Rules, Weather & Refund Policies

2024 Rule Updates

Based on feedback from Season XII and Leader Summit, the Rules Committee has reviewed and amended a few rules to better accommodate our teams. Those amendments are summarized below. Please review the full 2024 NICA handbook for more detailed information, including the Texas specific amendments. It is the responsibility of all teams and athletes to be familiar with the rules.  

2024 NICA Handbook

Weather and Refund Policy

Below are the guidelines for how Texas will conduct races in the event of challenging weather. Our primary considerations are the safety of racers, race support staff, race visitors, and potential damage to the race venue (trails and infield).

Any decisions regarding cancelling, postponing, or altering race start times, lap length, number of laps, etc. will be made jointly by the Texas League director and the land manager. Whenever possible, the League will make calls to cancel races by the end of the day on the Thursday before race weekend. Due to the unpredictable and emergent nature of Texas weather, this may not always be possible. 

Texas will make every attempt to notify the racing population via email (addresses taken from rider, parent, and coach emails entered when registering in the Pit Zone online registration system), Facebook, and web site updates as soon as possible.

Texas Weather Guidelines:

• Races are held on their scheduled dates and times unless the race course or weather on the day of the race is deemed un-rideable and/or dangerous.
• Texas will have the option to delay the start of a race from the published times if the weather has created dangerous conditions.
• Courses and/or lap lengths may be altered or shortened because of weather conditions.
  • Texas will advise of changes to race course or lap count at the pre-race coach meeting if changes are known at that time.
  • Last minute changes will be broadcast to racers at the start of each field via the staging and starting staff.
• All racing will stop immediately in the presence of lightning and thunder. Course marshals will direct racers off course where they can seek shelter in vehicles, trailers/RVs, or buildings.
• Re-starting a race that has been stopped (and course cleared) due to lightning (or other emergency);
  • Depending on schedule and number of laps completed, the race may be declared over. If time permits, racers will be directed to re-stage at the start line and an abbreviated race will be conducted.
• Race fees:
  • If a race venue is moved or a race is re-scheduled, race fees will automatically be applied to the moved or re-scheduled race.
  • If a race is cancelled due to weather conditions fees will not be re-funded.
• Race points:
  • If a race is cancelled (not able to be moved or rescheduled):
    • No team points will be awarded and the race will not be included in the season overall team point standings.
    • No individual points will be awarded and the race will not be included in the season overall individual point standings. Riders will still have a “drop race” available from the remaining races and the 25 series bonus points will be awarded based on completion of all races in the shortened series.
  • If a race is partially completed (some fields complete their race and others do not):
    • No team points will be awarded and the race will not be included in the season overall team point standings.
    • Individual points will be awarded in all of the fields that completed their race and those fields will proceed through the season as normal.
    • No individual points will be awarded in the fields where races were not completed and the race will not be included in the season overall individual point standings. Riders will still have a “drop race” available from the remaining races and the 25 series bonus points will be awarded based on completion of all races in the shortened series.

Race Refund Policy

The Texas League understands that money is valuable and that circumstances come up that can cause a change in plans. We want to work with you to put your money to good use wherever possible. We also forecast our race resource planning based on having a solid understanding of how many riders we are expecting. Based on these considerations we have adopted the following race fee refund guidelines for all requests not directly related to weather as noted in the above weather policy:

1. NICA and Texas League Season fees pertain to a host of activities outside of racing and are not refundable.
2. Requests for refunds of the season pass must be received via email (please include the rider name and team) before 4 pm on the Saturday of the first race weekend. No season pass refunds will be issued, partial or otherwise, after the first race.
3. Requests for refunds of individual race fees must be received via email (please include rider name and team) before 4 pm on the Saturday of that race weekend.
4. If your request for a refund meets the above requirement, fees for any given race will be refunded (minus a $10 service charge). If you prefer, we will issue a credit to be used for future races or registrations with no service charge, as long as your request meets the above requirements.
5. Please note that we are usually unable to respond to emails on race weekend (Friday through Sunday). As long as the time and date stamp on your sent email meets the above guidelines we will honor it. It is highly unlikely we will respond with confirmation on a race weekend.