Mid America, Feed Back for gregg.

[sporty]

I thought just start a new topic.

The other is getting long and has a range of info. and getting harder to keep track of it all.


So for those wanting to provide feed back and future suggestions. Please do so here.


I'll start off.


I think for me. I think to suggest a stop section that has sides on it and perhaps dividers that I have seen on some stop sections on tracks.

I think could help eliminate, any cars falling into the floor and prevent track bumbing while the cars are still in motion, to prevent effecting the track times.


And having someone on the live feed full time, to let us know more and keep us in the loop better and provide answers to questions.

I think they already have some ideas, on how to improve the camera situation.


Now, my biggest comment, is how can we see more scout cars attend or send in for the scout race ?


It bothers me a tad when we see what i thought was more adult racers, then scout racers. and I wonder what I could suggest on seeing more scouts attend.

i think gregg does a really good job on getting the word out. Perhaps he just needs more volunteers and a good contact list.

I almost think, people have to get the word out to there local area packs and councils and district races. To help increase getting more scouts.


I like the idea of tigers racing tigers at the same time and so forth, from how it was rac, It was very hard for me to tell who was a tiger, bear or wolf or ect.

A few more tracks, might be needed to reduce the length of the time of the races.


What you guys and gals and scouts think ?


Sporty

[xanthrum]

Sporty - all great ideas - we appreciate your feedback we will always work at improving the race if there is some pariticular thing that you can help out with like buiding a stop as an example let me know.

[sporty]

I dont have a track, to use as a template. but I'm recalling from what Andy or Bob did for that 42 foot track. I wish I had pictures. Heck even lexon on plexiglass on the sides. could still allow to be seen and prevent any issues of them coming off and onto the floot.

John or Jewkes, I think they had dividers too, Not sure how they did them.

Sporty

[MOFAST]

Greg- here is some more feedback.

You really worked the event and had a genuine smile or handshake for everyone. I personally saw how hard you worked and you are a wonder!

Thank you for providing us a very affordable outlet to test our cars! My family had a great time!

The reason there was more adult cars was because they could have multiple entries, trust me there was lots of kids there! The weather also sucked that day in Omaha. Cold, wet, and rainy with a ton of wind.

You rock! We'll see you next year!

[pgosselin]

Here's essentially what I posted on the other thread, I thought I'd repost it on this one, too.

Greg, thanks for your superhuman effort to make the Mid-America Pinewood Derby a great event. I can't even fathom the amount of effort it took to organize the event, set up the simulcast, round up the sponsors, take care of all the proxy entries, run the event, ship cars back to everyone, create a wrap-up video, and then plan to do it again next year. I would need a vacation after all of that to recover. So kudos for all the hard work.

Now, while I thoroughly enjoyed the simulcast and am impressed that we can even use that technology to participate in the event, I have a few suggestions to make the event better next year.

1. Make sure that no one bumps the track. We noticed some strange times later in the day after the race officials bumped the track a few times. I totally understand why that happened. The officials had to be dog tired later on in the day and accidents can happen.

2. You might want to secure the track legs a little more so that an errant brush against the track doesn't knock everything all out of alignment. Perhaps adding some weight to the legs?

3. Some kind of visual announcement of finalists and winners. We couldn't hear the audio very well and were left somewhat in the dark as to final results and if our sons had qualified for finals.

4. Announce the 12 finalists from the preliminary rounds right after the rounds. Again, in simulcast land we were in the dark as to whether or not our sons were finalists.

5. Work on getting more than one camera or a better angle. We could see the computer screen and the results just fine. But we really couldn't get a good look at the cars. All we could see was the nose end.

6. Since the track is an elevated one, I think the suggestion of adding some kind of barrier of preventing cars from tumbling to the floor is a good one. I know on DTer that it happened to and I saw my son's car nearly take a tumble.

I hope those suggestions don't come across as too whiny. We had a great time and enjoyed the simulcast, imperfections and all. I also know how tough it is to coordinate an event like you did. The pluses of the event far, far outweighed the minuses.

Congratulations on another successful Mid-America.

Also, what were the final number of racers in all categories and how do they compare to last year?

Thanks,

Paul

[5kidsracing]

+1 Mofast…..

