Rock racing is scored differently from almost everything else this company makes awards for. It is not simply who was fastest — it is who got through with the fewest penalties, which gates were taken cleanly, and how much winching it took to do it.
An awards programme that only recognises the fastest time therefore ignores most of what the rulebook measures. Seven ideas built from how these events are actually scored and run.
1. The spotter, without whom nothing happens
A rock racing course is run by two people: one driving blind over an obstacle and one standing in front of the vehicle telling them where the tyres are. The spotter is not support staff, they are half the run.
Give them their own named award on the same design as the driver's. It costs a fraction more than a single trophy and it recognises the person who is genuinely responsible for half the result. This is the change competitors mention most often when an event makes it.
2. One family, the class on a plate
Classes here are built from tyre size, build rules and how modified the vehicle is, and they run the same obstacles on the same day. The awards should say that.
Design once, put the class and placing on a separate printed plate, and a five-class event stays one artwork approval. The economics are the same whether you run three classes or ten — only the quantity moves.
3. The clean run
A run with no winch, no gate touched and no penalty is the purest thing in this discipline, and it is frequently not the fastest run of the day. If your scoring already records it, there is an award in it.
It is also the most useful award for explaining the sport to a spectator or a sponsor, because it needs one sentence: they got through without touching anything.
4. The obstacle nobody cleared, named on the plate
Every course has one. The obstacle that ended most of the field is the shared experience of that event, and its name is what competitors will still be saying next season.
Naming it on the award plate — or cutting its profile into the piece — ties the trophy to that specific running rather than to rock racing in general. It also gives next year an obvious reason to look different while staying the same family.
5. Gates and markers as the shape
The gate marker is the one object unique to this scoring format. Nothing else in motorsport is defined by driving between two flags without touching them, and as a silhouette it is simple, readable and completely specific.
It works particularly well as the design language for a whole programme — the gate as the frame, the class on the plate inside it.
6. Recovery, damage and hard luck
The rolled vehicle that got righted and finished, the crew that spent an hour on a broken steering arm, the team that stopped to help a competitor. These are the stories that get retold, and they cost the same as any other award.
They are also the easiest awards for a sponsor to attach to, because a recovery is a story rather than a result.
7. Youth and stock classes on the same design
Stock and youth classes are where this sport recruits, and they are usually the ones handed the leftover trophies. That is a false economy.
Same family, smaller scale, same materials. A stock-class competitor who builds a proper car in three years should recognise their new award as the same object.
Putting it together for an event
One design family built around a gate, the class on a plate, a spotter award for every crew, a clean-run special and something for the recoveries. That covers the whole scoring sheet in one artwork approval.
Send the class list and the gate or obstacle names you intend to put on plates. Obstacle names are the detail most likely to change late, so we proof them against your course notes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a spotter award just a duplicate of the driver's trophy?
It can be, with a different name on the plate, and for most events that is the right answer. The point is that two people ran the course and both leave with something rather than sharing one object.
Can we put an obstacle name on the award if the course changes late?
Yes. The obstacle name sits on the printed plate rather than in the main artwork, so a late course change alters the plate and leaves the approved design alone.
How do we award a clean run if nobody achieves one?
Award the fewest penalties instead and keep the same plate wording. Events that run this award usually find it is more contested in the years nobody goes clean, not less.
Ready to design your rock racing awards?
Send us your class list and course notes and we will build a direction that covers the podium, the clean runs and the spotters before anything is produced.
See rock racing trophies
