NEOTT - Dam Gate Trial
Held at the Grand Lake Dam in Disney, OK this event started in 2016 and due to the high fun factor and easy setup the gate trial has quickly become an annual event for NEOTT. In a gate trial the highest points wins. See the rules further down this page.
Event Winners
2016 - Pat Gwin, Electric Motion Sport Model
2017 - Pat Smage, Sherco - 9-time AMA national champion, perfect score 504 points
2018 - Jason Rexroat, AVTA
2019 - Chris Shellenberger
2020 - could be you - come out and ride!
2019 Gate Trial Results
1 Chris S 419
2 Mike C 404
3 Kevin Kight 395
4 Todd P 393
5 Todd Duesterhaus 384
6 Jason Shackelford 364
7 Josh Evans 342
8 Jackson Malone 333
9 Mike Williams 331
10 Eldon Malone 310
11 Mark Dennison 287
12 Ryan Witchey 227
13 Keenan Winters 201
14 Ron Lee n/c
15 Charles Mallow dnf
2 Mike C 404
3 Kevin Kight 395
4 Todd P 393
5 Todd Duesterhaus 384
6 Jason Shackelford 364
7 Josh Evans 342
8 Jackson Malone 333
9 Mike Williams 331
10 Eldon Malone 310
11 Mark Dennison 287
12 Ryan Witchey 227
13 Keenan Winters 201
14 Ron Lee n/c
15 Charles Mallow dnf
2018 Gate Trial Results
1 Jason Rexroat Exp 455
2 Gary Vernon Exp 447
3 Jason Shackelford Exp 442
4 Chris Shellenberger Exp 437
5 Todd Duesterhaus Int 412
6 Justin Davis Sra 412
7 Rick Rexroat Sra 392
8 Eldon Malone Int 385
9 Todd Phillips Int 383
10 Matt Hildebrand Int 378
11 Kevin Kight Sra 376
12 Danny Patron Int 365
13 David Pettigrew Sra 335
14 Marion Cassidy Nov 312
15 Bill Kleeman Nov 292
16 Drake Tribblehorn Ama 284
17 Penny Taylor Nov 264
2 Gary Vernon Exp 447
3 Jason Shackelford Exp 442
4 Chris Shellenberger Exp 437
5 Todd Duesterhaus Int 412
6 Justin Davis Sra 412
7 Rick Rexroat Sra 392
8 Eldon Malone Int 385
9 Todd Phillips Int 383
10 Matt Hildebrand Int 378
11 Kevin Kight Sra 376
12 Danny Patron Int 365
13 David Pettigrew Sra 335
14 Marion Cassidy Nov 312
15 Bill Kleeman Nov 292
16 Drake Tribblehorn Ama 284
17 Penny Taylor Nov 264
2017 Gate Trial Results
1 Pat Smage 504 (perfect score)
2 Chris Shellenberger 454
3 Mike Cramsey 441
4 Kevin Kight 415
5 Todd Duesterhaus 402
6 Cale Duesterhaus 401
7 Matt Hildebrand 397
8 Pat Gwin 387
9 Stan Machart 383
10 Eldon Malone 382
11 Todd Phillips 370
12 Hannah Johnson 350
13 Weldon Patton 344
14 Fred Overstreet 343
15 Joel Honea 101
16 David Meyer DNF
17 Gary Price DNF
NEOTT - 2018 Gate Trial Pics
NEOTT - Gate Trial Scoring Overview
There are many different ways to setup and score a Gate Trial - this is how NEOTT does it:
There are 8 sections and 3 loops. Each section has 5 gates with point values numbered 10, 5, 3, 2, 1.
Generally speaking the difficultly of the gates are set as follows:
•10 point gate = Novice Line level challenge
•5 point gate = Amateur Line level challenge
•3 point gate = Sr. Amateur\Intermediate level challenge
•2 point gate = Expert\Master level challenge
•1 point gate = Novice level and should be located at or near the end of the section. The actual placement could be easier for the Novice line while the Exp\Mas may have a tougher time getting to the gate through the use of white ribbon inside the section coming off of the 2 gate.
Basic Rules
- The gates must be ridden in order 10, 5, 3, 2, 1 though you can skip a gate.
- Note that in 2019 the gate order was reversed to 1,2,3,5,10 but all the same principles apply. Trialsmaster has the discretion for how the gates are set.
- The rear axle must clear the gate in order to score the points marked on the gate
- Points are gained by going through the gates until you dab or ‘fail’ (i.e. kill the engine, backwards through a gate, crash etc)
- You keep all points earned to the point of a dab
- You lose all points earned to the point of a failure - (i.e. get a zero for the section)
- High score at the end of the day wins - maximum points possible are 504 (21 points max per section times 24 scores)
Gate Trial Scoring Examples
Example 1: Perfect Score of 21
Ride clean through all the gates in order.
Be like Pat (Smage) - Pat knows Perfect!
No Faults - No Failures.
Punch 10, 5, 3, 2 & 1 on your scorecard.
Example 2: Skip one or more gates
Could be a typical safe route on a novice line to hit the 10 gate then the 1 gate by-passing the 5, 3, and 2 gates.
No Faults - No Failures.
Punch 10 and 1 on your scorecard.
Example 3: Skip one or more gates
Riders can by-pass the 10 gate. In this case the rider brain-farted the start and missed the 10 gate but still gets 9 points.
No Faults - No Failures.
Punch 5, 3 and 1 on your scorecard.
Example 4: Faulting (dabbing) in the section
A single dab results in the rider keeping any points earned to the point of the fault but the rider cannot gain any more points in the section. Remembering that the rider must get their rear axle through the 5 gate in order to earn the 5 points.
Punch 10 and 5 on your scorecard.
Example 5: Failure in the section
Failure is defined as anything that would cause a '5' to be scored in a regular trial such as crashing, killing the engine with a foot down, displacing a marker, going backwards through a gate, going out of bounds etc. Any failure, regardless of how many points are earned to that point in the section results in zero points for the section. The rider cannot gain any more points in the section.
Get out your crying towel and punch a big ol' zero on your scorecard pumpkin.
Benefits of this format include:
- Easy to setup since there are only 5 gates per section
- The event flows faster since there is a defined route through the section (10->5->3->2->1) and each rider isn't trying to figure out some unique way through.
- The inverted scoring (10,5,3,2,1) puts morning level riders on a level playing field with afternoon riders. At the end of the day all riders are in one class and have the opportunity to ride the same course and see how they stack up against each other.
- Same risk \ reward profile as other gate trials except higher skilled riders are taking more risk and get smaller gains to level the playing field.
- Use the existing scorecards not a custom score sheet maintained by a non-rider following the group around
- In order to beat your riding buddy you will have to take some calculated risks and attempt an obstacle a little above your skill level to gain points. Say you would normally take the 'safe' route in a section by going 10 > 5 > 1 to exit the section clean for 16 points. Well if all your riding buddies did the same thing and you are tied on that section then the next loop you may want to try going 10 > 5 > 3 and maybe take a dab after the 3 gate but end up with 18 points. Of course you might crash or kill your engine after the 3 gate and end up with a zero --- risk vs reward.
One downside is there are a lot of points to calculate at the end of the day!