Everything you ever wanted to know about: rally notes
Blind Rally: Rallies in the US evolved a little differently then rally in Europe. Starting out as all night TSD’s (time speed distance) or brisk rallies, rally in the US did not typically run reconnaissance. This means that the rallymaster would give the co-driver a route book with major navigation instructions and some of the more extreme things to watch out for. Example: “BRIDGE - TURN RIGHT ON SNAPPY ROAD - CAUTION HAIRPIN” Next to this would be a little diagram (on right) showing the direction of the road or obstacle. Sometimes called ‘tulips’, the name is believed to come from the Tulip Rally of the Netherlands that originally used them.
European rallies were also blind without recce’ for many, many years. It is believed that reconnaissance started some time in the 70s. The RAC remained blind for many years after all other rallies allowed recce’. European rallies started with the Monte Carlo in 1911 as an advertising gimmick to get rich people, i.e. those that owned cars to come together or rally, in Monte Carlo and stay in hotel rooms that were vacant in February. The object was to start from different cities across the continent and maintain a given speed while going to Monte Carlo. As cars became more capable, the speeds got too high to be safe and special stages had to be developed. (Thanks to Richard M for the additional info.)
Route Book: The route book is the standard that the US has been rallying with for many years. The route book tells you about obstacles, cautions, difficult or deceptive turns, and how to get there. As created by the rally master of the rally, route books often vary wildly from rally to rally. Some rally masters choose to include as much information as possible, some find it more challenging to include as little as possible. Cautions and turns are often marked differently as well. A double caution (!!) in one rally may mean something like “slow down for this,” whereas at another rally it may mean “brake hard and watch out as you will destroy your car.” With a route book the co-driver is not calling every turn, so there is a lot of times where the driver is driving it how he sees it. As in - driving it blind. You will always receive the route book when you compete in a rally.
Stage Notes: Stage notes are generally accepted as “notes made by a computer” and rallies in the US would not see stage notes until the 21st century. A company in Sweden called Jemba (owned by Arne Johansson) had perfected a system that would allow a car with a very accurate odometer (coralba tripmeter), laptop, GPS, and accelerometer (measures G-Force) to generate detailed “European style” notes, marking every corner, crest and obstacle on the route with numerical or descriptive notations. Example: “! R3/Cr/rox into smCr 50″ In order to do this you would have to run the car with the system down the stages several times at a steady pace. There is still some human intervention needed to mark exposures, large obstacles, cautions, bridges, etc.
Stage notes (sometimes called Jemba notes) attempt to call out every corner on the stage and give details as to the roads direction, camber and character. It does not however tell you how to drive those corners. For example: “L5> R5 kinks 70″ describes a road that has a slight chicane. If the road is wide enough a rally driver should attempt to run straight through them and avoid turning (slowing down) as much as possible. The subtle difference between how the road is described and how you would drive it, separates stage notes from pace notes. Even so, once rallies began using stage notes, their stage records were shattered by drivers taking full advantage of this new system. Stage notes are often an additional financial burden to the organizers. P-Sport (owned by Pete Lahm) is the only organization known to offer Jemba stage notes in the US. RA specifies in their rule book that only one vendor will be used for the season’s stage notes.
As a competitor, you are not required by the rally to have (purchase) stage notes. They are generally offered for an additional cost between $100 - $175 with the understanding that anything wrong in the stage notes is solely your problem. Rally America currently limits new drivers and co-drivers from purchasing stage notes until they have finished 20 co-efficients. That’s at least 4 weekend rallies. Rally America typically offers waivers for rookie drivers that find experienced co-drivers, and novice co-drivers sitting with championship drivers. NASA RallySport has no such limitation and allows any participant to use stage notes.
Pace notes: Pace notes are created during reconnaissance (recce`). Reconnaissance is what most European and all WRC drivers and co-drivers use to create notes, specifically pace notes. Unlike Jemba, there is no set standard between teams. Some prefer calling the direction of the turn after the tightness, some use a descriptive method - there are many styles. It is solely up to a driver and co-driver to determine what works for them. The team drive the road several times and notate each corner, obstacle, caution, and mark down (what they perceive to be) the fastest way through the stage. Here in the US, reconnaissance is sometimes offered along with stage notes as a way to further sharpen the notes into something you would drive and not just a description of the road. There is a significant inherent cost to teams running a full reconnaissance that include additional days off, hotel, gas, and other travel expenses.
Combinations of notes: Several combinations have been offered in the last few years by rally organizers in the US. Route Book with the option to buy Stage Notes has been the most common after 2002, but Route Book ONLY was the standard for 30+ years. Reconnaissance has been offered with stage notes and a shorter format called “One Pass Recce’” where you must have purchased the stage notes, and you will only make one recce` pass down each stage. This lightens some of the burdens of running a full reconnaissance. Recently however, reconnaissance has been offered instead of stage notes because of the high cost incurred by the organizer. This is due in part by the decline in rally participation (less entries to pay for it), and the increasing cost of the stage notes from P-Sport. Organizer supplied notes have been tried with some controversy. These are notes made by a professional driver or co-driver that are then printed up and offered to the competitors. As my first hand account - I can tell you that it was not successful in Olympus 2006.
The Nintendo Generation: The internet allowed media and games from WRC and European rallies to flow into the US. I myself was following WRC long before I even knew there was an SCCA rally 100 miles from my home in New Hampshire. The images and ideas of rally - specifically the co-drivers rattling off hundreds of instructions while the daring drivers made heroic efforts to shave micro-seconds off their stage times - were forever burned into our brain. Anything less then this amazing driver and co-driver interaction wasn’t going to cut it. This may help to explain why competitors that have been competing in rally in the US for many years don’t understand why newer competitors demand stage notes and recce`. Remember the SCCA didn’t start using stage notes until 2002.
Where do we go from here? Cost is going to dictate what rallies offer in the near future. Stage notes used to be affordable with 40 entrants. Some rallies are seeing less then 20 competitors and thus dropping stage notes. This makes a lot of competitors stay away and reduces the event to an unsustainable amount of entries. Reconnaissance in some cases is cheaper then the cost of notes for the organizer and has shown to bring out the competitors that would normally run stage notes only. Unfortunately the inherent cost of recce` to the competitors is a lot higher then $100 - $175 stage notes, so this is also not an ideal situation. Going back to running route book only seems like a good financial idea but leaves competitors that have been competing in the sport for the last 5 years wondering what to do with their co-driver. Going back to route book only will not be viewed as progress.
The team started the 2007 Laughlin International Rally and Motorsports Festival last weekend with hopes of doing well in a regional class and to secure a runner up spot in the United States Rally Championship Production Two Wheel Drive Class. In an unbelievable twist with a rule in the 2007 USRC regulations the team was completely unaware of, the event was scored high enough so that they would have a shot at winning the championship.
.
This weekend, the 2007 Laughlin International Rally and Motorsports Festival will be the place to be for USRC rally action! Headquartered in Laughlin, Nevada, the rally uses roads throughout the amazing Hualapai Indian lands and even into the Grand Canyon for a three day exhausting event that will push the team to its limit. Team Rallynotes.com will be looking for a strong finish to secure a second place in the Production 2WD championship. They will also be competing for podium points in the CRS rallycross to be held Sunday along side the SuperStage at the Laughlin MotorZone Special Events Area.