Andrew Bargery - Rally Co-Driver

PART 2: MORE ADVANCED CO-DRIVING

Co-Drivers Responsibilities

Up to Six months Prior to an Event

Once you are happy that the event is suitable for you and the car, then:

Submit the official entry form (supplied with the Regulations) together with labels, photographs if required, and payment!
Complete the seeding on the form accurately, and keep your own copy
Attached a publicity sheet to the form, if not supplied, provide your own
Note the timetable for the event - start location, rally headquarters, etc.
Book accommodation for the whole crew for both the recce and rally period, ideally at Rally HQ, or close by. Ensure your booking is accurate, e.g. right number of rooms for correct dates, as local accommodation will fill up very quickly. Confirm all bookings in writing, and keep a copy of the confirmation.
Make a thorough study of the Supplementary Regulations as they will provide you will all the information you will need in the run up to the rally
Make sure you are aware of the timing and penalty system to be used. If you have any queries, contact the organisers for clarification at the earliest opportunity. The penalties are set out clearly in the Regulations.

Within one Month of the Rally

Driver Briefing: Brief your driver on the details of the rally, including

Number of stages
Length of stages
Type of surface you will be driving on. This is essential for ensuring you have the correct number and type of tyres.

Publicity: Start the publicity machine rolling. This is essential if you currently have a sponsor, or are seeking one. Send out regular pre-event press releases, with photos if possible, to all local and national newspapers, outlining achievements, etc.

Paperwork

The Final Instructions and any Bulletins are usually sent out by the organisers during this time, and it is at this stage that the co-driver responsibilities really come into effect.

Ensure all paperwork received, is complete and correct, including acknowledgement of entry
Organise rally car insurance if necessary
Communicate any changes to the Supplementary Regulations to the whole team. These will be published by the Organisers in the Final Instructions.
Prepare a Movements Schedule for the whole team.
Prepare Service Schedule
Prepare Recce Schedule (if appropriate)
Collate all necessary documentation relevant to the car, yourselves, and the rally
Check the entry list and note your start number for the rally.

Event Information

Along with the Final Instructions, you may also have received your Road Books & Service Books, or you may collect them at Signing On. Study these very carefully, page by page, highlighting important information (and checking for errors).

The Road Book will contain:

Route cards showing locations and times for every control
Distances between each control and the time allowed between each one
Route maps defined by Tulip Diagrams, outlining the correct rally route

The Service Book will contain:

Service area locations and diagrams
The distance & time between each service area

On Stage - Reading the Map

Some events are "blind". You are not given any opportunity to practice or recce the stage and you will not be given any information about the stage apart from what is in the roadbook. You are however allowed to use 1:25000 maps (or 1:50000, but these are much less accurate).

Top Tip: Mark the Stages on the map using a single orange line drawn down the actual road. Do not use the road-rally technique of drawing a line alongside the road. Providing you are careful you will not obscure any details and the route will be much easier to see at speed in a rally car.

Top Tip: When you have marked the stage route on the map, check each junction in the roadbook. If the junction looks different in the roadbook than on the map, the roadbook will usually be correct. You can add this information and any other information provided by the organisers (e.g. crests, logs, mud etc.) to your map, but you must not add any additional information as this could be considered as "pace-notes"

With practice, you can use these maps to give a lot of information about the road ahead to your driver, although you can never be confident that the maps are 100% accurate.

Top Tip: You can practice map reading sitting in an armchair. You should aim to be able to describe any section of road without having to think to hard about any particular corner. Remember that timely and consistent calling is more important than absolute accuracy.

Top Tip: Some co-drivers keep the map one way up (so that North is always at the top). Other co-drivers rotate the map so usually the direction of travel is at the top. There is no "correct" way – find which method you prefer.

Top Tip: On the stages, only use the map. Don’t try to follow the roadbook at the same time - it doesn’t work!

