News Rules Changes for 2014

Filed under General on November 25, 2013 | Comment(s)

Rule Changes for 2014

There were only a handful of changes to the program for 2014, but we encourage everyone to scan the rulebook each year looking for anything in a gray box. The gray box indicates that SOMETHING has changed and is worthy of taking note – many times it is a matter of cleaning up the wording to make it easier to understand.

􀀀 We’ve added 46 & Over Novice, Intermediate & Expert for the mens 20” classes. That means 41-45 becomes a class, with 46 & Over being the oldest class of the day.

􀀀 For the Women Cruisers, we’ve added 56 & Over which means 51-55 is now a class with 56 & Over being the oldest class of the day.

􀀀 For the move-up rules, we are going to adjust the older Experts to check 2 years within Expert to find a legal class and the 46 & Over Experts will skip over the 46 & Over Intermediate class when moving backwards to find a legal class. The intent is to keep Experts racing Experts and out of the Intermediate classes.

􀀀 Also with the move-up rules, we will protect 31 & Over Women (20” class) from having younger 21-25 or 26-30 Women moving into their class. Those leftover 21-25 or 26-30 Women will check back to 17-20 to find a legal class before violating that “protection”.

􀀀 We’ve changed the wording on parents going through staging to read that parents of riders 9 years of age and older must exit the staging area upon exiting the chutes. This will keep those parents from going up the back of the starting hill.

􀀀 The number of national or title wins for Novices to advance to Intermediate has been reduced to 3 (previously it was 5). It will remain 5 for Intermediates. This should get some of the Novice sandbaggers at nationals moved into the appropriate 20” class sooner.

􀀀 The rule regarding Novices and clipless pedals has been re-worded to explain that it is REGARDLESS of the class they end up racing that day. In addition, it explains that ANY type of pedal that binds their foot to the pedal (toe straps, magnets, duct tape, etc) is prohibited. Novices are simply not allowed to be bound to their pedals.

􀀀 The State/Provincial Championship Series undergoes a change in that the single point races will not be required. Instead, we will incentivize riders to participate in single point races by offering 1 “bonus state point” for every 2 single point races on or before July 15th, 2014 to max out at 4 bonus points. This should allow more brand-new riders to get into the State/Provincial Series the first year they start. And, the 8 single pointers by July 15th is essentially the same as in 2013 in terms of the timeframe and wanting to “max out” your state points heading into the Finals.

􀀀 Finally, beginning in 2014, every clinic at a USA BMX or BMX Canada sanctioned track must have a Certified Coach on hand. Anyone interested in becoming a Certified Coach can click the COACHING link on our website and/or contact Justin Travis (justin@usabmx.com) for more information. Many tracks are having parent volunteers get certified to have more Certified Coaches in the pool to draw from in case some of them travel to other events or vacation.

The Return of the Gold Cup Series
In 2014, Redline has chosen to focus on National Series sponsorship, so the Series returns to it’s former name of the Gold Cup Series. The Gold Cup Series count a rider’s best two (2) scores from a Gold Cup Race, as well as the score from Saturday & Sunday of the Gold Cup Finals. This creates incentives for riders to participate in more than one Gold Cup event, as they can better their score heading into the Finals. We did, however, want to remind the tracks that ANY rider can participate at the Gold Cup Finals – even if they missed the Gold Cup races. Another big change is that a rider may race the Gold Cup Final in ANY region. And, even if they didn’t race a Gold Cup Qualifier, they could still earn a plate by participating in the Mixed Open or Open class at the Finals (as we only count the scores from Saturday & Sunday for opens).

Keep an eye out for the new 2014 USA BMX RULEBOOK to be released toward the beginning of the year. In the meantime, the new 2014 Rules will be made online once the 2013 season wraps up.