Pinewood Derby Politics

[packsaddle]

Back when I was CM, pinewood derby was THE highlight of the year. Even better than the family campouts but those were pretty good too. I really miss the Cub Scouts.

Anyway, within the pack, we had about 25-30 active boys, we completely consumed a Saturday afternoon doing the double elimination races, rank by rank. The boys had a blast. They brought their old cars and re-racing the old cars was never a problem because the boys all remembered every one of the previous year's cars. They didn't even care all that much about who won, they just wanted to keep racing and perfecting their own cars and to learn new ways to make them faster.

Our track was a two-lane plywood thing but it worked well. Boys from the troop ran the event and it was always a big hit. There was a race registration fee that paid for the trophies, and a concession with hot dogs, etc. We usually made a little money to help buy the car kits for next year (the pack bought all the car kits for the boys and they were given the kits in the fall).

 

The only 'politics' I ever saw was at the district level at which I was the 'weigh-in' person. I kept a record of the cars that won at the district level from the previous year and made sure that it wasn't the same car. It wasn't really a problem though. The real heat came when they didn't pass the weight criterion. The angriest parents, I think, were the ones who had actually built the cars. And I did disqualify a few. My son was no longer in cubs so I had no dog in the fight. And I brought my analytical balance with standards so all they could do was sputter.

The boys are easy to deal with. It's the adults that are tough.

I really miss the cubs.

[Twocubdad]

Through seven years of PWDs we never had much drama. I think the key was a good set of rules. The pack's postal scale was official. Period. It could be off by 10 pounds, but it was official.

 

Probably the worst controversy was about the time the Pine Car brand accessories became available. Fortunately, we had a rule that you must use official BSA components. We disqualified a couple cars who used the Pine Car parts.

 

One thing we did to grease the wheels (so to speak) was to have a pretty good "pit road" staffed by a couple of handy dads who helped guys tweak their cars. We had lots of tools and spare parts. We encouraged folks to come in early so they had a chance to work on the cars. The guys with the Pine Car parts had the opportunity to install official wheels and tires. Over or under weight cars were drilled out to get them under the limit.

 

Last minute changes didn't usually result in a highly competitive car, but is sure beat going home in a funk.

[IM_Kathy]

our pack didn't allow "pit fixes" except if a wheel fell off.

 

we had check-in on saturday, we had all the parents with extra tools and weights there to help out. Once they brought the car in for "official" weigh in if they passed they were taken to the pits to wait until next day for the racing. There was no trying it out on the track allowed.

 

the new track we got was a 4 lane and was timed run deal with the computer... everyone got to race 4 times once on each lane and then times were averaged.

[packsaddle]

this one was interesting too