Beginner’s Guide to the Rally Racing Basics

Rally Stages

Rally stages are available in various lengths. There are short ones and long ones, covering more than 40 kilometers. Rally organizers typically select technically challenging roads, featuring declines, inclines, and tight turns, allowing crews to demonstrate their skill and consistency.

Rally events run for days, with each day consisting of various stages, mostly two or three. These stages are then run a few times during one day. The most commonly used format involves running two or three stages in the morning, followed by a lunch break, and then teams return to the same two or three stages for a second loop.

During each stage, drivers are prohibited from using outside help to service their cars, and they are limited to a specific number of spare tires. This results in unique challenges. For example, if rain falls on just one of two stages in a particular “loop,” crews will need to decide which tires to bring to the stages. They will also need to adapt their driving style to compensate for not having the right tire.

Pace Notes

Every team in rally racing depends on their pace notes and making skills to navigate through terrains. Rally beginners usually make simpler pace notes, and as they get more experience, they improve their pace notes. They start to incorporate more details and form their own way of communicating corners, straightaways, obstacles, and changes in pace.

Teams create pace notes during pencil reconnaissance or recce runs. Experts rally drivers are permitted to have several passes through the stages, and only in normal road cars. They also have to follow the speed limits, as roads are often open to the public during reconnaissance.

During the recce, the driver will describe every corner, and the co-driver will document it. The descriptions then become place notes. There are no set rules for pace notes. It is up to every crew to create their own system if they want. There are several popular preset systems created by rallying drivers over the decades that could help current drivers.

One of the most popular methods uses numbers followed by either “left” or “right,” depending on the direction of the imminent corner. In some cases, numbers may be linked to a gear in which the car can safely travel through a certain corner.

For example, if a co-driver describes a “left 4,” it means the car is heading towards a left corner, which can be taken in fourth gear. Using this approach, lower values correspond to slower corners.

Co-drivers can also use numbers to describe the severity of the corner. Corners are described by comparing their angles to clock positions. In this system, “right 2” means the car is heading towards a corner that looks like you are coming from dial number 6 and going towards number 2 on the clock. This means “right 2” would be a relatively easier corner than “right 4,” which would be a very hard and challenging corner that requires slowing down.

There are only two possible combinations of pace notes. In English, right-angle turns are typically called “square.”Extremely tight corners are called “hairpins.” Co-drivers will also call out further descriptions depending on the length of corners or whether they tend to “open” or “tighten.”

Rally Types

Aside from the stage rallies and road rallies, there are other types of rally to know. They include:

• Off-road/cross-country: These types of rallies take place in off-road terrain and require specially modified vehicles, such as cars, trucks, motorbikes, and even buggies. Desert races also fall under this type of rally, with famous events like the Mojave Off Road Racing Enthusiast series.
• Endurance: This type of rally is often combined with off-road or cross-country racing. They test not only the durability of the cars but also the endurance of the drivers. They usually involve long distances, and in popular events like the Dakar Rally (formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally), which spans numerous days and covers extensive distances in challenging conditions.