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Welcome to Trusty Track Help

Trusty Track helps Cub Scout packs run Pinewood Derby events without spreadsheets. Running the same kind of race for a school or a club instead? The words on screen — "Den", "Pack" — are yours to rename; see the words on screen.

Where do I start?

Have a look round the demo if you would rather see it before you install anything. It is a real race, already set up. There is one of it, shared by everybody looking at the time, and it resets itself after a quiet spell — so change whatever you like, and expect company.

How Trusty Track compares sets it beside the other Pinewood Derby programs, including the cases where one of them suits your pack better.

Install it when you are ready — on a Mac, a Windows PC, a Raspberry Pi, or in Docker.

Then, in the order an event happens:

Running a race

  • Getting Started: A guide for first-time organizers.
  • Race Setup: Dens, racers, car numbers, and importing a roster from a spreadsheet.
  • Race Day Operations: Managing check-in, heat generation, and race execution.
  • Scoring & Championships: How scores are worked out, what makes the standings, and how championship rounds pick their field.
  • Free Race: Practice and exhibition heats that count for nothing.
  • Awards: Speed trophies and the judged ones — Best Paint, Most Original.
  • Race Stats: Lane fairness, per-racer numbers, and CSV exports.

Timers

  • Hardware Timer: Plugging in an electronic finish line, and checking it works.
  • Fake Timer: Running the whole thing without a track, for practice.

Displays and printouts

  • Observation & Audience Displays: Setting up leaderboards and results for the audience.
  • Printables: Pit passes, driver's licences, check-in codes you can scan, and impound-pit car labels.
  • Themes: Seven looks for the app, the wall display, and the printed pages — pick one for an evening race, a patriotic derby, or a tight print budget.

Network and backups

Looking something up

The guides above walk you through the day. The Reference holds the details: every rule, setting, and table, one topic per page — from exactly what counts toward the standings to what every word means.

No Technical Knowledge Required

Trusty Track is designed for race volunteers. You don't need to be a software developer or database administrator to run a successful race.