This year there were 168 scout/kid cars, 85 adult cars and 59 pro cars….

Last year 139 scout/kid cars, 37 adult cars and 42 pro cars….

Greg, I want to personally thank you and let you know that you are truly an inspiration for parents, scouts and leaders around the nation. You dedication to Scouting and building our young boys into MEN is second to none. Think of how many kids spent time with their parents building cars, watching the race live, building lego cars in the back room, listening to the history of pwd in the theatre, watching online and just hanging out with their parents in general….Think of all the lasting memories your races will make… At the end of the day we all need to have the courage to lead our boys into authentic manhood and teach them to reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously and invest eternally. This pinewood derby race is an example of life, there are winners and losers, hard work is rewarded, quitting isn’t an option and excuses are lame….

Greg, the countless hours you put in to pull together this event is mind numbing. The amount of sponsors, suppliers and volunteers you pulled together to make this a first class event is amazing. People tend to forget that this is not your job and that you did all of this for people like me, for people like the guys here at Derbytalk, for scouts, for everybody…. You didn’t get paid and you took countless hours away from your family, for our families and we thank you.

[4wheeldrift]

I mentioned it in other forums and posts but I think it's still worth saying again that I thought the event was run very smoothly let alone all of the logistics of just managing and getting everyone's car to the event and back. I saw the pics on the FB site where your garage was full of proxy racers' boxes so just managing all of the behind the scenes stuff was tough enough let alone to run so many heats in a day.

Our pack struggles with just 50 cars and seems to take nearly as long to tech and run the heats in about the same time it took for you to run your whole event. It didn't appear (at least online) that there were mix-ups of lanes or needing to swap cars in/out for a given heat.

And like 5kids said, I can't imagine the countless hours you put into the event (along with your helpers) let alone you somehow found time to make some pretty quick cars (good for you on that as I was glad to see the family do well in their races). Not sure if we'll be able to pull it off, but I'll be saving frequent flyer miles in hopes of Jr and I being able to attend in person next year.

I can't imagine how big next year will be...

[Scrollsawer]

According to 5Kids Racing:

2012 Mid-America Derby:
- 218 Total Entrants
- 139 Scout/Kid cars (63.7% of cars entered)
- 37 Adult cars (16.9% of cars entered)
- 42 Pro cars (19.2 % of cars entered)

2013 Mid-America Derby:
- 312 Total Entrants (~30% increase in # of cars entered over prior year)
- 168 Scout/Kid cars (53.8% of cars entered)
- 85 Adult cars (27.2% of cars entered)
- 59 Pro cars (18.9% of cars entered)

Based on these increases, the Mid-America Derby is definitely gaining in popularity – Great Job !!!

Findings:

- Percentage of Pro cars entered over prior year stayed pretty much the same (~19% of total cars entered) The 2013 Derby saw a 7% increase in Pro entries over prior year. Healthy, but not dramatic.

- The number of Scout/Kid cars entered (as a percentage of total cars entered) dropped by 10%. HOWEVER, the total number of Scout/Kid cars entered in the 2013 Derby INCREASED by 8.27%, demonstrating a worthy increase in the popularity of the event by the Scout/Kid Divisions! More good news for the Mid-America Derby!

- The real jump came in the Adult Division (essentially comprised of ‘Dads’ cars and ‘Scout Relatives’ cars). The 2013 Derby saw a 43.5% increase in the number of entries in the Adult Division.

So, based on the data alone, I don’t think the Scout’s interest or participation in the Mid-America Derby is “hurting” at all. If anything, it’s becoming more popular over prior year.

This increase in popularity is mirrored in the Pro Division (which I am not sure has a large enough prospective entrant population to swing the Pro entries number hugely in any regard (but I could be wrong on this – I have no idea of the ‘Pro Pool’ out there).

