No one knows what I'm talking about or what?

I am old school(and getting closer to an old timer everyday LOL), so I would say penalties and time deductions, so the slowest time w/o stopping or backing up/hitting a flag etc., wins.  However understanding that this type of technical wheeling makes for rather boring viewing, and that ticket sells fund events, I know you need a high speed section as well for a high carnage factor. 

If you have the time, I would set it up w/two runs, one where the fastest time wins, and one where the slowest time wins.  The tech/slow run would have a set time and competitors would need to get as close to that time as possible and would get time deductions for stopping, backing up or hitting cones, etc.  You could then have 3 winners per class, one for fastest, slowest, and combined.

If time or number of participants don't allow for two runs, have a course with a tech section and a speed section.  With a tech course like the one above, the competitors course time would be deducted from the set time, and that time would be added to the speed section.  This should have the high carnage factor of rock racing, as well as demonstrating the technical driving side of rock crawling.

With the time limit I was thinking you would need it to keep things moving, maybe a time window.  However with a course set up that eliminates the ability to throttle down, you wouldn't need a time limit or window at all.

The mixed course should keep your current competitors happy, as well as attracting the hammer down crowd, w/o having the "Tough Truck comp" feel to it, and be a fairly equal competition between the two driving styles.

Pretty much everything you are thinking, most of the competitions I've been to combine all of those. First and foremost is the quickest times, then they add the technical part such as the course with cones or flags that must be avoided or you get time penalties which add time to your total for each cone you hit and then there is a time limit to complete the course or you get dq'ed.

We have done a run what you brung podunk rally cross a couple times (autocross with cars on dirt) and we did time with 5 second penalties for cones. Carful driving definately played there.

My thoughts are that there should be a given time limit for a section.  Then, there should be pre-determined time penalties for errors, hitting cones, backing up, winching, etc.  Last, once the section has been completed within the given time limit, you would subtract the remaining time for an overall time score.

Example:

Section time limit 5 minutes
Competitor runs in 3:30, but backs up twice, each backup adding 15 seconds to his time, and uses his winch once, adding 45 second to his time, obviously on top of the time it took the competitor to back up and use winch.  Then, the competitor receives a negative time, or a time reduction, for finishing the actual run in under 5 mins.

3:30 +:15 + :15 + :45 = 4:45 - :15 = total time of 4:30

I've run several comps both ways. Scoring with penalties sucks. You give a competitor a 10 minute time limit and they are going to try to use the whole thing and end up hung up and not finishing anyway. It boring to watch and there generally a lot of complaining about calls.  Except for a fastest man to the top race, a time race with bonus line time deductions works he best  Keeps competitors moving and adds finesse to it.

No penalties, only bonuses as time deductions. We set course and have gates and 2 tires would have to pass through gate in order to proceed and if the passed with all 4 tires clean, you got a bonus. People complain a lot less about not getting a bonus vs getting a penalty even though it's the same thing.
 

So I went to the event this last weekend...  First and second place were both Marlin equiped Toyotas that drove there and drove home .

I ended up in first place at 17 points and my buddy Don in second place at 26 points.  Overall the scoring was OK but we thought the hadicaps for mods were a little to extreme.  Because of low lift, no winch and 35s I ended up with only a 17 for a hadicap.  There was a -10 bonus line that I didn't have time to take because the hand-me-down square front driveshaft I was using came apart and I had to haul ass or time out for the last half after my buddies put it back together mid-course. Don cleaned the bonus line.  Without hadicaps I would have had a 0 and Don a -4. They plan to tweak the scoring as they go so we'll see how it plays in the future.

No, less points was a better score, I had less hadicap for lower lift so I had a more favorable score to start with than someone taller. Funny thing was bigger engines had more hadicap and most of the V8 rigs there didn't even finish the course because they broke. The hadicap is a swell ideal but I think they need to tune the system a bit if they want to accomplish what they are shooting for.