2 lane pinewood derby chart
Two lanes means two runs for every car and 12 heats for a pack of 12. Set your own numbers below and print the schedule, the cards and the tally sheet.
Heat schedule
| Heat | Lane 1 | Lane 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 4 | 9 |
| 5 | 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 6 | 11 |
| 7 | 7 | 12 |
| 8 | 8 | 1 |
| 9 | 9 | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | 3 |
| 11 | 11 | 4 |
| 12 | 12 | 5 |
Pinewood Derby is a trademark of Scouting America. This chart generator is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Scouting America.
Race cards
-
1
- Heat 1Lane 1
- Heat 8Lane 2
-
2
- Heat 2Lane 1
- Heat 9Lane 2
-
3
- Heat 3Lane 1
- Heat 10Lane 2
-
4
- Heat 4Lane 1
- Heat 11Lane 2
-
5
- Heat 5Lane 1
- Heat 12Lane 2
-
6
- Heat 1Lane 2
- Heat 6Lane 1
-
7
- Heat 2Lane 2
- Heat 7Lane 1
-
8
- Heat 3Lane 2
- Heat 8Lane 1
-
9
- Heat 4Lane 2
- Heat 9Lane 1
-
10
- Heat 5Lane 2
- Heat 10Lane 1
-
11
- Heat 6Lane 2
- Heat 11Lane 1
-
12
- Heat 7Lane 2
- Heat 12Lane 1
Pinewood Derby is a trademark of Scouting America. This chart generator is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Scouting America.
Judge's tally sheet
| Heat | Lane 1 | Lane 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 4 | 9 |
| 5 | 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 6 | 11 |
| 7 | 7 | 12 |
| 8 | 8 | 1 |
| 9 | 9 | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | 3 |
| 11 | 11 | 4 |
| 12 | 12 | 5 |
Pinewood Derby is a trademark of Scouting America. This chart generator is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Scouting America.
What a 2-lane chart comes out as
Twelve cars across two lanes is 12 heats and 24 runs in total — two for each car, one in each lane. At about a minute and a half from gate to gate that is roughly 18 minutes of track time, which is the number to plan the morning around rather than the racing itself.
Two lanes is almost always a home-built track: a pair of hardboard strips on a folding frame, a hinged gate at the top, and somebody kneeling at the finish line to call it.
On two lanes no pair of cars ever has to meet twice, at any pack size this page covers. The rotation only needs two distinct gaps between the lane offsets, and even the smallest field here has room for them with space left over.
Lane bias on two lanes
With two lanes the bias is easy to see and easy to argue about, because every heat is a direct comparison and a losing parent has watched the same side of the track win all afternoon.
Finishes at this width can honestly be judged by eye, and a two-lane electronic gate is cheap where they cannot. Two cars is the most anybody can actually watch cross a line at once.
Each run is 50% of a car's result at this width, so a single bad lane draw would move a two-lane standing a long way if the lanes were not rotated. Once they are, every car has carried the same handicap exactly once and the totals compare cleanly.
Printing and running two lanes
The schedule prints as 3 columns — the heat number and two lanes — down 12 rows, which fits portrait on both Letter and A4 without shrinking the type to something unreadable across a hall.
The real limit here is the sample. Two runs per car is the thinnest evidence any of these charts produce, and a car that catches a bad start twice has no third run left to recover in.
Call two cars to the top of the track while the current heat is still running. On two lanes that is 2 boys already holding their cars when the gate drops, and it is the single change that turns 18 minutes of track time into 18 minutes of morning.
Common questions
How many heats for a 2 lane pinewood derby?
One per car: 12 cars on two lanes is 12 heats, and 16 cars would be 16. The lane count sets how many times each car races, not how many heats there are.
How many times does each car race on 2 lanes?
Two times — once in every lane. That is the smallest number of runs that cancels the lane advantage completely, which is why the figure is set by the track rather than chosen by the organiser.
Can two cars end up racing each other repeatedly on 2 lanes?
Not on this chart above 4 cars, where the offsets are chosen so every pair meets at most once. Two lanes produces 2 pairings per rotation, and spreading them is the whole reason the offsets are searched rather than counted off.