Dumb luck and track variations

General race coordinator discussions.
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CuriousGeorge
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Re: Dumb luck and track variations

Post by CuriousGeorge »

Stan Pope wrote:Regarding role of officials in the proceedings: Depends on how they decided who should occupy which lanes in the first of the set of heats. If the "loader/starter decided which car to put where", then in those cases in which the cars are more equal than the lanes, the starter/loader is deciding which will win the matchup! That is not a proper role!
They drew out the brackets before anyone raced, randomly. So depending on if you where, top or bottom, determined which lane you started in.... dumb luck and track variation.

I did like seeing them race twice though b/c it only made me question a couple of the heats. Seeing a car win once in each lane facing the same opponent made me feel a little better about the outcome of the heat.
CuriousGeorge
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gpraceman
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Re: Dumb luck and track variations

Post by gpraceman »

CuriousGeorge wrote:My son just had his first Awana race last night. It was a lot of fun, but one major flaw. For each heat they ran a set of (2) cars, switched the lanes, and ran the same cars again. If a car won both races, it was declared the winner of the heat.
That sounds like how soap box derby races are conducted. When the cars switch lanes, they even swap wheels. Imagine doing that with Pinewood Derby cars!
CuriousGeorge wrote:If one car won and then the other, they would again switch the lanes and declare whoever won the third time the winner of the heat. They had to do a 3rd race at least two times. It was pretty obvious one lane was faster than the other, but no one complained. (not yet at least)
That is a "dumb luck" tiebreaker!
Randy Lisano
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Dumb luck and track variations

Post by Darin McGrew »

CuriousGeorge wrote:What would an official do if you only had two lanes and two cars kept alternating winning (no times, just place).
We ran into a similar situation at our derby last weekend. Two cars were so evenly matched that the one in the "fast lane" always won. We ended up putting them in the two lanes that were the most even and running two races, swapping lane assignments in the second race. We appointed three impartial adult judges to evaluate the margin by which each car won when it was in the "fast lane". The car that won by the greater margin was declared the winner.

It got us talking about what we can do next year to improve the evenness of the lanes on our track...
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