Pacenotes

Pacenotes are a description of the rally stage, in shorthand form. This shorthand takes account of corners, speed of approach, distances, bumps, junctions, etc. Prepared by the crew together, these are read by the co-driver to the driver, in advance of each corner or distance, so that he can prepare for the corner to attain maximum speed through it, and therefore the stage.

You will also come across Route Notes. This is where the road is described similarly to Pacenotes, but no speed element, or driving lines are introduced. These are generally provided for the whole event, often on events where you are not allowed to recce.

The regulations will advise if it is free recce, or controlled recce. This control might take the form of convoy, i.e. the organisers set when you will go through the stages. Or they limit the number of times you can go through the stages, but you can choose when you go. When it is a restricted recce period, and it is advisable to draw up a Recce schedule to ensure you are able to make the most of the time allowed.

Top Tip: Where the recce is limited to certain hours, endeavour to travel between the stages outside of these times, therefore maximising the time on the stages themselves.

Top Tip: Just as a reminder, when you are going through the stages, jot down a small note to remind you of what the stage was like, after 22 stages they will have run into one another in your head. Also this is a good opportunity to plan your tyre requirements for each stage.

Some common Pacenotes Schemes

"Numbers 1 to 9"

The number is approximately equal to the bend angle in degrees. (e.g. a "5" is 50°, a "9" is 90°)

Pacenotes 1-9

Here is an example of a page of pacenotes using the 1 to 9 system.

"Numbers 7 to 1"

The number is approximately equal to the appropriate gear for each corner

Pacenotes 7-1

"Numbers 1 to 6"

Pacenotes 1-6

"Descriptive"

Some of the terms can vary slightly.

Pacenotes Descriptive

Top Tip: Which is the best system of pacenotes? There is no "best" system – it is very much personal preference. Saying that, if you are totally unsure of which system to use, most people find "numbers" systems easier to learn and the 1-9 system is probably the easiest and most common.

Note: Many drivers use terms like "plus", "minus", "and" and "into". However, these can mean different things!

For example a corner described as "Right 9 plus" may mean the corner is a bit tighter (slower) than a normal R9, or it is a bit faster than a R9.

Short distances are usually described as "and" and "into". Some drivers use "and" as a shorter distance than "into" because it is a shorter word; others use "and" as a longer distance that "into" which makes more sense if you consider the meaning of the word.

Another difference between notes is so people prefer the corner first, then the severity (e.g. Right 9), others prefer the opposite (e.g. 9 Right).

In all these cases, there is no "correct" way. (Although all driver believe that there system of notes is the only sensible scheme and cannot understand how other drivers can use anything different).

Top Tip: It takes a long time to learn how to make good Pacenotes. Practice on roads near your home, although you won’t be able to practice these at full speed (unless you have a test stage).

If you are making notes, then you need an appropriate book. Books with paper & bindings designed for the job are available, or you can use a note book from your local stationer. Propelling pencils are useful, as is a good plastic eraser. When writing notes, aim to get a complete series of notes on one line. Try to avoid splitting corners that are close together over more than one line (or worse, on two pages) as this will make it more difficult to read back.

Top Tip: Try to write your notes as neat as possible during the recce. Some people make rough notes during the day and write up neat versions in the evening. This is time consuming and prone to errors - it is much better if you can get it right first time.

Top Tip: At the bottom of each page, write the next couple of notes that appear at the start of the next page. This means you do not have to stop reading the notes as you turn the page and you can check you have not turned over two pages. Be very careful not to read the note out twice however and watch out for two pages starting with the same note.

Top Tip: Always number the pages in your pace-notes. One way to do this is to number the pages backwards – so if a stage has ten pages of pace-notes, start with page 10 and work backwards so the last page is page 1. Each page of pacenotes is typically just under a mile, so checking the page number will tell you approximately how many miles there are to the end of the stage.

Top Tip: Folding over the corner of every second page is a neat trick to prevent you turning over two pages at once.

