The Finals concept - Good for Scout Racing?

[LightninBoy]

One of the things I had to wrap my head around when I started league racing this year was the Finals concept. I was used to just taking the average of x number of runs to determine the winner.

I've now come to appreciate the benefit of the Final - namely making sure the fastest cars get a shot at a clean run without being negatively impacted by a nearby wiggler. It also seems to add a little drama to the race.

I like it so much, I'm considering recommending the Finals approach for our pack race to determine the top 3 cars. Are there any other benefits you guys have seen from this practice? Anyone try to translate this to scout racing? I see a few potential drawbacks: 1) extending the event time, 2) putting graphite racers at an even bigger disadvantage, and 3) putting fast but damaged cars at a disadvantage (for example - I had a wicked fast car get its DFW messed up in the stop section)

 

[HMH Racing]

We do a double elimination. I HATE IT. I have just about convinced the pack to go to a timed event and take the top 3 or 6 (depending on the number of entrants) and run a "finals race". I have also discussed doing a "SHORT" intermission and allow the finals cars to re-graphite if they choose. It would be in one location and only the scout and one helper allowed.

It is much better than double elimination and I think the "finals" race allows for a more exciting finish.

 

[ngyoung]

The district rules dont allow us to bring graphite into the venue. So burnishing graphite becomes pretty important. We have an 8 lane track and they did a finals round of the top 8. I wish they would have done just final 4 or just the top half. There were only 12 kids that showed up for the disctrict race. Then only use the middle most lanes for the finals. After 16 heats for each finalist was long. They had the kids do their own staging which took forever.

 

[Bullet]

Our pack does a finals race, but only for the top four cars I believe, the den places are awarded from the first round on an average time basis. Our pack is basically ran like the league...only eight runs total. It has to be fairly quick because we do the pick-ups for Scouting for Food after the races.

 

[LightninBoy]

Thanks for all the feedback folks! And I welcome more.

Our pack does a finals race, but only for the top four cars I believe, the den places are awarded from the first round on an average time basis. Our pack is basically ran like the league...only eight runs total. It has to be fairly quick because we do the pick-ups for Scouting for Food after the races.

That's exactly the format I'm thinking about suggesting ... choose the overall pack winners from the average times from the Finals round and den winners from the average times in the first round.

 

[bracketracer]

Our Pack runs each rank separately, the fastest from each rank is impounded until later in the day where those five cars race to determine the Grand Pack Champion. Downside is that you could have the second fastest car overall but if the fastest car is in your rank you won't make the finals. It's a four lane track so you only need to make eight runs at most.

 

[5KidsRacing]

I always run each rank seperately and take the top 3 from each rank to the finals.... I also take the top 3 fastest cars (wildcard cars I call them) into the finals that didn't get top 3 in a rank. I started doing this a couple years ago becasue we had a den that probably had the 5-6 fastest scouts in the pack and some of those cars got eliminated in the rank race. Last year a wildcard car got 3rd in the finals and took home a Pack champion trophy, but no rank trophy.

 

[Crash Enburn]

BR: There would be as many runs as there are cars (as long as there are more cars than lanes — in that case, it would be number of lanes).

5Kids: That's a good idea. I may implement that this year.

 

[Chief]

Our pack races was very similar as well, we ran all the ranks separate and there was a first, second and third place trophy for each rank and then the top finisher from each rank would race in the finals and that was only 5 ranks, tigers thru webelos II and with a 4 lane track the race was unbalanced and like 5Kids said, we too implemented a "wildcard" entry of the next top 3 racers, it was a great concept and very Xciting, and you really never knew who would win the Grand Champion Trophy.

 

[ccw13175]

One of the things I had to wrap my head around when I started league racing this year was the Finals concept. I was used to just taking the average of x number of runs to determine the winner.

I've now come to appreciate the benefit of the Final - namely making sure the fastest cars get a shot at a clean run without being negatively impacted by a nearby wiggler. It also seems to add a little drama to the race.

I like it so much, I'm considering recommending the Finals approach for our pack race to determine the top 3 cars. Are there any other benefits you guys have seen from this practice? Anyone try to translate this to scout racing? I see a few potential drawbacks: 1) extending the event time, 2) putting graphite racers at an even bigger disadvantage, and 3) putting fast but damaged cars at a disadvantage (for example - I had a wicked fast car get its DFW messed up in the stop section)

We have finals at both our pack and district races.
At the pack race we give a trophy to the grand champion of the day. At districts they give trophies to the top 5 of the day. The top 3 from each rank race in the championship race in both pack and district

 

[bracketracer]

BR: There would be as many runs as there are cars (as long as there are more cars than lanes — in that case, it would be number of lanes).

I think you missed my point Crash. If you enter a car in our race it will run four laps in rank and if you win your rank you'll make four more runs in the finals was what I was saying.