Trusty Track
Trusty Track is race management software for Cub Scout Pinewood Derby events. It runs in a web browser and handles everything from racer registration through final standings — so you can focus on the race, not the paperwork.
What It Does
Before Race Day
- Set up your race — name, date, location, and racing groups (dens).
- Register racers individually or by bulk-importing a CSV from your pack's roster.
- Assign car numbers automatically or manually, with flexible numbering strategies (global, per-den, or fully manual).
- Print pit passes, driver's licenses and check-in codes — a sheet at a time, on a normal printer.
On Race Day
- Check in racers — verify each car passed inspection and optionally capture racer and car photos. Scan a printed code to jump straight to a racer.
- Schedule heats automatically using a fair scheduling algorithm that ensures each car races in every lane.
- Run the race with live timer integration — results appear automatically as each heat finishes.
- Advance to a championship round — the top finishers race again for final placement.
- Race the slowest cars — a just-for-fun Slowest Race bracket where the last one down the track wins.
- Elimination racing — ladderless elimination: lose too many heats and you're out, no bracket to draw, last car standing wins.
- Balanced racing — each round of heats matches cars doing about as well, so more children get a heat they can win.
- Run free races — practice, exhibition and end-of-day fun heats that never touch the standings.
After the Race
- Race statistics — lane fairness, per-racer averages and consistency, den comparisons, and CSV exports for your records.
For the Audience
- Live observation display — show current racers, the next heat on deck, and a live leaderboard on any screen or projector. All displays update in real-time as the race progresses.
Make It Yours
- Seven themes — pick a look for your own screen, the wall display, and the printed pages, independently: an evening race, a patriotic derby, a keepsake-style certificate, or an ink-conscious pit pass run.
Documentation
For the full documentation and user guides, visit: https://trusty-track.com/docs/
User Guides
| Guide | Description |
|---|
| Getting Started | First-time setup: system settings and creating your first race |
| Race Setup Guide | Managing dens, registering racers, and preparing the roster |
| Race Day Operations | Check-in, scheduling heats, running the race, and final standings |
| Scoring & Championships | How scores are worked out, and how championship rounds pick their field |
| Awards | Speed trophies, and the judged ones the timer cannot decide |
| Printables | Pit passes, driver's licenses, and scannable check-in codes |
| Free Race | Practice and exhibition heats that count for nothing |
| Hardware Timer | Connecting an electronic finish line, checking it works, and sending us a test report |
| Fake Timer | Running the whole thing without a track, for practice |
| Observation Displays | Setting up audience screens and projectors |
| Race Stats | Lane fairness, per-racer numbers, and CSV exports |
Installation
Not sure which to pick? See Which method should I use?
Quick Start (From Source)
# Install dependencies and build the frontend
./scripts/install.sh
# Start the server
./scripts/serve.sh
Then open https://localhost:8005 in your browser. serve.sh always runs over HTTPS with a self-signed certificate it generates on first run, so your browser will warn that the certificate isn't trusted — that's expected for a local install; accept it to continue.
Developer Documentation
If you're working on Trusty Track itself:
