V
Scout Pinewood
- Thread starter BlewBYu
- Start date
Our district does scout staged cars. They are the only ones allowed to touch their car after check in. If a car is staged wrong there is someone standing at the gate to call them back to fix it. They do a good job checking to make sure none are off track. I think one time one slipped by and they just reran it. For every kid that took a long time staging there was usually 1 or 2 others that just set theirs on the track and walked away.
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Vitamin K
Guest
ngyoung said:
I don't know about all of you, but as a scout I staged my own car. I was the only one allowed to touch it after check in from staging to collecting it at the stop section.
Similar to what has been said about head to head competition and winners and losers, let the boys stage and take care of their car. Let them succeed and let them fail. If they stage it wrong, they stage it wrong. Quit having adults do it for them. They will only grow from it.
We have around 12 different awards that go out to specific types of cars (Most Patriotic, Best of Show, Best Engineered, Best Car That's Not a Car, Best Paint Job, Smoothest Paint, etc.). The cars get judged by a few parents after the check-in deadline but before the races start. At some point during the races they hand out these awards and call each scout up to accept the award. The MC will ask the scout about their car. It's very cool.
I have suggested that when these awards get handed out that we show the car on the big screen so everyone can see it but I guess it takes too much time to get that arranged on the computer.
We also run an Outlaw class when all the regular heats are finished. These run while the times are getting calculated and sorted out. Anything goes except combustible gases. We pull the timer off the track for this series to keep it from getting damaged. Anyone can race Outlaw so the sisters can get involved here.
We have concessions with a local pizza shop selling us solo pizzas very cheap. Chips, pop, popcorn machine, candy. Sam's Club has been very good to us with donations. Just ask them over a month in advance because they go through their donation request forms once a month around here.
We have our Scout Master MC the event and he is very good. He had already looked over all of the cars prior to racing starting so when the cars would get staged he would point out interesting things about the cars at the gate. This helped kids with slower cars to get recognized too during the racing and made each heat interesting for those not racing that round.
We get 2 practice runs prior to final check-in. One person stages all cars the entire day.
We also have DJ playing music.
I have suggested that when these awards get handed out that we show the car on the big screen so everyone can see it but I guess it takes too much time to get that arranged on the computer.
We also run an Outlaw class when all the regular heats are finished. These run while the times are getting calculated and sorted out. Anything goes except combustible gases. We pull the timer off the track for this series to keep it from getting damaged. Anyone can race Outlaw so the sisters can get involved here.
We have concessions with a local pizza shop selling us solo pizzas very cheap. Chips, pop, popcorn machine, candy. Sam's Club has been very good to us with donations. Just ask them over a month in advance because they go through their donation request forms once a month around here.
We have our Scout Master MC the event and he is very good. He had already looked over all of the cars prior to racing starting so when the cars would get staged he would point out interesting things about the cars at the gate. This helped kids with slower cars to get recognized too during the racing and made each heat interesting for those not racing that round.
We get 2 practice runs prior to final check-in. One person stages all cars the entire day.
We also have DJ playing music.
I like to see the final places decided by combined times over the 4 (4-lane track) or 6 (6-lane track) heats they ran. The elimination, if I understand correctly, leaves the door open to several factors.
1) Cars that were fast may now be slowing down
2) Cars may be speeding up depending on their prep
3) The door is now open for a glitch in staging or track issue to affect time
The reason I like having one adult stage all cars is because there would possibly be less chance of having to re-run races. Having all cars run down the track the same number of times prevents cars from possibly slowing down if they had to run, say, 5 or 6 heats.
I was at my nephew's race years ago where the kids staged the cars. I saw at least 3 kids drop their cars while either walking to the gate or while walking up the steps to the gate. All of the kids are already nervous with just racing their car. Young kids are also more nervous being in front of all of the people and could nervously mishandle the car.
My opinion is that the purpose of Pinewood Derby is to spend time with an adult building the car, learning how to build it and how to use the different tools involved, then getting to your hard work and ideas run on the track. It's not to see if a nervous little boy can stage his car correctly in front of a large group of people. If the adult staging the cars mishandles the car and it gets damaged there's a lesson there for the boy that doesn't have to be learned at his expense (embarrassment in front of his peers). Again, my opinion only.
1) Cars that were fast may now be slowing down
2) Cars may be speeding up depending on their prep
3) The door is now open for a glitch in staging or track issue to affect time
The reason I like having one adult stage all cars is because there would possibly be less chance of having to re-run races. Having all cars run down the track the same number of times prevents cars from possibly slowing down if they had to run, say, 5 or 6 heats.
I was at my nephew's race years ago where the kids staged the cars. I saw at least 3 kids drop their cars while either walking to the gate or while walking up the steps to the gate. All of the kids are already nervous with just racing their car. Young kids are also more nervous being in front of all of the people and could nervously mishandle the car.
My opinion is that the purpose of Pinewood Derby is to spend time with an adult building the car, learning how to build it and how to use the different tools involved, then getting to your hard work and ideas run on the track. It's not to see if a nervous little boy can stage his car correctly in front of a large group of people. If the adult staging the cars mishandles the car and it gets damaged there's a lesson there for the boy that doesn't have to be learned at his expense (embarrassment in front of his peers). Again, my opinion only.
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