Only the strong survive . . .
Not your Daddy's Derby.
Have you ever wanted to launch your car downhill, headfirst towards another car speeding headlong against yours from the opposite direction just to see what happens? Well, you're not alone. And you can pretty much guess what happens next - a real blast. (please note the prohibitions in the rules against using incendiary or explosive materials to build your car)
It's awesome fun and the crowds just love it.
5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 . . . they're on their way. Released simultaneously from opposite raised ends of a 40 foot long track, two ferocious looking derby cars hurtle down a slightly widened, unguided track, careening from side rail to side rail headed towards almost certain mutually assured total destruction. Then . . . whoosh! . . . they barely pass by each other at the center and head back up the hill. You think it's over, that disaster has been narrowly averted when you realize they've already started to go back down the hill BACKWARDS! The cars that were so carefully designed to survive a full frontal impact are now completely exposed from the rear.
They enter the collision zone and, well, they collide.
A car flips into the air, pieces go flying, the disaster-hungry crowd cheers, judges check outcomes and give thumbs up to the winner!
Still, it's only one heat with several to go. And so it goes, impact after impact until an ultimate survivor emerges victorious. Cub Scouting's first true reality event.
It's a huge Hit.
(Sorry about the pun, we know it's a cheap shot but racing to the bottom any way we can has sort of become our thing)
But what about BOB?
In match-type events, the question always comes up, what if you don't have an even number of contestants? Lots of sporting events handle this with byes, but that wouldn't really be fair here. Sol that's where BOB comes in. We have a family of "sparring partners", we call them BOB, that essentially live only to die. For any car that doesn't have an available challenger, we put one of the house BOB's up to it. If you win against BOB, you go on to the next round. If you lose, well, you're out. But our BOB car doesn't advance. You'll keep coming up against a fresh BOB until you actually have a real challenger. This way, nobody gets a free ride and everybody still gets to run, even if the numbers don't match up. Cool!
Free Grief Counseling.
As neat as all of this sounds, when it gets right down to it, it can also be very painful. As much as you think you might be ready to sacrifice everything in pursuit of ultimate survivor status, when reality strikes in the form of having your pride and joy handed back to you in pieces . . . well, it can be hard to take. (particularly if dear ole' Dad got a little too involved in building it). So we have trained counselors available to help you cope with things if you need it. All you have to do is ask and a sincere, understanding person will come your way. If you don't want to talk to our counselors, at least be sure to get help from someone.
At the end of the day, the real question is . . . .
Are You Cub Enough?