Can anyone recommend software for Pinewood Derby?

[satellis]

Hello!

A few weeks ago when we ran our Raingutter Regatta we had a lot of problems with the double elimination chart and it caused a lot of unnecessary delays. We had 49 scouts racing boats and the race went on for what seemed like forever.

The Pinewood Derby is coming up in January and I would like to avoid the same problems. I know I have seen software out there to run double eliminations but I was wondering if anyone has had experience with any in particular that they like or don't like so we don't waste money unnecessarily.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Westergaard]

Try Agentz
They have a freeware program that might fit you needs for the derby.

[Nuts4Scouts]

WOW ! I didn't realize that there were Packs out there still running double elimination derbies. What a shame for the boys, racing only 2 times!

Using the Perfect-N, or Partial Perfect-N, systems the boys are never eliminated and just keep racing until the very end. For 49 cars, on a three lane track, in a 2 hour time frame, the boys could potentially each race 11 times! However it is easy enough to cut the race off at the end of a round if the boys (or parents!) start getting tired and antsy. We usually run at least 7 to 9 rounds on a 4 lane track. On a 3 lane track, after 3 rounds each boy has raced in each lane. On a 4 lane track, after 4 rounds they have each raced in each lane. Etc.

You can score in any number of ways. If you have a timer you can score by speed. You can also assign a point value to 1st, 2nd, & 3rd, for a three lane track, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th for a 4 lane, etc. The boys with the highest number of points are the winners or you can do a race off for the final places of the top 3.

No more disappointed boys. No more tears. No more leaving after losing 2 races. Just lots of boys having lots of fun.

Do a search of Perfect N Pinewood Derby and you will find lots of sites.

[Westergaard]

I know several units that still run the double elimation derbies as the units are so large that to do it any other way would take way to long to get through.

[CMPACK568]

We've run our derby by making sure that every boy in the den gets to race each boy. For example, if there are 6 boys in the den then each boy would race 6 times. We then add up the total number of wins for each boy in the den. If there is a tie we run the two cars that tied for 2 wins out of 3 then pick a winner. While this may not be the best way it works for our pack of 20 boys. By the way, we only have a 2 lane track. As for the boys getting a little antsy, we run the Tigers first and fnish with the Webelos. We encourage all the boys to root for the dens that are racing to help improve sportsmanship. We are also looking into rebuilding our track for this year. If anyone has a good website for track plans that would be great. We don't have the funds to buy a track, but we can get a lot of the materials to build one donated.

[Nuts4Scouts]

Here's one -

http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/derby/track/

Here's another -

http://home.simplyweb.net/bosworth/tracks.htm

Here's one more -

http://scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/images/pdfs/pwdinstructions.pdf