Bsa National Pinewood Derby

My05suzuki

Pinewood Ninja
Pro Racer
Mar 31, 2017
57
8
8
40
Virginia
Has anyone heard when, and how to sign up for the BSA national pinewood derby? I know it is June in NYC. I have contacted the person incharge but no answer yet.
 
Has anyone heard when, and how to sign up for the BSA national pinewood derby? I know it is June in NYC. I have contacted the person incharge but no answer yet.
You talking about the World Championship race? You sign up on their website. It's easy.
 
How long does the event usually last
Was pretty much all day last year. Check in started early. That takes a long time, there were over 270 cars from 20 states to check. They do a good job with that, but are still sorting some of the rules out.
We had inner air guides on our car, (clear) and the inspector didn't like that because he couldn't see inside the wheel to try and tell if it was lightened. (it wasn't) I offered to pull one and show him, but the head guy said just let it through. That was our only hiccup.

They had a couple of long stoppages due to software issues during the race. Wouldn't have taken as long without those. Hopefully that will be better this year.

Bring sunscreen. It's a sunny area where the bleachers are.
 
Was pretty much all day last year. Check in started early. That takes a long time, there were over 270 cars from 20 states to check. They do a good job with that, but are still sorting some of the rules out.
We had inner air guides on our car, (clear) and the inspector didn't like that because he couldn't see inside the wheel to try and tell if it was lightened. (it wasn't) I offered to pull one and show him, but the head guy said just let it through. That was our only hiccup.

They had a couple of long stoppages due to software issues during the race. Wouldn't have taken as long without those. Hopefully that will be better this year.

Bring sunscreen. It's a sunny area where the bleachers are.

What rules were they really looking for
 
What rules were they really looking for
Weight. Dimensions.

He wanted to look inside the wheels to see if they were lightened, but couldn't see in there. So I guess we could have gotten away with lighter wheels, lol, but we had DD4H's Dynasty Rage wheels, which met the rules perfectly.
DD4H did say that he made a set of "stealth 2.0 gram" wheels for that race for someone. I assume they got through, also. He told me he could make me some as well, but I didn't want to risk it.

We ran Pro Stock, so there was less room/need for "interpretation"....they outright stated you could true the wheels, but they needed to be a certain diameter. (1.17 if memory serves) I think they might have measured that. And they said you could have aftermarket axles.
Oh yeah, and then the dude tried the magnet test on the axles (DD4H TX's, they had just come out) and had something to say about that. But I reminded him the rules stated you could use whatever, and they were no problem.

They are checking in a TON of cars as quickly as possible, so they just don't have much time to look and look for stuff. I wasn't worried since our car was legal, but you never know.
 
Weight. Dimensions.

How well did you guys do, I'm trying to determine if we want to do stock or prostock.


He wanted to look inside the wheels to see if they were lightened, but couldn't see in there. So I guess we could have gotten away with lighter wheels, lol, but we had DD4H's Dynasty Rage wheels, which met the rules perfectly.
DD4H did say that he made a set of "stealth 2.0 gram" wheels for that race for someone. I assume they got through, also. He told me he could make me some as well, but I didn't want to risk it.

We ran Pro Stock, so there was less room/need for "interpretation"....they outright stated you could true the wheels, but they needed to be a certain diameter. (1.17 if memory serves) I think they might have measured that. And they said you could have aftermarket axles.
Oh yeah, and then the dude tried the magnet test on the axles (DD4H TX's, they had just come out) and had something to say about that. But I reminded him the rules stated you could use whatever, and they were no problem.

They are checking in a TON of cars as quickly as possible, so they just don't have much time to look and look for stuff. I wasn't worried since our car was legal, but you never know.
Weight. Dimensions.

He wanted to look inside the wheels to see if they were lightened, but couldn't see in there. So I guess we could have gotten away with lighter wheels, lol, but we had DD4H's Dynasty Rage wheels, which met the rules perfectly.
DD4H did say that he made a set of "stealth 2.0 gram" wheels for that race for someone. I assume they got through, also. He told me he could make me some as well, but I didn't want to risk it.

