OHSCrifle said:TXratti said:I'll see if I can post some onboard from Ojibwe, but here's some from Barry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXi2hN77pOQ
I have no experience with Rally so pardon my naivety. This video is nutty and I have questions. How can I learn more about the co-driver lingo, the timing, etc? Some is intuitive like "over crest" but I am left guessing on the numbers. Is there a standard language or does it vary by team? Is the code driver calling out degrees (of bend) for turns, distances to a waypoints... approximate speed? I'm literally psyched to learn more about this sport based on this post.
Is "Rallycross" like this?
... also one of Keith's videos showed what it's like to lose your place in the notes - does that happen with professionals as well? Are there markers on the course akin to mile markers to allow you to find your place if you do get "lost" relative to the course notes?
All good questions!
There's a number of resources out there for learning about pacenotes, but the gist of it is that you're providing a nomenclature for the driver to know how open or tight the upcoming turn is, and any other information which may be imporant such as "Off camber" or "Don't Cut." I recommend to any aspiring rally drivers as well as codriver's to read the book "Rally Co-Driving in North America" written by one of John Buffum's codriver's Mark Williams. He compares a number of note systems in the book on a couple of pages, which is a great reference. Here's a good article, with a good video from Team O'Neil on the subject: https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/videos/a33502/heres-the-most-in-depth-explainer-of-rally-stage-notes-youll-ever-see/
Every driver does it slightly differently (right now the driver in the R5 uses a 1-fastest system which goes down to 6 and then uses the descriptive "Square" below that, the driver I worked with in Colorado a few weeks ago uses 6 fastest, 1 slowest (similar to Jemba). Some drivers use up to 10, or use plus/minus to get more detail on the radius of the corner
Getting lost.. an unfortunate reality. It happens to everyone, just less frequently as you get better, or if when you do get lost, you find your place before the driver notices (!). It can happen as you're going along normally, or if there's a distraction (like a stopped car, spectators, etc), but I use a number of things to make sure I stay on the notes or can quickly find my place. I'm forever putting things in the margins like "Road left" or "Sign right" just as reference so I can look up and make sure that I am in the right place, but I also use mileage references on our Odometer within the car. The organizers are not going out and adding mileage references to the course other than for the route book where we have to know which way to turn, but some roads do have mile marker signs. I try to add as much detail as I can because you never know what's going to throw you off your reference, but none of the reference stuff is getting read back to the driver. I also use my thumbs on the page to know what line I am on, so if I look away and look back I know what I just read.
"Rallycross" depends on what rallycross you are speaking about. In the US, Rallycross is like autocross but in a field of grass (soon to be dirt/mud) or dirt/mud). One car at a time, or a few cars on course. The difference to autocross is the times are cumulative 9(sum of all runs) rather than the fastest single run. European rallycross (and what Red Bull GRC used to be), is multiple cars on a short course that has both tarmac and dirt, and usually a jump. At the top level these are 600-650hp AWD beasts which spit flames. There was an attempt to do this in the US which started as RallyCar (look it up) and ended as GRC after the organizers of GRC didn't honor their debts and the thing imploded. ARX (America's Rallycross) popped up in it's place with Subaru and VW showing up but it didn't attract the level of interest that the previous series had in terms of entries.
