Question of fairness and fun at district and council races

Discussions on race planning, preparations and how to run a "fair" and fun race.
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pack529holycross
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Question of fairness and fun at district and council races

Post by pack529holycross »

A question for group discussion....


how much added value in the competitive realm of PWD do any of you fine gentlemen believe there might be, if the weight limitis for cars were graduated by event level.... specifically as follows:

pack event - 5.00 ounces or under
District events - 6.00 ounces or under
Council events - 7.00 ounces or under

Here is why I ask... wheels, axles, weights, bodies, design, alignment.... they all seem to me to be areas of competition where much of the same information is bounced around without any significant "breakthroughs" that would significantly impact performance.

Ask yourself this... if the entire racing heirarchy suddenly opened up these two new weight classes as your car won the previous level... what do you think the impact would be? would it be fun to see how much faster the car can go? set up and alignment changes? weight placement? or would it "spoil" the standard?

curious to know.... because i think it would be a natural evolution of the event....
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by Darin McGrew »

Are you expecting everyone to build a new car for the district and council events?

I think the car builders (not the cars themselves) should qualify for the next level of racing. This allows the car builders to repair/retune their cars before the next race, and frees the organizers from the need to impound qualifying cars. However, I think the spirit of the qualifying event is that you should race the car with which you qualified. ("Dance with the one that brought you", so to speak.) And those who qualify shouldn't be expected to make major changes to their cars before racing at the next level.

I don't really like telling everyone to design their cars to allow adding up to 2oz additional weight, should they qualify for the next level of racing. Minor weight adjustments are fine, to get the weight as close to the weight limit as possible. But adding up to 2oz can require more signification modifications.

If you want to mix it up, then I think a better approach would be to change the weight limit for everyone (local, district, council) each year. One year, race 5oz cars. The next, race 6oz cars. The next, race 7oz cars. And so on.
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Stan Pope
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by Stan Pope »

I agree with Darin's ideas. They supply much of what you want, I think.

There are several variables that might be "tweaked" from year to year: weight is one, length is another, and number of wheels touching a possible third. With those variables, you could easily go 10 years before having to repeat a prior combination. Think of all the frustrated E-Bay sellers! :)
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pack529holycross
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by pack529holycross »

Stan Pope wrote:I agree with Darin's ideas. They supply much of what you want, I think.

There are several variables that might be "tweaked" from year to year: weight is one, length is another, and number of wheels touching a possible third. With those variables, you could easily go 10 years before having to repeat a prior combination. Think of all the frustrated E-Bay sellers! :)
Seee..... what i like best about stan is that he has a sadistic side to him when it comes to tripping up the "shortcut" crowd just like me.... mwaaahhhaaaaa

I am envisioning three fishbowls... with paper tickets in each... one bowl for length... one for weight... and one for wheel up/ wheel down... the top three scouts pull the specs for next years rules at the conclusion of council derby.....
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SlartyBartFast
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by SlartyBartFast »

pack529holycross wrote:I am envisioning three fishbowls...
Why stop there? Wheelbase, wheel modifications, etc. All sorts of rules could be randomly changed year by year.

Buy a few more track sections. Each year roll a dice to determine how many sections to remove from the end. Long track/short track variations each year.
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by FastBob »

I think it ain't broke so don't fix it!
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ohiofitter
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Re: Question of fairness and fun at district and council rac

Post by ohiofitter »

FastBob wrote:I think it ain't broke so don't fix it!
Very well said......I like the idea but once the car is built for a pack level I know I'd hate to see a kid (or parent) screw up a good car
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