The Trailrider

THE TRAILRIDER

NEI's Enduro Scoring System

“WELL, IT LOOKS like we’ve got that old speeding problem in our enduros licked at last.” “Speeding? Who speeds in enduros? I mean, you know, you get penalized if you hit the checkpoints early.”

“Where you been? Speeding has always been a bad part of the enduro scene, always.”

“Oh, you mean in those FIM events, where you get no penalty for early arrival. The AMA way hits you so hard with penalty points for being early, that you just don’t find speeding worthwhile. It’s two points for that first early minute, and five a minute after that. And if you get there 15 minutes early, you’re out. Who’s going to speed with that kind of penalty?”

“The guy who’s running late, that’s who. Once he gets behind he’s got to go like hell the rest of the day trying to get back on his right time. The open road is his Daytona then, he just cranks it on, and never mind the traffic, or the speed limits.”

“Well, yeah, I guess so, but anyone who knows how to keep time on an enduro doesn’t get that far behind.” “No, just all the novice types, maybe 3/4ths of the entry, after they’ve been stuck good in the first bad spot, they get so behind, they never catch up. Especially in these super tough events the old woods rats still like to lay out, with the old swamphole, the impossible hill, all that good stuff.”

“So, OK, how’ve you licked this, then? How you going to persuade the late runner not to turn up the wick?” “Well, we got this new NEI scoring system, and it really works, though some of the old “A” guys don’t like it too much. The novices caught on right off, and it’s relaxed everyone.”

“What’s the NEI stand for?”

“New England Interval, since that’s where we invented it. It’s a simple idea—each rider loses points for late arrival, or early, at each checkpoint, and then starts over fresh, with no carryalong penalties. So he gets timed check to check, and earns penalties for each interval.”

“Sounds complicated to score.”

“Well, it does look that way, at first, but it actually is very simple to score, when we use our digital readout checkpoint flipcards.”

“Jeez, what’s those? You guys have all sorts of novelties?”

“Another simple idea. Instead of writing in a rider’s actual real clock time on his scorecard when he checks into a checkpoint, we just jot down the number showing on the flip card. These numbers start at 1, at the time the No. 1 riders are due, and flip one a minute thereafter. A rider on time at a check sees his own riding number up there on the flip card. If the number up on the card is bigger than his, he’s late. If it’s smaller, he’s early. The difference between his number and the number showing is the number of minutes involved.”

“What’s these scorecards you mention. Don’t you use check sheets on clipboards, and get the riders signatures on them like AMA rules say?”

“No, the rider carries along a plastic scorecard with the check numbers on it, and his arrival number at each check is recorded on it in indelible marker. Then when he gets to the finish he turns in his card, and his score can be posted right off, without waiting until everyone else is finished, and the checkers come in. Speeds up posting scores a whole lot.” “But what if he loses the card?”

“Tough for him, same as if he gets a flat or loses a shift lever, or loses his way. It’s his responsibility to care for his scorecard.”

BOB HICKS

“OK, so how do you figure the scores then, using these arbitrary numbers instead of real time?”

“Remember, the numbers aren’t really arbitrary, they start flipping at each check when No. 1 rider is due, according to the key time established by the schedule. So they are tied directly to actual time, but are easier to figure than hours and minutes, and all the converting around, especially when the times overlap an hour anywhere. An ideal card would have a number at each check exactly the same as the rider’s number. If he’s No. 10, (or 110, 210, 310, etc. if several riders are on each minute), he’ll have a column of 10s on his card. Now, if he is late, maybe a 15 shows. That’s 5 minutes late, so he loses 5 points. If an 8 shows, he’s 2 minutes early, and loses 7 points there, 2 for the first minute, 5 more for the next minute. If we used AMA rules, and he got late, and stayed late, he’d be showing maybe a bunch of 15s, 20s, etc. and each check he’d lose these points over again. But, our NEI system gets rid of that.”

“You mean because he starts over clean at each check, like you said?”

