During my stay at the Big 6 grand prix last weekend, I did ask a Moto-tally district officer and they said the person with the most laps win, regardless of which flag they went through or what the referee says. They said if you DNF, you forfeit all your laps and your win. You must finish to win. Reminds me of why Casselli pushed his broken bike three miles in the desert to finish with a 3rd place. If he had given up, he would of lost everything.
A friend of mine did that at the last event of the year. Over the tires the mud and the logs, must have been the longest 100 yards of his life ! He had to do it with no help.
Must depend on the series. If you look at the results I posted earlier, these rules clearly are not true: http://www.moto-tally.com/ECEA/ECEA/Results.aspx/2014/1/O2/CT This is a 90 minute hare scramble. Based on the finishing times, and laps, they are scoring based on number of laps completed (and how quickly), with no factor of whether you ride through the flag or not. For example, see rider 2017 in position 112. He finished 2 laps in 54 minutes (and was hauling ass, fastest rider on the course). Clearly something happened and he didn't finish his third lap. However, Mototally has placed him ahead of every other 2-lap rider, even riders who took 1:47 to finish 2 laps, which means they probably rode through the checkered flag (while he definitely didn't). So, in the case of this series (ECEA hare scrambles), they clearly are going by laps completed, with no regard paid to whether or not you ride until the race is "over." In a different type/style of race, I can absolutely see the requirement for a finish; for example, in any race where you don't just do the same loop a bunch of times. And, other race organizations may have different rules, I don't know if this is a mototally rule or an ECEA rule. In any case, what you say is not universally true. To the original question, I think either method would be fine, you could make an argument for either one. You just need to pick something and stick with it.
Racer 2017 in position 112 did not DNF. Racers below posistion 185 DNF and therefore forfeited regardless of their laps or times.
http://www.moto-tally.com/nhha/results.aspx Look up Jacob Argubright. He broke down 15 miles from the finish and completed all of his laps, was in 2nd place at the time of failure resulting in a DNF.
Maybe we have different definitions of a DNF, then. Racer 2017 did not ride until the race was over, and did not ride through the checkered flag. He left the course (for reasons unknown) before the race was complete, or otherwise failed to finish his 3rd lap.
Some racers are not required to complete all three laps. Some seniors need only to complete one lap. Everyone from 112 to 177 completed 2 laps, bellow 177, a single lap. You can race two laps, skip the last lap, as soon as the checker come out, ride across. You aren't going to win obviously, but you will keep basic pts. But if you skip the last lap, when required to do so and don't ride through the finish, moto-tally will kick you to dnf resulting in a total loss.
I guarantee you that those people didn't wait around and ride through the checkered flag. Maybe I didn't make that clear; they rode, and then left the track well before the race was over, and didn't come back out to ride through the flag. If they had, they would have registered a really long 3rd lap. Another example: http://www.moto-tally.com/ECEA/ECEA/Results.aspx I rode in this race, conditions were AWFUL with deep mud and I had an issue at the beginning of the third lap; rode off the course and to my truck, sure didn't go back 30 minutes later for the checkered flag. Still scored points in my class (not many, but they didn't DQ me), and I probably had my bike in the truck and my gear off when the flag came out. Maybe it's a regional thing, or maybe it's a organizational thing, I dunno. Anyway, point is, in at least one series, they don't give a hoot if you ride until the end of the time limit, just how many laps you complete and how fast you complete them.
And this is why you ask your promoter about how they score your series rather than everyone on the internet. Some do it different, that's just life. Last year at a mud fest I made two whole laps over the 30 min. I had and went 7th in my class and way back overall, ahead of those who made one lap. We all race just not with the same rules.
I took it that he was looking at it from the point of view of the promoter/club and checking on how other promoters/sanctioning bodies do it. Interesting to see how the different organizations handle this. It becomes a gotcha for a few guys every year for us....always good to read the rules or ask when going someplace new.
