There are different methods of judging a derby race, such as single-elimination, double-elimination, lane-rotation, and round-robin. Among these methods, however, double-elimination is the most commonly used method for pinewood derby. It requires less time than the other methods. It is one of the quickest and most efficient methods. It does not account for any imperfection in the track from lane to lane, and it is not as definitive as a "timed" race, but it is relatively easy to manage, and there is no time to keep track of. Just like most other packs, our pack uses the double-elimination method for our pinewood derby race.

In double-elimination, cars remain in competition until they sustain two losses. After a car sustains a second loss, it is eliminated from the competition. The easiest way of keeping track of which cars races against each other, and who the winners and losers are is by constructing a double-elimination "LADDER". Below is an example of a double-elimination ladder for a 4-car, 2-lane race. Using this as a model, you can construct a ladder for any number of cars and any number of lanes.

1. Determine how many cars will be racing, and how many lanes you will be using. Our pack uses two lanes.
2. Construct your double-elimination ladder for the race based on the number of cars and lanes. Mark seeds 1, 2, …n positions, where n is the total number of cars.

The example shown is for 4 cars; hence, n=4. The race uses a two-lane track.

3. Randomly number the cars to determine which seed position a car will be assigned to. You can do this by having the racers randomly pick a number from a hat.

In our example above, racer number 1, (i.e., CAR1), picked the number 3 from the hat; hence, he/she is seeded number 3.

Repeat this step until all players are seeded.

4. You are now ready to begin the race.
5. Call out the racers in the first heat.

In our example, these are CAR2 and CAR4.

6. The stewards place the cars on the starting line, the racers stand near the end of the finish line, they shake hands, and the stewards releases the cars to begin the race.
7. The winner goes to the next level of the winners, and the loser goes to the next level on the losers bracket (first loss).

In our example, CAR4 wins and goes to the winners bracket. CAR2 losses and goes to the losers bracket.

8. Call out the racers for the next heat, and repeat steps 6 and 7.

In our example, these are CAR1 and CAR3. Here, CAR1 wins, and CAR3 losses.

9. Repeat step 8 until all heats are completed i.e., all racers have raced.
10. At the end of this first round, all racers in the losers bracket have sustained one loss.
11. Continue the race following this format. As racers win their heat in a round, they move up the next level to the next round in the winners bracket. When a racer in the winners bracket loses, he moves over to the losers bracket according to its corresponding level. A racer in the losers bracket who sustains a second loss is eliminated from the race.

In our example, there are only two more elimination rounds after the first round. In the second round, CAR4 races CAR1 in the winning bracket, and CAR2 races CAR3 in the losers bracket. CAR4 wins and remains undefeated. CAR1 loses and moves over to the losers bracket (first loss). CAR2 sustains its second loss and is eliminated. On the third round. CAR3 races CAR1 in the losers bracket. CAR3 wins. CAR1 loses and is eliminated (second loss). Because this is the last elimination round, CAR3 goes to the championship round to race against CAR4.

12. After completing all of the elimination rounds, one racer in the winners bracket emerges undefeated and goes to the championship round. All but one racer in the losers bracket sustain two losses and are eliminated, and the one racer who remains with only one loss goes to the championship round to race with the winner from the winners bracket.

In our example, CAR4 and CAR3 will race in the championship round.

13. In the championship round, the winner from the winners bracket is undefeated at this point, while the winner from the loser bracket has one loss. The losers bracket winner must beat the winner from the winners bracket twice for the championship. The winner from the winners bracket needs to win only once for the championship.

In our example, CAR4 needs to win only once; whereas, CAR3 needs to win twice for the championship.

14. The loser in the championship round is the overall 2nd place winner. The last to loss in the elimination rounds is the 3^rd place winner.

The example below shows how a double-elimination race is conducted when you have an odd number of cars.

In the example, there are 3 racers. Each of them randomly picks a number from a hat, and is seeded accordingly. Because there are only 3 racers, one of the seed positions, SEED 2, will be empty, "Bye", and the racer (who is to race against this position moves to the next round.