Derby Talk

Derby Talk is a forum for Pinewood Derby, Awana Grand Prix, Kub Kar Rally, Shape N Race Derby, Space Derby, Raingutter Regatta and other similar races where a child and an adult work together to create a race vehicle and a lot of fun and memories

Our District has used this peculiar schedule method for years now. I've not seen it anywhere else so for that reason I have dubbed it the Single Lane Start Lane Rotation schedule. We race on a four lane track....so we start with one boy on lane 1...next heat said boy advances to lane 2 and a new boy comes in on lane 1....next heat previous boys move over a lane and a new boy comes in on lane one....I'm sure you get the idea now. Race continues until last racer is eventually by himself during the last heat. The older pinewood derby chairperson in our district tells me this rotation makes it easier on the boys since they all start in lane 1 and simply move over a lane during the next heat. I think this maybe true but also know they use to race on a old plastic track that some scouts built 25 years ago and while they had a timer they had no computer system so times had to be wrote down by someone after each heat.....so I think that also came into play. Now that I am the Pinewood derby chair and this is our second year with a new 42' Best Track with GPRM software I am slowly trying to feed everyone normal lane rotation schedules created by GPRM.....I just have to print out the race schedule so my older official that helps boys stage their cars understands which boy goes where.

Normal lane rotation schedules are slow and boring. Slow, because you are always waiting on cars to return from the finish line to be loaded back to the track. Boring, because racers pretty much face the same opponents over and over. Billy always beats Johnny.

If you must do a Lane Rotation schedule, at least use the Phase Shifted type. Less slow and less boring. Better yet, try the Perfect-N scheduling. Fastest and least boring.

Wow, that is a horrible way to race bobcat. First of all, it seems inefficient not to have all four lanes running cars, but most of all it's unfair.

The first and last car get a free run with no "dirty air." I.e., the aero turbulence each car produces that affects the car(s) next to it. This effect is probably less pronounced at the Scout level, but it seems totally unnecessary to create the possibility of an unfair race.

Lastly, those cars that race earlier in the round get a clean track to run on, whereas those who go last have a filthy track. Dirty wheels kill speed.

Years ago, we switched to a system that is essentially another implementation of Partial Perfect-N (PPN). The cars get to race against different opponents each time, they get to race more often (no waiting for cars to return from the finish line), and it's more accurate.