The system
The nomenclature of the regulation makes its guidelines very clear: open and free. Until 2009 the different levels were differentiated by the color of the “doors” that the pilot had to pass through in each area. So, for example, a rider like Bou or Raga had to always pass through the red gates within the pre-set time limit of 1:30 minutes. The judge counted the supports by area, being able to evaluate from “zero” points, in case of passing the course cleanly, with “one”, “two” or “three”, if there were one or more supports, and with five the maximum penalty in case of not completing the course or overcoming gates of different color. In other words, the rider who scored the fewest points at the end of the race has always won.
With the Openfree system, the opposite happens: whoever accumulates the most points on their card wins. Inside the area, the rider will find different arrows that, in addition to being distinguished by a certain colour – red, blue and green – will also be engraved with a number – 10, 5 or 2 – which will represent the difficulty scale of the obstacles that make up the route. Thus, the pilot accumulates a series of points for each door he passes, but on the condition that he can only pass through each door once and must respect the direction indicated by the arrows. The maximum time to complete the zone is one minute.
There are also a series of bonuses depending on the number of feet that the rider leaves in the area: if he passes the area without supports, the bonus will be 20 points; if he sets foot, he will be 15 points; if there are two, it drops to 10 points, while if three or more are penalized, it will be 5 points. Below that you don’t get any extra points. The good thing is that if a driver crashes, or exceeds the time limit, he retains the points accumulated so far. In this way, the teams will strategize in the most selective areas – there are usually two or three more complicated areas than the rest – and we will witness much more exciting races.
Categories & Classification
As we have pointed out before, the winner is the one who has the most points on their card at the end of the competition. However, the distribution of points according to the category also varies with respect to 2009:
– Scratch classification: includes all the participants of the competition.
– From here, the classifications of the TR2, Junior, TR3 (global), TR3 +35, Cadet, Youth 125cc., Youth up to 125cc., Female A and B categories are obtained.
The riders who occupy the first 15 positions in the Scratch category receive the points of the Spanish Championship. The same is true for the rest of the categories. The distribution of points is the same as always: 20 points for the first, 17 for the second, 15 for the third, 13 for the fourth and 11 for the fifth; From this place they descend at the rate of one point per post, until they complete the 15 planned.
The effects. In the first person: David Darnés.
We have the pleasure of having a prestigious rider who gives us his first-hand opinion of his experience within the Openfree Trial, both in the Spanish Championship and the COTA.
David Darnés is a rider of the INCOGNIT NONSTOP RACING squad, which this year has managed to win the absolute victory in the Spanish TR3 Championship. David also trains with top-level riders and knows all opinions well. On the other hand, the Openfree approach aims to help pilots like David, so that they themselves can consider their own
s limits of difficulty within the area.
