]

Darin,
Your interpretation of the rule is perfectly accurate. If the officials think a car has an unfair advantage, even though it meets every rule perfectly, it may be disqualified at the pre race inspection or anytime during the race. This rule is printed in the official rules for this year but there is also a rumor floating around that if a car appears to the judges that it wasn't built by the boy, even though it is legal by the rules, it may be disallowed. Looks to me like if this ridiculous rule is enforced we may have a mutiny.
My 11 year old grandson said to me after reading this rule " PaPa, they wouldn't really do this to a boy who worked so hard on his car would they"? I replied no son they wouldn't really do that and it almost brought tears to my eyes thinking of what an innocent kid would go through if this did happen to him. It's a crying shame that such unwise people can sometimes be put in a position of authority which may affect the boys in a such negative manner.

[ohiofitter]

That makes sense if it's found at inspection ......But if you take a boy that has put all his know how into the car and without no help from a parent or after market parts and the car looks like it has advantage they have the right to dq the youngster....well that's just bull.....how do you tell that to a kid that has done everything within the ruls to begin with

[Darin McGrew]

This rule is printed in the official rules for this year but there is also a rumor floating around that if a car appears to the judges that it wasn't built by the boy, even though it is legal by the rules, it may be disallowed.

Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine.

A large part of building a beautiful car is investing the time to do simple things well. These simple things are within the capabilities of kids this age, and they'll spend plenty of time if they are sufficiently motivated. I have seen judges score down Junior's car because they thought Dad did all the work, when I knew that Junior had done most of the work with minimal adult assistance. Disqualifying such a car would be even worse. Have the derby organizers ever heard the phrase "Do Your Best"?

Besides, the point of a derby is for kids and adults to work together on a project, not for kids to build a car without assistance.

[derbyspeed]

Definitely not a good rule, although I can see some reasons why a rule like that might be thought up, but not without clarity. And like someone else said, if someone seems to have a new idea on making their car faster and it isn't in the rules than they should let it ride for this year's race. And then decide about the ruling for next year.

It's tough when you see someone who went out and bought an Ebay car and you know it's an Ebay car but don't have that in your ruling. (we did have the rule for it to be made by scout and helper, but how do you really confront someone you think has not followed that one?) Happened to us last year. They took first place with it. My son had taken first place in the 3 previous years, wasn't any fun going out and getting beat by an Ebay car. But we let it slide and didn't fuss.

They even bragged about it later on to someone else and said they paid over $100.00 for it.

We were able to re-engineer and beat him at the Council races though!

[Darin McGrew]

We were able to re-engineer and beat him at the Council races though!

Victory is the best revenge, huh?

Congrats!