Rookie's Guide to Rallying

GLOSSARY ROOKIE’S CO-DRIVER ROADBOOK Deals with the timing and paperwork in the This is the book which guides co-drivers car. Loosely speaking, tells the driver where from the start to the finish of an event. Every to go, how fast and when. junction on the route is illustrated offering GUIDE TO clear direction on which way to go. FLYING FINISH Doesn’t fly and isn’t a Finn. This is the end RECCE of the timed section of the special stage, The crews are allowed to drive through RALLYING marked out by a chequered flag. Called all of the special stages twice before the ‘flying’ because the timing beam is broken event in order to make the vital pacenotes at speed. used to describe the road. While the drivers take the stages flat out, the recce must be INTERCOM conducted at no more than 80kph (50mph) NEW TO THE WRC? IF SO, The mic and earphone fitted inside the helmets and the cars are fitted with a tracking device of drivers and co-drivers, allowing them to to monitor speeds and location. DAVID EVANS IS HERE TO HELP… hear each other over the noise of the engine. SCRUTINEERING OTL Every car is inspected ahead of the rally Over Time Limit. Crews are given an to make sure it complies with the FIA’s allotted time to get from control to control stringent safety requirements. It’s also a and if, for whatever reason, they don’t check to make sure the car’s technical make it to the next control in that allotted specification is in-keeping with the category time then they are deemed OTL and retire in which it’s entered. And it’s not just the from the day. cars, the crews overalls and crash helmets PACENOTES will also be inspected. A set of notes describing the nature of RALLY VILLAGE the special stage dictated by the driver to This is what’s at Deeside - in circuit racing the co-driver during the recce, which are parlance: the paddock and pits. The cars then read back to the driver to tell them come and go from their service areas at exactly what corners, crests and jumps the Rally Village every day. They are prepared are coming when the crew is running at and repaired at a short service session in the competitive speed. morning and a longer session in the evening. POWER STAGE STAGES This is usually the final stage of each rally, This is where the rally is won and lost. The where five bonus points are given to the crews are timed to the tenth of a second fastest crew; four to the second, and so between the start and finish and the on. The stage is also shown live on global accumulated time from all of the stages television. This year our Power Stage will be decides the classification. WRC rounds are on Sunday morning in Gwydir and the final run on Tarmac, snow and gravel – Dayinsure stage will be around the Great Orme. Wales Rally GB is predominantly gravel. Dayinsure Wales Rally GB has 23 stages in 2018 spread over Thursday, Friday, Saturday RALLY2 CONTROLS and Sunday. A stage is the name for the road This is the regulation allowing a crew to The start and finish of every stage and return to the overall classification despite Next morning, the cars leave their service between the stage start and flying finish. service park has a control and the crews retiring from a rally and not completing all areas in the Deeside Rally Village. Service It’s the time it takes a crew to get from start must enter the control at precisely the right of the special stages on the previous day. minute to avoid a penalty. Welcome. You’ve arrived. This is rallying. is where they are tended to by a team of to finish that decides who’s quickest in that A time penalty of five minutes is imposed This is Dayinsure Wales Rally GB. Brace mechanics who can do loads of things like stage while the accumulated time from all 23 on the competitor for each stage they fail WRC2 yourself for the most staggering sensory The first thing you need to know is that changing gearboxes or front suspension stages will decide the winner of the rally. to complete. This is the main feeder class to the WRC. assault. That’s assuming you’re reading you’ll one be seeing one car at a time in the in no time at all and without any invoices Stages in the WRC are run on all surfaces Rallying’s equivalent to GP2. The cars are RETIRE this leaning up against a tree in Dyfi, killing corner before you. You’ll also notice, there’s or abuse of the driver’s wallet. They also and to all lengths, but in Wales this year they four-wheel drive, but can be two-litre non-turbo Doesn’t involve stopping work or taking a (S2000) or 1.6 with a turbo (known as R5 or time as you wait for a world champion, no run-off, no ARMCO and no gravel traps. do the more mundane work here, such range from the brand new street stage in pension. Means a crew hasn’t made the RRC). These cars are generally about 40bhp 380 horses and a lot of noise. Just gravel. Rallying is motor sport in an as cleaning the windscreen, topping up Llandudno to the much more typical 20Km next control because they’ve gone off the down on the World Rally Cars – but just as If you’re reading it in your favourite environment we can relate to, in cars we washer fluid and making sure the crew have test in Myherin first thing Saturday morning. road, suffered a mechanical problem or got spectacular. Crews competing in the WRC2 armchair on a future Saturday evening recognise as the ones we buy every time a couple of energy bars or bananas in their In these stages, the aim for the crew lost. Providing the car’s safety structure is score on six from their first seven rallies. undamaged, the car can be re-entered the hoping to avoid Strictly, you’re going to we’ve paid the last one off. door pockets. is simple, to go as fast as humanly and following day under Rally2 regulations. WRC3 be disappointed. Dancing’s just dancing. World Championship rounds - of which Out of service, the cars are driven along mechanically possible without crashing, Run for two-wheel drive cars with engines But rallying’s dancing at 100mph, on snow, Dayinsure Wales Rally GB is the 11th - liaison sections – between service and the spinning or breaking the car. And that’s REMOTE TYRE FITTING ZONE up to two-litre non-turbo or 1.6-litre with a mud, ice, gravel and asphalt. start on a Thursday evening and finish on competitive stages – in accordance with the challenge, that’s the hook – the race This is what happens in Newtown on turbo. Drivers can score on six from their But what really is rallying? For those of a Sunday lunchtime. This year’s event will each individual country’s traffic laws. So, is against the clock. Fastest wins. Saturday. It’s the same as Deeside, but on first seven rounds. a much smaller scale – it’s remote from the you used to consuming your motor sport start by returning to the popular venue where the speed limit’s 30mph in Newtown We could get more technical here, but main service (hence the name). Teams are WORLD RALLY CAR trackside, you’ve ventured into a very at Tir Prince, just outside Towyn on the for you and I, it’s exactly the same for them. let’s save that for another day. For now, permitted to fit new tyres to the car and The Formula One cars of the forests. different – but we like to think very much north Wales coast where the cars and If they break the law on the road, they’re put the programme down and wait for your work on the cars – but only using parts and Powered by 1.6-litre turbo engines with better – parallel universe. crews will go against the clock on a track. treated just like you and I. world and these woods to be rocked. tools carried in the car itself. four-wheel drive, these are the fastest cars in the top class. Overall victory will go to one of these..

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