After many years of sponsoring one of the toughest enduros on the Texas State Enduro Circuit, our Concho Enduro will be an official, full fledged, National event. All the big dogs are coming as it's a full-on points event on the national circuit this year. Over the last two months we've been preparing the trail for the event. It should be awesome to see all the top pros tearing it up on our course. As always I'll be one of the check captains for at least one or two of the checks. It will be a little bit different for this event, however.

The racers usually have waterproof score cards attached to the front fender that our checkpoint members write the time on when I call out the time they enter the check. During a pro event, the organization sets up electronic recording devices at the check to count the time of the racers. As a check captain, I still call out times, and the check crew manually writes the racer's time on at least a couple of backup logs. This is done in case of a failure in the electronic timer.

This should be a lot of fun, and we could have as many as 500 racers in the event. We always have about 300 just as a state event, and we already have that many pre-entered for the event. That's unheard of this early out from the event. Here's a couple of pics from working the trail this weekend...along with our club's T-shirt for the event. Our course is traditionally one of the toughest...lots of rocks, ledges, and everything else. Lots of turn arrows and ribbon to put up as well as danger markers.

 

Sweet! I suppose since you're working, you might not be able to take pictures or video...but we'll expect some kind of event report from you!

 

Cool!
It's cool enough to see the local hotshots ride a course you've made, but having the big dogs there would be even better. A little less pressure with the electronic scoring too.

We are getting a good snowstorm here today, about seven inches on the ground already. Bad thing is , in a couple weeks we are supposed to be out putting up arrows and cutting trail for our spring DS ride.

Have fun TNC , post up some more pictures and a report after the event.
Dan

 

I helped man checkpoints for an enduro and a harescramble last year that had about 40 riders, each. After seeing the time and number of volunteers required to do those small races properly, I can't imagine what a race like yours would entail.
Good luck!

 

Without electronic aids, we usually have to have a minimum of 6 people including me. I keep time and call out times for each rider coming into the check. Two people keep separate backup logs with pen and paper to record those times to the rider number. Two workers actually write the called times on the time card taped to the front fender. One worker manually flips some metal numbers on a stand that shows the whole minute we are operating in...not the seconds. A check that is called a "tie breaker" requires us to keep track and document the seconds for each rider on his time card and the backup sheets. That gets hectic.

These national enduros with the electronic device at each check should allow us to operate with three less people...no rider time cards on the fender and no flip cards showing the minute as there is a big clock working in conjuction with the electronic gate. I still have to keep time and the two backup logs have to be kept in case of failure of the electronic timer. It should be interesting.

Four riders are usually placed on each minute of the event and numbered accordingly...like 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D for example. Here are a couple of shots of what a conventional enduro check looks like at rest and with racers coming in.

 

Man that looks like fun I wish I was in texas right now

 

I'm looking forward to your report!