What may be concerning to people (I’m presuming) is that the Adult division jumped approx. ~50% in participation over prior year, which they may feel reflects badly on the Scout/Kid entry numbers. I don’t think this is a problem for the Scout/Kid segment at all. If anything, it shows how many Dads’ would love to build and race cars alongside their current Scouts - AND FORMER SCOUTS. This can actually be a good thing, since the Dads entering also provide a potential path to get more active Scouts to enter ‘Proxy cars from around the nation. The flip-side to that argument is that you have a LOT of dads whose’ Scouts have ‘graduated past Cub Scouts, but the love of the Pinewood Derby car building and racing experience remains with these 'orphaned derby dads' whose boys graduated out of Cub Scouts. This (in my opinion) is the most likely explanation for the jump in the number of Adult cars entered this year, relative to the modest gains seen in the ‘Scout/Kids’ and ‘Pro’ divisions. As more ‘dads’ became aware of the Mid-America Derby’s existence (myself included) this year, more dads entered ‘Adult’ cars this year versus prior year.

I’m not sure there’s a problem here, so long as active Packs around the country are made aware of the Mid-America Derby, and get interested in entering cars via proxy. As a Den Leader for our Pack here in Texas, I will absolutely advertise the Mid-America Derby to my Pack parents next year!

Regards,

Scott Blevins (Scrollsawer)

[sporty]

I may have worded things wrong of given wrong impression. When I was referring to getting more scouts racers. Not meaning things were bad. I know Gregg wants to see this be the biggest scout race in America, (national race).

And So my thoughts, were on how we can help him, buy perhaps providing more info and addresses for local packs and districts and council in our areas and give out papers and info for the race.

I just thought I would re mention that. So other's were not thinking more into it.

Gregg says he keeps a list and gets excited to see how far away they send in from and also how many cars come from different states !

So I think the biggest reward we all can give back to gregg, is getting with him and seeing how all of us or some of us, can get the scout word out ! to the scouts in our area.

Sporty

[pgosselin]

We got our cars back last night along with a bunch of goodies. In addition to my son's 3rd place kids open class trophy, there was a small trophy for my 9th place finish in the adult open class. I didn't expect that. Nice! In addition, the goody bags included patches, wristbands celebrating the 60th anniversary of Pinewood Derby, waterside car decals, baseball caps, a Pine Car painting kit, Aero Gloss sanding sealer, programs, and it looks like maybe a door prize or two--a $25 gift certificate to a Derby supplier and some Derby Stops.

The cars were repacked perfectly and were clearly treated with respect during and after the race. Our experience with the Mid-America Pinewood Derby far exceeded our expectations. Even though I and others have suggested a few things to make the event a little better going forward, I have absolutely no reservations about recommending this competition to other Scout families. Do it.

It's a great event and, I feel, a great value. Totally worth entering.

Excellent job, Greg. Thanks so much for all your effort. You're doing a great job organizing the event and a lot of us are taking notice. Congratulations on a job well done.

Paul

[4wheeldrift]

I agree Paul, we got our items yesterday as well and it was pretty exciting. The cars looked like they were in great shape.

I let my son open the 2nd box with all of the door prizes and we were surprised when he pulled out the second trophy for being in the top 12. I thought they were only giving them out for rank in the open scout class. The door prizes consisted of some nice stuff that we'll likely share with some other folks.

For our first proxy race, this was a great experience and more importantly a good learning experience for Jr.

[resullivan]

We got an axle press and the rail rider tool as well as a laser cut body. We also received some matched wheels. I am guessing they must be older style wheels because they do not look like what I am used to. They weight in at like 3.6 grams which is nearly a gram heavier then normal wheels. Not complaining, just wondering what wheels these are. They do say BSA. Awesome prizes!

[FatSebastian]

Not complaining, just wondering what wheels these are. They do say BSA.

They sound like pre-2009 wheels. Older wheels use a trademark symbol ™ instead of ® by the word "Derby".

[resullivan]

yep, they have a tm.

[whodathunkit]

Gregg,

The Mid-America Pinewood Derby event is a great experince for Scouts, kids, & adults alike.

The fact that cars from all over America...
Could be mailed in to join in on the fun makes the event all the better makeing it a true American Race.

To the sponsors & supporters of this event...
Thank you all for your hard work with out you alot of kids and teams would have missed out on the opportynity to win some wounderful prizes.
As well as see some very fast cars from all over America running.

The only future suggestion I'd like to ad to this topic...
Is Gregg do you think you could fit in a classic/vintage pinewood derby car race
in the schedule for next year.(?)