“That’s right. Let’s give a forinstance. Rider No. 10 hits check No. 1 when No. 10 is up, so he’s right on time. He gets into a bit of trouble next section and hits check No. 2 when 18 is up. That means he’s 8 minutes late, and loses 8 points. Now, he gets to check No. 3 when 18 is up, which means he rode from check No. 2 to check No. 3 right on his schedule, because he lost no more time. AMA rules would hit him with another 8 points. NEI rules penalize him zero in this section. The scoring is simple, his number at each check is compared to the number at the preceding check, and any difference shows whether he ran late or early. Now, if he’d hit No. 3 when No. 15 was up, that’d mean he’d made up 3 minutes between check No. 2 and check No. 3. Under AMA rules, he’d still had been penalized 5 points. But, he had to speed on a piece of road to make this time up. And, under NEI scoring, he’s now run that section 3 minutes faster than he was supposed to, making him 3 minutes early. This means he gets penalized 12 points!”

“Why, that means a guy gets hit hard for trying to make up time, harder than if he eased up a bit if it got to be easier going.”

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Continued from page 55

“Right. The NEI system encourages the rider to maintain the average frofn check to check. He gets no big carryalong penalty to worry him if he blows it in one section, and so he has no incentive to speed on the roads to try to get rid of that big bag of penalty points.”

“How in the world does the rider ever figure out how to keep time if his due times at succeeding checks can vary around depending on what time he hits the preceding checkpoint? That doesn’t sound like a very easy piece of mental arithmetic to me.”

“Yes, this could be pretty sticky, but there’s a way to make it easier. The rider just has to reset his watch at each checkpoint to the posted key time at that check, assuming he set his watch at key time when he started and not at real time.”

“You mean a guy has to set his watch say at 10:00 even if he starts at 10:10?”

“Yes. This really simplifies the time keeping when you get away from trying to deal with odd minutes if you use real time. And, then, as I said, you can deal with each checkpoint by simply resetting your watch to key time, regardless of what time you did arrive, late or early. This works, because the NEI system times you check to check with no cumulative penalty, so you can set your watch at key time check to check, and then navigate with your time/distance table just like you would under the AMA system.”

“What about the guys who aren’t much on time keeping, how do they figure where they’re at timewise?”

“Since they aren’t keeping time, usually because they’re too busy struggling with terrain, they get the relief of knowing that how late they are at one check doesn’t penalize them at the next, they just start over once again trying in whatever simple way they have been using, to maintain the required average. If it’s 24 mph, they know they have to go 2 miles each 5 minutes. They don’t have to go FASTER to gain back lost time.”

“Well, it all sounds kind of complicated to me. Is it really working?”

“Yes, indeed. The novices welcomed it with open arms. The expert “A” guys grumbled, and didn’t want to be resetting watches because then they couldn’t protest a check that might be off on timing. So we told them to use two watches, one set and left at real time, the other adjusted check to check for timing themselves.”

“And, you said it cuts the speeding on the roads down a whole lot.”

“Yes, that’s the really big benefit. We’ve found a way to rid our game of an undesirable and dangerous aspect. Accidents happen on the roads from that pressure to catch up on lost time. Police object to the speeding, and sometimes get enough complaints that they have to set up a speed trap and hold up the guys to give them tickets. With the pressure to speed removed, and a heavy penalty waiting for anyone who says the hell with it and speeds anyway, we’ve really found a workable solution.”

“Still, there’s the guy who just doesn’t care, and will go as fast as he can anyway. What about him?”

“He’s disqualified just as soon as he gets 15 minutes early ahead of his ORIGINAL starting number, the one that’s on his card, and bike. When old No. 10 turns up at check No. 4 when No. 5 is up, he’s out. He doesn’t get his card back from the checkers. That’s it.” “Well, I dunno why nobody figured this one out before.”

“Somebody did. The car rallies have used interval scoring for years. They’ve had to, to stay legal in a highway contest. We’ve just been lucky nobody really took a close look at how our enduros have been run.” (O]