Ranking system

With organising the Arctic Challenge Tour we have gained some experience with judging stages. This judgement is also applicable on the Europe Challenge Tour.

Underneath you can read how the ranking system works precisely and thus how you can gain points in our system.

• Each stage consists of a few sections. For each section of a stage an ideal time is established. In each section points can be obtained.
• The ideal time is determined by the average of 3 route planners (Google Maps - Maps 24 - Microsoft Autoroute 2007), combined with the fastest and the shortest route according to these 3 route planners. This results in the average of 6 times. 
• When the weather is bad (to be determined by the organisation), the ideal time will be adjusted. The participants will be informed about this if this is the case.
• If a team is quicker than the ideal time, it will receive penalty points (factor 3). These points will be added to the time that was spent on travelling (for example if you are 5 minutes faster than the ideal time, you will receive a penalty time of 3 x 5 minutes. The penalty time will then be added to the time you travelled. As a result the final time of this stage will be 10 minutes later than the ideal time.)
• The team that drives exactly the ideal time will receive 50 points. Each minute farther from this time means 1 point less. 
• Driving too fast will be punished with a yellow card and 10 minus points (a small margin will be used to make overtaking possible). 
• A team exceeding the speed limit by more than 30 kms p/h will be excluded from the stage immediately and receive no points.
• When a team reaches a checkpoint, it will have to contact the backoffice immediately. The ideal time will then be made known and they will receive new coordinates for the next section of the stage. The new coordinates will be confirmed with a text message.
• After arriving at the checkpoint, the points that a team has scored will be listed on the website.
• As soon as the last team has passed a checkpoint, the ideal time will be shown on our website.

The method described above has the following advantages:

• After receiving the coordinates contestants can try and calculate themselves what the ideal time will probably be. 
• After reaching a coordinate they will hear whether their calculation was correct or if they have to adjust it a bit.
• By putting the scored points from every stage section directly on the website, we try to prevent people from thinking that the results have been manipulated afterwards.

• It is more exciting for the teams, their supporters and other people that are interested when they can follow their team live on the internet..