scouts staging own cars

[IAE Racing]

What does your pack do? We've always had the scout stage their own cars. Its was brought up at a meeting maybe they should not to save time (could) and the younger ones are always leaning on and bumping the track. We've only go 20 in pack and most kids spend less time than an adult.

Thanks for your input.

 

[5KidsRacing]

We have the adults stage the cars for time reasons, but I would have the kids stage if there was only 20 in the pack....

 

[bracketracer]

We have an adult stage for our pack. The man that operates the starting gate handles it. I think there's about 90 boys in the pack.

 

[OPARENNEN]

Let the kids put the car on the track, then let an adult do the final stage tuning.
That lets the kids get involved, but with the adult doing the final, it will be a more fair race result overall.

 

[Quicktimederby]

I host a lot of local races. I stage the cars. When it is the scouts turn to race they pick their car off the table and bring it to me and tell me what color lane their in. They than go to the end of the track and retrieve their car when the race is over. The scout has plenty of involvement and have a great time. IMHO your asking for a lot of problems having the scout stage the car.

 

[K-Racing]

We've gotten away from letting scouts handle the cars. Our pack has gotten so big it's more of a time thing. But now we don't have that issue with crying or sad boys because a car got dropped or mishandled.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

We have around 40 scouts. We let them place and stage their own cars. I will then do one last check to be sure they have not let the wheels touch the rail. A few years ago, I staged all the cars. My son happened to win, so there was some grumbling that he had an unfair advantage because I was staging all the cars. This last year I even let parents stage their child's car if they felt the need.

 

[KC Racing]

QT RUNS A GREAT RACE!!!! The scouts have a great time and as he said are very involved with the process.

 

[birddog]

We have the adults do it for 2 reasons:

1. With 60 boys in the pack, each running 4 times, it speeds things up to have just one person doing it.
2. We use a best track that is elevated and a small step ladder is needed to reach the top (even for an adult). Asking each kid to climb that latter and not cause damage would be just asking for trouble.

If we had a smaller pack and no height issues, I'd let them do it.

Birddog

 

[xanthrum]

We let each of the scouts racing start the race with the electronic solenoid push button starter...the kids love it and it helps us move through the racing quickly and efficiently. Our starter has a cord that runs past the end of the track and we have each den move into special racing seat surrounding the finish line and we rotate through the starting - kids LOVE it.