Pinewood Derby Software

[Pack2]

Does anybody have any recommendation for Pinewood Derby software that they are using? I'm looking for something to set up and control double elmination brackets. I'm not looking for any lane timer functions.

 

Thanks!

[EagleInKY]

There are several decent looking products on the market. The last time I looked at them (2 years ago) they were all DOS based, so I decided to wait.

 

One thing for sure, scrap the double-elimination. Use one of the round-robin methods. You'll be surprised how fast you can get through the process. We had to fight with the naysayers about 5 years ago, but eventually prevailed. Now they are all supportive of the format we use. We also do not use a timer. We have a 3 lane track. Each boy races once in each lane, against different competition. He gets 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd. We total up the points at the end of the round. If the group is larger than 6, we take the top 1/2 of the finishers and run through the same process again. We keep this up until we settle on the winners. If we have any ties for 1st, 2nd or 3rd, we run them off using the same method. All of this still takes place faster than double-elimination.

 

Also, IMO, I don't liked timed races. It's difficult to explain to an 8 year old why he finished first in 3 races, but didn't win overall (because he was racing against slower cars). Our method prevents that from happening.

 

FYI - we used a spreadsheet to manage it for several years. Send me a PM if you'd like me to e-mail a copy of it to you.

[Pack2]

Here are the "requirements" that my Packs derby has to fit into.

 

1) We hold our derby on a Saturday night starting at 7 P.M. Parents "just can't make it during the day or afternoon". If we had Dan's pack, the race would finish at 11 P.M.

 

2) We have a two lane track and approximately 30 kids running every year. I would love to have it round robin style. However I found a spread sheet that layed out a round robin for 2 lanes and 16 racers. The average race time was 2 hours. I would guess if the number of racers was doubled, the time would be close to doubled also. Again, we would be looking at about 4 hours.

 

3) Did I say that parents within the Pack also believe that the Blue & Gold banquet (which includes dinner, entertainment, FOS presentation, and Webelos advancement) should be under 1-1/2 hours?

 

In conclusion, I agree that a round robin would be better and the double-e leaves a lot of kids with the "one-two and out" syndrome. My biggest handicap is squeezing the derby in a time slot and/or dealing with parents who are too busy and/or apathetic to scouting. In the meantime I am investigating running a hybrid of the double-e or a round robin/double-e combo.

[ScoutNut]

Your biggest problem is the 2-lane track. That really limits things. Ask at your local Roundtable or give your DE a call and see if anyone has a 3-lane track that you could borrow for the evening. We have a 3-lane track and had about 34 boys racing this year. We do round-robin and every boy races every other boy and on every track. We don't care about speed, the 3 boys with the most wins race for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd. Our race was on a Friday evening & was supposed to start at 7 pm. Well as often happens, there were some snags! We were not able to get into the hall to set up until after 6pm. So, with some confusion and much racing around, we finally got the race started at a little after 7:30. We also had some special guests (mayor, alderman, police chief, & press) who tended to slow things down somewhat! Everyone had a blast! With a break near the end for snacks, our guests to race and photo shoots, we still managed to get everything cleaned up and get out the door by about 9:30 pm. Even with 2 lanes, with enough adult help, you should be able to pull off a round robin in around 2.5 hrs. You just need to keep the boys racing and the races moving! If the boys are having fun their families will be too. Good Luck! Have FUN!

[NJCubScouter]

My former pack's "software" consists of one of the fathers who has been doing it for at least the past six years, and a piece of paper. He picks out the cars to race in each heat, keeps all the records, does it very fast and from what anyone can tell, accurately. I have a suspicion that the man has used a "racing form" more than once in his life. I decided to "visit" the Pinewood Derby this past weekend, with my son whose patrol are mostly graduates of this pack, and who served as "junior race officials." (Most of the time my son had the "tough" job of pushing the reset button on the "electronic judge" after each heat, and for this he got free pizza and soda, you can't beat that. His presence caused some shock for some of the mothers, who when they last saw him a year ago were looking down at him, and are now looking either across or slightly up.)

 

Our race coordinator uses TRIPLE elimination. The races are by "grade level" and the pack seems to have about 60 boys now, so it did take awhile. Don't ask me why it is triple elimination, that is just the way it was before I was there, and that is they way it is now that I'm gone. I was the overall event coordinator for the Pinewood Derby for two years and never heard anyone complain about it.

[gpraceman]

You can find several commercial, freeware and shareware software packages listed at http://grandprix-race-central.com/gpmanager.htm.

 

I'm partial to GrandPrix Race Manager, but that's because I wrote it.

[jonesbr]

Would you mind sending me a copy of the spreadsheet your pack used to organize your old pinewood derbys ? Thanks.

 

Brian Jones

Pack 445, Lakeland FL