Scheduling strategies to transform your pack’s next Pinewood Derby

PinewoodScheduling

WHEN STAN POPE became a Cub Scout leader in 1985, he saw how the Pinewood Derby combined fun, family involvement and a healthy dose of sportsmanship. But he also saw how quickly fun could turn into disappointment. “Sadly, two of the racers from the eight-boy den were done after racing just twice, and two more were done after their third race,” he recalls of the double-elimination schedule. “Half of the den became spectators.”

Now, the Morton, Ill., resident continues to use his background in math and physics to improve on the Pinewood Derby by devising fairer racing schemes. “My math education included courses in number theory and probability for which I found no use until I worked to develop and compare racing schedules,” he says.

You don’t need an advanced degree to see that scheduling can affect how fun, fair and accurate your pack’s Pinewood Derby is. Here’s an overview of some of the common methods.

DOUBLE ELIMINATION
Packs that don’t have high-tech computer-controlled tracks often use double-elimination brackets to determine their derby winners. As the name indicates, double elimination means a boy is out of contention after losing two races. His first loss puts him in the loser bracket; his second puts him on the sidelines.

Advantages
Double-elimination tournaments can go quickly. For example, if you had 24 cars and a three-lane track, you would need to run only 26 or 27 heats. (The actual number depends on the outcome of the first heat between the top car in the winners bracket and the top car in the losers bracket.) Other methods can take longer, although not necessarily significantly so.

You don’t need a timing system. Since each heat is a head-to-head competition, race times from one heat to the next are irrelevant.

Spectators can easily follow the action. You can post the bracket on a wall and fill in the names of the winners and losers as you go along.

Disadvantages
Scouts get to race only twice before they’re eliminated. Plus, because most cars are eliminated after three rounds of races, you can end up with a lot of bored kids on your hands.

A double-elimination tournament accurately determines only the top two cars. That can be a problem if you need to send your top three contenders on to the district or council derby. (The other option is to run a triple-elimination competition.)

There’s no compensation for lane variations. Even the best tracks have faster and slower lanes, which double elimination doesn’t take into account.

LANE ROTATION
Given the disadvantages of traditional double-elimination races, some packs opt for a lane-rotation setup. The easiest method is to rotate one car in and one car out for each heat, moving the remaining cars over one lane each time. On a three-lane track, for example, cars 1, 2 and 3 would race in the first heat; cars 2, 3 and 4 would race in the second heat, and so forth. At the end of racing, the first cars that rotated out rotate back in. (With 24 cars, the last two heats would feature cars 23, 24 and 1, and cars 24, 1 and 2.)

With lane rotation, you tally the results of each heat, assigning 1 point to first place, 2 points to second place, etc.; the winner is the car with the least points.

Advantages
Lane variation is eliminated. Because cars move over one lane for each heat, every car ends up racing on every lane, reducing the problem caused by fast or slow lanes.

Scouts race more. Each kid gets one race per lane and is never eliminated from the competition.

Every place is determined. Unless two Scouts’ scores tie, you can easily determine who ends up in first, second and third place.

Disadvantages
You still run the risk of having a lot of idle racers hanging around, because most Scouts will race in back-to-back heats. You can reduce this problem by creating den-level divisions and a championship round.

Proximity hurts. Ending up next to the fastest car in the derby hurts because you’ll race against that car twice.

It’s hard to tell who’s winning at any point. This, however, can also be seen as an advantage since it reduces the focus on having winners and losers.

OTHER ROTATION METHODS
Over the years, pinewood derby gurus like Pope and Cory Young, of Chantilly, Va., have developed an array of rotation methods that overcome the limitations of simple lane rotation.

With the Perfect-N method, for example, each car runs in each lane the same number of times and faces every other car the same number of times. Since certain combinations of lanes and cars won’t work with Perfect-N, Pope and Young developed the more flexible Partial Perfect-N method, which works in almost every setting. Find chart generators for both methods at stanpope.net/pwportal.html.

