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3 lane pinewood derby chart

Three lanes means three runs for every car and 18 heats for a pack of 18. Set your own numbers below and print the schedule, the cards and the tally sheet.

18 cars on 3 lanes: 18 heats, every car once in every lane, and no two cars meet more than once. About 27 minutes of track time.

Every car runs each of the 3 lanes exactly once, no two cars meet more than once, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

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.

Heat schedule

18 cars, 3 lanes, 18 heats — every car once in every lane
HeatLane 1Lane 2Lane 3
11612
22713
33814
44915
551016
661117
771218
88131
99142
1010153
1111164
1212175
1313186
141417
151528
161639
1717410
1818511

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

    1. Heat 1Lane 1
    2. Heat 8Lane 3
    3. Heat 14Lane 2

  • 2

    1. Heat 2Lane 1
    2. Heat 9Lane 3
    3. Heat 15Lane 2

  • 3

    1. Heat 3Lane 1
    2. Heat 10Lane 3
    3. Heat 16Lane 2

  • 4

    1. Heat 4Lane 1
    2. Heat 11Lane 3
    3. Heat 17Lane 2

  • 5

    1. Heat 5Lane 1
    2. Heat 12Lane 3
    3. Heat 18Lane 2

  • 6

    1. Heat 1Lane 2
    2. Heat 6Lane 1
    3. Heat 13Lane 3

  • 7

    1. Heat 2Lane 2
    2. Heat 7Lane 1
    3. Heat 14Lane 3

  • 8

    1. Heat 3Lane 2
    2. Heat 8Lane 1
    3. Heat 15Lane 3

  • 9

    1. Heat 4Lane 2
    2. Heat 9Lane 1
    3. Heat 16Lane 3

  • 10

    1. Heat 5Lane 2
    2. Heat 10Lane 1
    3. Heat 17Lane 3

  • 11

    1. Heat 6Lane 2
    2. Heat 11Lane 1
    3. Heat 18Lane 3

  • 12

    1. Heat 1Lane 3
    2. Heat 7Lane 2
    3. Heat 12Lane 1

  • 13

    1. Heat 2Lane 3
    2. Heat 8Lane 2
    3. Heat 13Lane 1

  • 14

    1. Heat 3Lane 3
    2. Heat 9Lane 2
    3. Heat 14Lane 1

  • 15

    1. Heat 4Lane 3
    2. Heat 10Lane 2
    3. Heat 15Lane 1

  • 16

    1. Heat 5Lane 3
    2. Heat 11Lane 2
    3. Heat 16Lane 1

  • 17

    1. Heat 6Lane 3
    2. Heat 12Lane 2
    3. Heat 17Lane 1

  • 18

    1. Heat 7Lane 3
    2. Heat 13Lane 2
    3. Heat 18Lane 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

Write the place or the time beside the car in each lane
HeatLane 1Lane 2Lane 3
11612
22713
33814
44915
551016
661117
771218
88131
99142
1010153
1111164
1212175
1313186
141417
151528
161639
1717410
1818511

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 3-lane chart comes out as

18 cars across three lanes is 18 heats and 54 runs in total — three for each car, one in each lane. At about a minute and a half from gate to gate that is roughly 27 minutes of track time, which is the number to plan the morning around rather than the racing itself.

Three lanes is the awkward width — a homemade track built to fit the hall it lives in, or a two-lane track that grew a third section one winter.

On three lanes a pack of 7 cars or more can be arranged so that no two cars ever meet twice all day. Below 7 the ring is too short to hold the 6 gaps the rotation needs, so some pair has to be sent down the track together a second time.

Lane bias on three lanes

Three lanes puts one middle lane between two outside ones, and the middle is usually the quick one — it is the lane least affected by a frame that has twisted slightly in storage.

Three-lane finish gates are rare enough to be hard to buy, so most packs at this width point a phone down the track on video and settle the close ones by scrubbing back a frame.

Each run is 33.3% of a car's result at this width, so a single bad lane draw would move a three-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 three lanes

The schedule prints as 4 columns — the heat number and three lanes — down 18 rows, which fits portrait on both Letter and A4 without shrinking the type to something unreadable across a hall.

An odd lane count is where hand-written charts fail most often. There is no obvious way to pair the cars up, so whoever is writing the sheet starts improvising, and the balance goes quietly.

Call three cars to the top of the track while the current heat is still running. On three lanes that is 3 boys already holding their cars when the gate drops, and it is the single change that turns 27 minutes of track time into 27 minutes of morning.

Common questions

How many heats for a 3 lane pinewood derby?

One per car: 18 cars on three lanes is 18 heats, and 22 cars would be 22. The lane count sets how many times each car races, not how many heats there are.

How many times does each car race on 3 lanes?

Three 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 3 lanes?

Not on this chart above 7 cars, where the offsets are chosen so every pair meets at most once. Three lanes produces 6 pairings per rotation, and spreading them is the whole reason the offsets are searched rather than counted off.

Every track width

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