Proposed Non-Timed Mountain Cross Race Procedures

I put together an alternative method of running Mountain Cross events that does not require a timing company. I am looking for input/suggestions to flesh this out a little more. I've also attached an example 32-man bracket so you can see how riders would advance and be assigned gates.

Please note, this transfer system is not about getting the best riders to the podium. The current timed system works best. The best race is not necessarily the mains, it may be anywhere. This system is about increasing practice time (removing the time trial qualifiers) and increasing the actual race time. Some will like it, others will hate it. It's just an alternative.

Working on a non-timed dual slalom transfer system that I will post eventually. This will most likely be a best-of-three transfer system. More on that later.

-Tom

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This transfer system is developed to run USA Cycling Mountain Cross (MX), aka 4 Cross (4X), races without the need for a timing company or timing system. This transfer system should not be used for any UCI sanctioned MX/4X races. This transfer system is adapted from BMX (ABA/NBL) rules and is used to successfully run national-level BMX events of 4,000 riders in less than 6 hours.

Overview:
The MX/4X transfer system proceeds as follows:

1. Based on the categories and age groups motos are randomly filled.
2. Riders are assigned their starting gates throughout the race.
3. Each rider is provided two (2) opportunities to advance to a qualifying or final round. The exception is categories of four (4) or less riders who are run in a three-round total points race.
4. After the qualifying round, all subsequent final rounds are single elimination.
5. The promoter has the option of running a Small Final, if they so wish.

This transfer system involves all motos being run a predetermined number of times (2 or 3) to qualify riders to quarter-finals, semi-finals, or directly to the Big Final or Big and Small Finals.

The following examples of how the qualifying works are all based on a four rider gates.

Class of four (4) or fewer riders – 1 moto
First Round – Total Points
Second Round – Total Points
Third Round – Total Points
No main event. The third round can be run in the third round of qualifying motos or included with the main events (recommended). It is recommended to run the first two rounds during the qualification rounds and the third round is run during the Big Final.

Round of 5-8 riders – 2 motos
First Round – first place riders qualifies into Big Final from each moto (total 2)
Second Round – first place riders qualifies into Big Final from each moto (total 2)
Remaining riders qualify into the Small Final (up to 4), if a Small Final is provided.

Round of 9 – 16 riders – 4 motos
First Round – first place riders qualify into Semi-Final from each moto (total 4)
Second Round – first place riders qualify into Semi-Final from each moto (total 4)
Remaining riders are eliminated (up to 8). Points are assigned for 16th place for all riders not advancing.

Round of 17 – 32 riders – 8 motos
First Round – first place riders qualify into Quarters from each moto (total 8)
Second Round – first place riders qualify into Quarters from each moto (total 8)
Remaining riders are eliminated (up to 16). Points are assigned for 32nd place for all riders not advancing.

Round of 33 – 64 riders – 16 motos
First Round – first place riders qualify into Eighths from each moto (total 16)
Second Round – first place riders qualify into Eights from each moto (total 16)
Remaining riders are eliminated (up to 32). Points are assigned for 64th place for all riders not advancing.

Running the Race:
Once motos are posted, all qualifying rounds are run together, regardless of category size. Once all qualifiers are run, elimination rounds are run in order of Round of 32, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, and then the Big Final or Big and Small Finals, as necessary for each categories.

Motos containing two riders (both automatic qualifiers) should be run at least once to determine the advancement bracket gate position.

It is recommended to run categories in the order of Cat 3 => Cat 2 => Cat 1 => Pro. Age groups in each category run from youngest to oldest. Women run before men in each category and age group.

After a rider qualifies to advance, they may NOT race another qualifying heat. It is designed to reward the winner (by transferring them to the next round) and give all the remaining racers an equal chance at winning the next moto (e.g., no Carl Edwards incidents)

Moto Assignment:
Motos are assigned randomly. It is important that riders are assigned evenly throughout the brackets. The easiest way is to assign the first rider into moto #1, the second into moto #2, etc., until all the motos have one rider, then repeat so all motos have two riders, etc.

Gate Assignment:
Gates are assigned to each rider throughout the race. These may not be changed even if another gate is empty. The assignment of gates is intentional and requires to riders to employ some strategy in racing.

Beast said:

I believe the collegiate system already has something figured out for slalom without a timer. Search through last year's Collegiate USAC rulebook.

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Cool, I will look it up. Slalom is a bit more difficult because most tracks have a dominant lane.

Beast said:

Make sure to randomize your list of riders before assigning motos. From the description it sounds as though you'll just go off registration order. That can't be the case. Can you imagine people jockeying for spots in the registration line? Talk about strategy!

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Yep.

Beast said:

In the event of say, 9 riders, you'll have motos of 2-2-2-3 riders. Those lucky enough to get drawn for the rounds of 2 automatically advance. The other 3 are left duking it out. Because there it's a random system, you could lose one of the top 3 riders this way. Like you said, though, this isn't made to favor the fastest riders.

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Yes. There is a chance that the top riders are knocked out early either to a stacked moto or to poor luck on lane assignment. These are local and regional races. The intent is to not only give mid-pack riders a podium chance but also push top level riders by not always giving them lane choice and intentionally putting them against the slowest riders.

Beast said:

Everyone is going to get very confused the first time you implement this, unless they've raced bmx. Not to say that isn't something that can't be overcome, but expect some stressed racers/parents the first few times.

