Notes in rallies used in special stages, how to write them and mistakes not to make.
Notes in Rallying, as we always explain in our School, are a crucial first building block in building a driver’s performance. Writing correct notes, which allow the driver to know at any point on the road where he or she should position the vehicle, can keep him or her from making unpleasant mistakes and, more importantly, provide that necessary margin to decide where to push further when necessary.
But first, let’s take a step back.
What are Notes in rallies? What are they used for?
Anyone who has seen any on-board camera of any Rally in the world will have realized how the Navigator, the one who sits in the right seat, basically does not stop for a second to talk. Whatever his nationality and language, he is constantly communicating information to the driver that basically enables the driver to drive better (or so at least it should always be).
What do the Notes indicate? Notes are a language composed of numbers, conjunctions, and words that, told to the rider with the necessary advance, allow him to know what the road ahead will be like, what turns will await him, the length of straight stretches, and much more.
The description of the curves through the Notes
The curves – like the bumps – in a special stage represent those (non-obvious) sections that can determine a crew’s victory, defeat or retirement. The faster they are taken, the greater the speed advantage at the end of the next straight; if taken below ideal speed, they are the site of precious second losses; if taken too quickly, the exit from the road is just around the corner. For these reasons, it is essential that the driver, driving as hard as he can and reaching the ideal maximum possible speed, should always be in a position to predict the speed at which each corner can be taken and, more than anything else, to know the trajectory his car will have to take: the ideal trajectory.
Knowing how to identify the ideal trajectory with your eyes is the first step in writing effective notes
This is the fundamental point from which you cannot exempt yourself if you want to learn properly how to drive in rallies.
But how is it possible to identify the ideal trajectory? This requires study, training the eye, experience and why not, attending a Rally Course. Once learned, the eye remains the best possible tool to identify it, as there are many details that need to be evaluated, observed, processed, to know how to define and “measure” it. Knowing then how to take advantage of the notes, transcribing it on the notebook in the Navigator remains the last step to take.
The nomenclature used in the Notes for Rally
A brief summary of the terms most commonly used in the Notes that we can hear in the onboard camera in Rallies:
- Right or left, left or right, A or D: direction/reverse of the curve we are about to encounter
- Numbers 1 to 6 (or to 5, 10, or in opposite direction): identify the width of a curve, from narrowest to widest
- Double, delay, close, long, open, etc.: details to identify particular features of nonstandard curves
- Conjunctions IN, FOR, AND: define what to do after a turn (hold, leave, etc.).
- 10, 100, 300 etc: distance in meters separating two curves
An example of an onboard video of reading the notes of the Crugnola – Ometto crew, both instructors of the Vittorio Caneva Rally School:
Different note systems, one ideal trajectory
The question is often asked which is the best method for writing notes, whether the French method, the Spanish method, the Italian method or the Anglo-Saxon method. The answer? It matters little which method is used. What matters is that it is a system that is comfortable for the pilot, quick, easy to understand, and always consistent with itself. What matters is to be clear about what the ideal trajectory should be given a random succession of turns. How one then transcribes it this matters little. What matters is the effectiveness of the information such notes communicate.
This is what we teach in our School, where even (and especially) a neophyte is given all the tools to judge any curve and put him or her in a position to know how to describe it in a simple form, without redundancy of information, and that in competition it can be easily interpreted.
This is why notes are the first important topic covered in all our Rally Driving Courses for Drivers. Check out the educational offerings available to you to build your progression in Rallying right now.