Getting Ready for Districts

[macd]

Looks like a lot of posters will be heading to district races.

What do you do between the pack and district races?
Just add some graphite the night before and break in?

Does anyone do more, like re-polish the axles or clean out the bores?

[sporty]

our rules do not allow this.

at the end of our pack race, the cars get relubed and sealed in a box that the pack keeps, until council race. where we meet them 30 minutes before the race time.

The box gets unsealed in front of council check in inspectors. if the seal is broken. you do not get to race.

I forget the exact, but I think our council is comprised of either 3 or 5 districts,

Sporty

[j.m.]

Last year, and this year, we will pull axles, and repolish everything. If you let the molygraphite on the steel axles, they get sulfer corrosion and slow the car down some. Might not be bad if the car gets sealed up in a box that doesn't allow moisture in, for those who have rules like sporty. This year we have to make 2 small repairs from accidents in the pack race today, so I am glad we have the opertunity to repair and reset for districts.

[Stan Pope]

Around here it is the Scout who qualifies, not the Car, so some will use what they learned getting ready for the pack race and build a new, better car for the district race! And if the new one isn't better, then they race the one they built for the pack races.

[idpwdnut]

My sons last year, we cleaned the axles and bores, and applied the lube. We lost by 0.0007 over four races. We applied the lube a little bit differently then we had before, the car that beat us, good friends of ours, put there car in a box and then raced it at District, with no changes to it. It still made for great racing.

We both raced on a league track about a month later, my son and I again cleaned the axles and bores, and applied graphite the original way and beat them.

The whole thing made for good racing.

I would graphite and braek it in, but I don't think I would clean everything out like I did before.

[idpwdnut]

Around here it is the Scout who qualifies, not the Car, so some will use what they learned getting ready for the pack race and build a new, better car for the district race! And if the new one isn't better, then they race the one they built for the pack races.

I like this approach. It encourages the race teams to continue to try to learn and improve. Do you get the feeling that many participant actually try to improve their cars or just let it ride so to speak?

[PhantomVirus]

Our cars get impounded at the end of the Pack races. We are allowed to lube them before they get put away but that's it.

The PineWood Derby leader (ME this year) delivers the cars to disticts the night before so that they can get 'District' inspected and staged. Our District team inspects the cars at the beginning and also (optionally) before the final race.

[Stan Pope]

Around here it is the Scout who qualifies, not the Car, so some will use what they learned getting ready for the pack race and build a new, better car for the district race! And if the new one isn't better, then they race the one they built for the pack races.

I like this approach. It encourages the race teams to continue to try to learn and improve. Do you get the feeling that many participant actually try to improve their cars or just let it ride so to speak?

That would be a good question to add to our survey of participants next month!

Which reminds me, I gotta niggle the district race chairman to put a survey together. With the number of changes we're making this year, a fresh survey should be helpful.

Latest request from chairman: mount IP cameras up on the walls of the gymnasium to record the entire racing area and record the entire proceedings. She wants to be able to review the event, watch flow, etc. Fortunately, I've got a few of those awaiting deployment. Wonder if I can use my TByte USB drive with 'em and will it hold 8 hours from each of 3 cameras? Worth a try!

[shags72]

We took the wheels off last year and repolished the bores and the boy messed up one wheel when he did it. I noticed when we put it back together at 10:30pm the night before the race and didn't have time for him to do another wheel and he placed 6th at district. This year he said he didn't want to repolish. LOL Relube and run he says!

[rpcarpe]

I think I like the 'racer' qualifying vice the 'car'. Give proper recognition to the build team, and allows a complete new build for higher level races. Confiscating cars just complicates things, makes more work, and lessens the learning and fun for the kids.

[3 Cub Dad]

NOT a big fan of taking the wheels off and re-polishing axles and bores. We spend a lot of time tunig and adjusting to get the alignment just where we want it. Now, sometimes if we see something at the Pack derby, we may make some adjustments.

What we do is to blow out the bores and axles and undercarriage, (while still attached to the car), with compressed air. This would also help if any of the graphite in the bore has started to absorb moisture. Then we relube, check alignment, and go race!

3 Cub Dad

[Shawn Stebleton]

Check the alignment completely.

My son's car had nicely aligned rear axles. They were straight and both were in-in out-out in both directions prior to the pack race. Came in 1st out of 25. No wobbles Didn't check them afterwards. Car had the death wobble at the bottom of the hill at Districts in all three heats and didn't place. Found out afterwards that the alignment was off. It was in-in out-in on both going forward. We didn't check backwards, because we already knew it was the alignment. Came in 12th out of 60.

I have no idea when the mis-alignment occurred. Was it at the pack race? Closest finish was the grand finals, but you would expect that. Plus it wasn't that much closer than his other wins. Was it in handling between the two events? Was it at the check-in table at districts? We'll never know.

[idpwdnut]

Our cars get impounded at the end of the Pack races. We are allowed to lube them before they get put away but that's it.

The PineWood Derby leader (ME this year) delivers the cars to disticts the night before so that they can get 'District' inspected and staged. Our District team inspects the cars at the beginning and also (optionally) before the final race.

Is this something that you are comfortable doing? How long do you have to hold on to them. I did it one year, just for our pack races where we check in cars on a seperate night than the racing, I was a nervous wreck, what if the cars get damaged? What if a car doesn't do well, and I get blamed for tampering with it? What if my son does better than all the rest?(my son did horrible the first year). Just wasn't worth the "what if's".

If you are comfortable with it, do all the other PWD leaders feel the same? How long do they have to hold onto them?

[idpwdnut]

question to add to our survey of participants next month!

That is a good idea, I'll have to start a thread on what type of questions to ask.