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Is it any more confusing than the current system for new riders? Riders adapt well. It just needs to be explained well at the riders meeting.

Beast said:

Categories with 4 or fewer riders will actually get to race a few times. Girls and juniors will love that.

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Intentional. Paying to do a qualifying run and then roll down the track once, IMO sucks.

Beast said:

Do you plan to post moto numbers? While I think they are a great idea for keeping things in order, the first round will see many byes, so the moto number may advance much faster than riders anticipate.

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Probably. But remember even if a moto has two byes, they still need to be run to determine lane assignment in the transfer moto. So all motos will run before the elimination rounds.

Beast said:

The mandatory lane changes will force every rider to learn new lines, too. However, gate assignments will get tricky with large classes. It works very well in bmx because there are at most 3 rounds then finals, so riders know exactly what gate for every moto (except finals which is determined by who qualifies) and line up accordingly, without being monitored. In this system, you've got potentially 5 rounds of racing before finals. Gates will be known for the first 2 rounds, but then it gets messy and the person lining people up will have to really be on the ball. At this point lining up riders will take longer because no one knows where to go (unless they memorized how things work when you advance, which will be rare).

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Mandatory lane assignments is probably one of the sticky points. But one thing I've noticed is that most riders only practice lanes 2 & 3. Because you don't know what lane you may be assigned, it forces riders to practice all lanes. This not only improves riders abilities but also may help improve MX courses where lanes 1 & 4 tend to be under utilized.

This is a staging issue that should be resolved by the Stager and double-checked by the Starter before the moto is sent. However, just like BMX, riders pick up quickly as to what gate they receive when they advance.

Beast said:

Looking at your example, a confident rider could intentionally not win the first round with the intent to get a better gate position following the qualifying rounds. Strategy? Maybe. You might see a few blatant 'pull over and let some people pass before crossing the finish line' instances. For this reason, maybe keep the gate assignments a secret for the post qualifier rounds?

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This is intentional. It is the same way in BMX. This transfer system requires you to use your head strategically on and off the track. Getting a first in the first round will guarantee an advancement, however, it may not be in the best gate. If a rider is confident enough in their skills, they could intentionally sandbag the first round and attempt to qualify in the second. Just remember, there is also a chance of a mechanical, crash, whatever. It is a strategic chance they take that could totally backfire on them also.

I have thought about the "blatant pull over" and thought about noting that its a DQable offense. But as long as it doesn't interfere with other riders, does it matter? The gate assignments are pretty fixed and intentionally ordered, whether they are shown or not, riders would figure them out pretty quick.

Beast said:

I see communicating the gate assignments being the trickiest part once you get past the qualifier rounds. Everything else is pretty logical.

All in all good work, Tom. I suggest a few test events before unleashing it on the MSC crowd (and then the WORLD!).

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Again, it's pretty simple if you have a competent stager. Otherwise, yes it could turn into a cluster....

Hoping Keith may have the Spring Series again this year to give a try.

Also looking for the Australian rules for non-timed MX events. I tried looking but couldn't find anything. So if anyone could post them, that would be great.

olddogbmxer said:

Seems a bit complicated - I think this is modeled after the ABA system.
Suggestion - no qualifying, random motos - everyone runs 3 motos using Olympic scoring system where top 2 riders move on to either final or semis, quarters etc. depending upon # of riders. Everyone gets to race minimum of 3 times and usually the best riders move on.

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When it gets down to the nitty gritty, it's either a 2-round or 3-round qualifier that moves the top 2 riders into elimination rounds. I am trying to write this so that the system is well described and can be implemented without the typical USAC "grey-area" rules that are interpreted by officials who know nothing about gated racing.

The ABA uses two systems. Local tracks tend to use a 3 round total points system for all categories and at Nationals and Regionals uses a 2 round transfer system. The reason I went with a two round over a 3 round is two-fold:

The local MX races we have tend to have rider counts between 130-180 riders over the last couple years. Several of these classes consistently are 32-man or 64-man brackets. That's a lot of qualifying if you use a 3-round system. However with a 3-round system you get 3 full qualifying runs before you go into elimination rounds. A lot more bang for your buck. If folks think that a 3 round is far more better than a 2 round, its easy to implement.

Terminology: I consider the first 2-round or 3-rounds as "qualifying rounds" and the subsequent round of 32, quarters, semis, and finals as "elimination rounds".

Secondly, the gate rotation is far easier to calculate with a 2 round system than a 3 round system. ABA rotates you 2 gates every round. So if you are issued gate 2 in the first round, you would get gate 4 in the second and gate 6 in the third round. With 4 gates this is a bit more complicated. You don't want to put the same person in the same gate throughout the qualifying rounds. Move only 1 gate per round? Wouldn't this give a major disadvantage to whomever gets gate 3 first round?

Great input. That's why I wanted to post it here. Hoping to develop a system that we can use locally and others can implement if they so choose.

IH8Rice said:

why? there was nothing wrong with timing and or the way the DS races were run once Laz settled on a system

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There are several reasons:

The current timed system is great for determining who is the best but at a developmental level of racing it is actually discouraging to new and upcoming riders. From the standpoint of a promoter or event organizer (neither of which I am), you want every opportunity to increase the number of riders without scaring them away because their first race they were intentionally put against the best rider. Why do that? How does it increase ridership? Low ridership = higher costs.

One of the major expenses associated with gated racing is the timing company fees.

This is providing an option, not replacing the current system, to promoters and event organizers.