Developments for 2026. Scoring revisions, bracket-Hillclimb, an event programme guide and possibly a moto test…
- Jonathan Binnington
- Jul 31
- 7 min read
The following ideas are presented as proposals for discussion and I would like to state at the outset that they are not entirely my own. Sasha Sabinin has contributed to the proposed revision to the scoring system, Robin Crumley and Neil Barbisan have contributed (probably unknowingly) to the proposed hillclimb format and social media to the idea for a motorcycle autotest.
Good ideas always benefit from contributions from other people, turning good ideas into great ideas. All that is needed is for someone to suggest something that sounds crazy and a safe space to expand the idea.
VI Motosports Events apparel.
A range of motorcycling-appropriate clothing (riding jackets, tee shirts and sweatshirts/hoodies) is in the works. Marketing will begin when items for purchase are available.
Revising the scoring system.
GoldRiver Rules. Regularity Raid scoring. General Principles.
1. Regularity Rally scoring is based on the concept of defining “timed legs” within a rally course that have a start and end Control Points (CPs) and therefore a known distance.
2. Each timed leg has an average speed set for the duration of that leg and from the “speed = distance / time” relationship, the “target time” for that leg is calculated.
3. Regularity rallies are scored by comparing each participants actual time taken to complete each leg with the target time for that leg and assigning one (1) time penalty for each second each leg was completed in, ahead or behind the target time.
4. A Maximum score for each leg is assigned, beyond which further time penalties (TPs) for that leg cannot be accrued. Typically for VIME events this has been 900 TPs per leg.
5. Scoring has been based in the past on the principle of sorting firstly by the number of CPs triggered and recorded and then by the lowest number of TPs.
6. This has had the unintended consequence of disproportionately penalising riders who miss a CP, perhaps because it is in a technically difficult section that the rider does not want to tackle.
7. Scoring has been complicated in past events when some smartphones running Richta Rally Timing apps fail to record a presence at a CP.
8. Ad Hoc solutions to complications have had to be adopted to everyone’s satisfaction.
9. The usual arrangements of timing gates at Control Points is to have the last CP of one leg serve as the first CP of the subsequent leg.
10. The only time this varies is at the start of a course where the first CP is a “flying start” CP (eliminating any false starts where a competitor inadvertently trips the start) and subsequent flying restarts after a “clocks paused” rest zone.
11. The consequence of this is that if a rider “passes” on a leg and takes a reroute to miss a difficult section (say), they will also miss the leg that comes subsequently. They take a “double hit”.
12. A balance needs to be struck between not having the Maximum TP score in a leg so high that taking a double-hit is disastrously disadvantageous and opening the possibility of gaming the scoring system by taking as many “penalty maximums” as possible and potentially scoring fewer TPs than riders who rode all the legs…
13. Additionally, each leg “maximum” serves as a reasonable cap to the TP score that a rider can accrue if they make a total cockup of a leg.
In the interests of promoting fair and engaging competition the following scoring rules developments are proposed.
1. Legs continue to be scored as 1 TP per second ahead of or behind the leg target time. Target time is calculable from speed = distance / time relationship.
2. Scoring will be based solely on TP totals
3. Missed legs score the leg maximum
4. A missed leg will also score a maximum in the subsequent leg as the “start” CP will not be triggered
5. If a CP is not triggered by more than half of the field, it will be discounted from the scoring for that route (and the subsequent leg if the “unreliable CP” is the start trigger for the subsequent leg).
6. Leg Maximum Scores will follow the following scale:
Legs less than 5km in length, Maximum TP score = 300TPs
Legs between 5km and 10km in length, Maximum TP score = 600TPs
Legs greater than 10km in length, Maximum TP score = 900TPs
(The purpose here is to provide a disincentive for “opportunistic” riders to game the system by trying to accrue fewer TPs by bypassing legs rather than riding them).
7 It would be possible to set “double RCP” gates, marking the end of one leg and a few tens of metres further on another RCP gate marking the start of timing for the next leg. This would eliminate the “double jeopardy” situation where a RCP that was not registered by a smartphone would have the consequence of two legs not being scored (and attracting two maximums as described above) but as was pointed out by a wise head, it could just double up the number of RCPs that weren’t registered.
The issue of RCPs not triggering smartphones might be related to and solved by the adoption of remote GPS antennas, I have a XGPS 160 for testing…. Details in a subsequent blog post.
Hillclimb Thursday.