We ran Pro Stock, so there was less room/need for "interpretation"....they outright stated you could true the wheels, but they needed to be a certain diameter. (1.17 if memory serves) I think they might have measured that. And they said you could have aftermarket axles.
Oh yeah, and then the dude tried the magnet test on the axles (DD4H TX's, they had just come out) and had something to say about that. But I reminded him the rules stated you could use whatever, and they were no problem.

They are checking in a TON of cars as quickly as possible, so they just don't have much time to look and look for stuff. I wasn't worried since our car was legal, but you never know.
 
One thing that sucked....DD4H came out with his TX axles about this time last year, and had a special where if you bought any set of wheels he threw in a set of the new axles for free.
So at that point we know we were going to the race, so I used the rules they had up THEN....and by those rules, you could use lightened wheels, so I ordered a set of Nitros and got the axles as well.
Then about 6 weeks or so before the race, they updated the rules and those wheels were not longer acceptable. Had to buy the Rages, dammit. LOL.
It was okay, we used the Nitros for my daughters' Powder Puff race. Someone had raced a store-bought car the year before, and she wanted to come loaded for bear and try to beat that girl. So it all worked out.

Moral of the story: They still have last year's rules up. I'd definitely wait a bit before I started ordering parts. See if they change. I made some suggestions to the coordinator, but it's a group decision. He was appreciative of my input, though.
 
Yeah we got one car that is almost 100% legal for the stock class, but not sure how competitive it will actually be or do I modify it to a 3wheel car.


QUOTE="Pacfanweb, post: 64886, member: 718"]One thing that sucked....DD4H came out with his TX axles about this time last year, and had a special where if you bought any set of wheels he threw in a set of the new axles for free.
So at that point we know we were going to the race, so I used the rules they had up THEN....and by those rules, you could use lightened wheels, so I ordered a set of Nitros and got the axles as well.
Then about 6 weeks or so before the race, they updated the rules and those wheels were not longer acceptable. Had to buy the Rages, dammit. LOL.
It was okay, we used the Nitros for my daughters' Powder Puff race. Someone had raced a store-bought car the year before, and she wanted to come loaded for bear and try to beat that girl. So it all worked out.[/QUOTE]
 
We built an entirely new car. My son's District car was totally dominant. But because I saw some ambiguity in the Stock rules, we decided to go with Pro Stock. Any axles, trued wheels/hub mods, any wheel base.

To modify his District car for that would have involved probably mangling it, so we just decided to leave it intact and build a new one. Plus, we had kind of gone to school since District with my daughter's Powder Puff car, which was to that point, the lightest body we'd built, and first time using tungsten cubes. It was a good bit faster than the District car.

So we built a ladder car for the World Championship race, with a 5" wheel base. His District car was built to resemble a Great White Shark, and we kept that theme for the World car. Really, it was just gray Rustoleum Hammered paint, which looks like shark skin, and a dorsal fin on to of the body. Very skinny, so as not to affect aerodynamics.
 
That's where I'm torn, do I take chance of not making stock or will they automatically put it in the process stock class

QUOTE="Pacfanweb, post: 64884, member: 718"]Weight. Dimensions.

He wanted to look inside the wheels to see if they were lightened, but couldn't see in there. So I guess we could have gotten away with lighter wheels, lol, but we had DD4H's Dynasty Rage wheels, which met the rules perfectly.
DD4H did say that he made a set of "stealth 2.0 gram" wheels for that race for someone. I assume they got through, also. He told me he could make me some as well, but I didn't want to risk it.

We ran Pro Stock, so there was less room/need for "interpretation"....they outright stated you could true the wheels, but they needed to be a certain diameter. (1.17 if memory serves) I think they might have measured that. And they said you could have aftermarket axles.
Oh yeah, and then the dude tried the magnet test on the axles (DD4H TX's, they had just come out) and had something to say about that. But I reminded him the rules stated you could use whatever, and they were no problem.

They are checking in a TON of cars as quickly as possible, so they just don't have much time to look and look for stuff. I wasn't worried since our car was legal, but you never know.[/QUOTE]
 

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