Movements Schedule

A movement schedule is a document prepared in good time ahead of the event. It will ensure that all personnel know the outline of getting to the event, the duration and locations of the event, and the timing of getting home too. It means everyone knows the other personnel movements too, so that if the unusual or unexpected happens, contingency plans can be quickly made.

A typical document will contain:

List of personnel, and pre-event addresses & contact number
Contact numbers for important locations at the event, e.g. HQ
Travel movements, flight times, ferry times, arrival times for each member of the team
Hotel contact details, dates, & room allocations
Specific requirements for which team clothing to wear
Plans/maps of towns used and noise/scrutineering/HQ venues marked
Trailer park, service parks marked
Car dealer or own workshop facilities marked
A brief itinerary of the event for tyre planning & preparation
Any other items relevant to your team

Service Schedules and Servicing

A Service Schedule is a document to ensure that all crews who are involved in the actual running of a competing crew during an event are aware of where they should be, what time they have allocated, and what specific major tasks should be undertaken at that time. The Schedule can be made by a co-ordinator if available, otherwise the best person is usually the co-driver.

The main reason for preparing your own service schedule is to ensure the information is consistent from event to event, as each organising team will produce slightly different paperwork.

Top Tip: Write all the important information (time available, fuel to leave etc.) from the Service Schedule into the correct place in you roadbook so that you always have the information when you need it. (A rubber stamp can keep this looking neat)

The Service Schedule should usually contain the following information:

Personnel and Vehicle Details for whole team
Mobile Phone Numbers and Radio Call Signs
List of Stages with Distances and Location of major Service points.
Copies of any relevant information (e.g. Organisers diagram of Service Areas)
Summary of Servicing Rules
Details of Each Service Point

For each Service Point, you should include:

Point Number (for reference)
Crews/Vehicles required
Position/Location (with sketch map if needed)
Map Reference
First Car Due
Time Available
Fuel to Leave
Requirements
Miles to next Service
Any Additional Comments
Details of Next Point for service crews

When calculating service time and due times for the first car, base your timing on:

Approx. 60mph average for the Special Stage
Approx. 37mph average for Road Sections
Add 3 minutes to cover the time spent at the end of the stage
Add another 3 to 5 minutes to cover delays at the arrival control of the next stage

You can then adjust these times to take into account Road Sections which include build-up areas or sections of Motorway. Always recalculate Service Time etc. actually on the event as things may change (e.g. you may be delayed getting to Service).

To calculate Fuel for a 1600 Gp.A cars such as the Peugeot 106, base your consumption on:

Approx. 1.5 miles per litre for the Special Stage
Approx. 3 miles per litre for Road Sections
Add about 10 litres to the requirement to give some margin

Top Tip: It is often desirable to carry enough fuel to reach the next service point but one, in case your service crew fail to make it to the next service, or you have a major problem that need fixing and you have no time to refuel. Be careful about weighing the car down with excessive fuel however.

Hold a service meeting prior to the event, where the main points of the event can be quickly gone through, and ensure each person thoroughly understands their specific tasks. Especially ensure that whoever is reading the maps in the vehicle understands their task. At the meeting, ensure that each crew has the correct Event Plates issued by the organisers, and any personnel tags as required too.

Specifically ensure that any "no-go" areas are marked and highlighted. You do not want to suffer exclusion from the results of the event, from the behaviour and actions of your service crew.

Service Areas

Ensure that one of the service crew is primed to give you the exact location of the Service Barge. It is very easy to lose a couple of minutes when there are 100 barges parked in the same area. Have him "run you in", i.e. run in front of the car, choosing the most direct route.

Top Tip: Make up a small card to slot into the window, showing Time to Leave and Fuel to Leave and any other work to be performed, so that you do not have to be constantly present in the Service Area.

Top Tip: Make sure you know where the Out Control of the Service Park is, and that it is not blocked by service vehicles. Do this immediately you arrive in the Service Area.

FINALLY...

When you are lucky (or good) enough to win an award at prizegiving, then please be sure to attend the ceremony. And always allow your driver to step on the podium first!