Of course, the final choice of scheduling methods is up to you. Regardless of which method you choose, remember Pope’s advice: “Providing a fair and fun environment that finds the fastest cars is the bait we use so that the Cub Scouts accomplish the goals of Cub Scouting.”


FIND MORE CUB SCOUT LEADER ADVICE AT SCOUTINGMAGAZINE.ORG/CUBSCOUTS.


8 Comments

  1. Using Perfect-N or Partial Perfect-N method, all cars have to race on each lane once. This will eliminate the lane variation. For each car, divide the total time from all the races by the number of races, you get the average time. By comparing the average time, you will get the true fast #1 car.

  2. After suffering the two and out, we instituted trial runs the night before and rarely have the tears we had before. No racing is allowed but it makes the race more of a process for the boys. It also gives adults the chance to correct flaws. We also participated in a Golden Turtle race at another level. The low finishers had a race off for a trophy for the slowest car. These eliminate most of the disadvantages of the lower tech methods of racing.

  3. The pack committee added these rules upon my suggestion. We made red, blue and gold ribbons, held on with a safety pin the had “Speedster”,”Craftsman” or “Designer” printed on it. All boys earned a ribbon.

  4. We use the lane rotation for scheduling (the software sets the rotation), then we run every 6th race (1,7,13,etc..) which means there are very few back to back races. We also race all cars together and let the software give us the winners (our winner is fastest average time and the tiebreaker would be a runoff). Seems to keep everyone engaged.

  5. The author states that having scouts who are not racing is a problem. Our pack has found this to be an opportunity instead. Our Blue & Gold committee plans craft centerpieces to be made by the scouts, and the scouts work on the centerpieces when they are not racing. Since the Blue & Gold is a few weeks after the derby this is incredibly convenient. Additionally, we grill hot dogs and have dinner at the derby, so during free time, scouts go get some food.

  6. I know most packs use a computer software program. My husband and I have done so for the 20 years we’ve been running pinewood derbies. However, what do you do when the computer crashes or just glitches out? We found the perfect solution.
    We have a 4 lane track. We run all the cars, in any order, first, assigning the following scores: 7 pt for 1st, 5 pts for 2nd, 3 pts for 3rd, and 1 pt for 4th. (We have 2 parents at the bottom who watch who wins, using a cell phone pic if necessary). Then, instead of just running any cars again, and taking the chance of fast cars always running against slow one, we set up the heats starting with the slow cars (those who scored 1 running against each other, then moving on to the 3’s, 5’s up to the 7’s).
    Their score from the 2nd heat gets added to the 1st, giving totals from 2 pts up to 14 pts. Run them again, starting with the slowest up to the fastest.
    This 3rd score gets added, and the totals go from 3 to 21 pts. Run them one last time, starting with the slowest to the fastest.
    Add the final score, and run any run-offs necessary for trophy positions only.
    We have done this at the same time as the computer, and have come up with the same winners more times than not. The only unfair part and making sure they get in all 4 lanes (that’s really difficult) but most lanes are only .001 difference in time, so it’s very accurate.

  7. Has anyone used the Derby Day software? We are considering it for it’s simplicity. Is it to good to be true?

  8. I’ve run quite a few pinewood derbies and comments on the method have been favorable – and financial outlay is small. Race sizes ranged from 12 to 40 scouts.

    1. I use Stan Pope’s race sheet generator to make Excel spreadsheets. A little prep in advance to make them for the possible number of racers in each den gives a tool that can be reused. Race day we add the names to the sheets. http://www.stanpope.net/ppngen.html No fancy PWD software, just a pc with a spreadsheet – or a printed sheet and a pencil. We run by den, then a final race with the top three from each den for pack winners.

    2. Our pack has two home made wood tracks. I’ve built two of these PWD timers: http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/pg_pdt.html The project is fully documented and they really help avoid problems with picking winners. If you have a reasonably well stocked electronics junk box the cost is small.

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