Hillclimb, along with sprinting are two of the “non-race speed events” in the breadth of motorsport genres. The established modus operandi is for the driver/rider, one vehicle at a time to compete to get from a start line to a finish line in as short a period of time as possible. Extremely high speeds are entailed as well as fearsome accelerations (in some instances greater than 1g off the start line). Participants are invariably amateur, expert-level drivers and riders.
Common sense dictates the need for measures to mitigate risk and of course, speed events are simply not permissible on public highways (FSRs). Road registration, licences and insurance plus speed-capped rules would ensure the event conformed to motoring legislation.
Venue, would need to be steep and bendy enough to make 60Kph an impossibly - but not so steep as to make getting up very difficult or having exposed drops and cliffs that riders could ride off…
The hill would need to be blind-ended to avoid the possibility of unexpected traffic appearing from the opposite direction of travel to those going up the hill.
Far enough away from residential areas so that noise annoyance isn’t an issue, but near enough to Gold River village that there isn’t a huge journey.
There are some candidates hills…
But how to score this?
Bracket drag racing is a variety of drag racing that has evolved to contain costs (if not risks to riders) for the drag race community.
The driver/rider declares or sets an “index time” as their target time. Their aim is to get as close as possible to their index time without beating it. The rider who gets closest to their index time wins.
The process of the day would be:
morning - inspect the hill on foot. Perhaps 1500m rising between 150 and 250m in 1500m.
Then each rider rides the hill to set their Index Time, as fast or as slow as they choose. No element of race or speed competition.
Lunch.
Afternoon. Two or possibly three passes up the hill attempting to get as close as possible to their Index Time. Passes faster than their index time are discounted. Think “tortoise and the hare”…
Riders might ride 8-10km in a day. Quite a contrast to the 250-300km rally days. As each rider will be testing themselves against only themselves, it would appear to be possible that a 125cc bike could compete on an equal footing with a 1200cc bike (or perhaps even have an advantage?).
This event would need start line workers to manage the start line, some people on the hill to assist fallen riders and finish line workers. Also a communication system would be needed to indicate when one rider has completed their climb and the course is clear for the next rider (one on the hill at a time).
As always, participating riders would need to be disciplined and ready to wait at the foot of the hill for their start and at the top of the hill for all to complete their runs. Head-on collisions are to be avoided at all costs.
Event programme.
A glossy pamphlet, showcasing the event weekend and providing a relevant advertising vehicle for relevant, local businesses.
You have been to sporting events, theatre shows and tourism destinations and one of the features of the show has been a souvenir programme that gives background to the event and an advertising space for businesses supporting the event…. Well, wouldn’t it be cool if the GoldRiver ‘26, also known as the Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally also had a glossy brochure?
Relevant copy for the non-advert pages would include welcome messages, rider profiles, explanations of the events for non-participants and technical articles for participants.
The planned publication run is 1500 copies distributed through Tourism Information offices, advertising businesses and other relevant outlets.
Expressions of interest from potential advertisers are invited.
Event schedule.
Wednesday 1 July. Early arrivals and set the field up. Sign-on evening.
Thursday 2 July. Sign on and Hillclimb Thursday
Friday 3 July. Rally Day 1.
Saturday 4 July. Rally Day 2.
Sunday 5 July. Rally Day 3. Awards and prizes. Early go home.
Monday 6 July. Break camp and go home.
Roadbook release schedule and paper scroll roadbooks.
Now that the event format has established itself, it is probably time to shorten the lead times for publishing the roadbooks - especially for the competition (Roadbook plus Richta) class.
For the competition class, It is proposed to publish by email the roadbook PDFs for days 1&2 24-48hrs before rally day. The day 3 PDF will be published between 1 and 12 hrs before rally day.
I may have found a print shop in Parksville that can print on rolls of paper. 24” and 36” wide. $25 per linear foot (they said). I could cut the wide roll up with a chopsaw. Riders who insist on paper rolls may finally be able to get their roadbooks without evenings of cutting and taping.
In order to promote roadbook navigation, GoldRiver 26 may include the distribution of the day 3 route to the non-competition class (roadbook and Gaia) as a roadbook only. Riders will have had two days to practice roadbook navigation with a Gaia map as backup - day 3 will be a tester….
Show n Shine.
tbd - clubs have been invited to express an interest.
Motorcycle “autotest”. (Mototest?)
tbd. Something like this but with less rain…
venue, venue, venue…. This may be a development for 2027, it would need a production team to stage and run this.
As always, this is “out for consultation”. Comments and suggestions from interested parties are invited.
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