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How to Track Results for Pinewood Derby

The Pinewood Derby, usually a Cub Scout or Boy Scout event, is a fun way to spend time with family and friends in a competitive environment. Depending on the complexity of your timing system, whether it's electronic or someone has a stopwatch, the best way to track is with a spreadsheet. Having a computer to keep track of your stats minimizes mistakes and clerical errors.

Things You'll Need

Computer system
Excel spreadsheet

Instructions

- 1
  Set up your spreadsheet. Across the top you can name each column as follows: Scout Troop, Name/Car, Class and Time. You can set them up differently depending on how many different age groups and classes you have at your derby. Also depending on how many heats/races, you will need multiple columns for their times. After you have your classification columns set up, you can now enter the names and information for each racer. You should have everything but their finishing time filled out.
- 2
  Take the times that are displayed from either your electronic timing system or multiple stop watches. Electronic timing is more efficient and has fewer errors, but is much more expensive. Once the competitors race and you get the statistics/times from the timekeepers, you can type them into the spreadsheet.
- 3
  Track the results, by using the spreadsheet's math functions. Just by clicking on the top of the column you can select how you want the statistics to be ordered, whether it's slowest to fastest, etc. This will enable you to see who the fastest racers are to prepare for the next level.
- 4
  As an alternative, if your budget allows, you may track results using one of the software applications written specifically for this purpose. These programs work in combination with various electronic timing devices, keeping track of times and automatically scheduling heats. (See Resources for two examples).

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