My very 1st event.. any tips?

[Maui J.]

Pedal to the Metal. No prisoners!!!

Good luck and have fun.

[shurik]

Congrats, mate. Got some tips for you from my experience:
1) Have fun as if you're on vacation, 'cuz it won't go well if you get mental because of nerves
2) Don't think of times & positions, it will distract you
3) Don't show off on purpose in front of photograhpers or women with big tits
4) Don't freak out on your co-driver
5) While writing the pace-notes do as many runs as possible, because it's quite hard to make a good trustworthy steady pace-note without race experience. Also mind that during first races you gonna rely on your visual memory than on pace-notes, wich is not good, and you gotta eliminate this thing in some time

[shurik]

About pacenote, dunno if it helps, but I had a bad experience writing it without carefull thinking of how and what I have to tell my co-driver.
During the first run of writing the track I graded corners in six grades plus extra grade for each corner number lis '3+' or '2-' after couple of stages I realized that I can't freakin' understand what I'm saying and worse of all, what does those numbers mean, because in beginning one corner had a mark of 3-, and couple of hours later it was like 4 (faster than 3).
So after some re-thinking we ended up with simple pacenote that had 4 grades of a corner, than it went quite well. All because of lack of experience and untraned eye.
What I mean is, when you drive alone no matter where you are, try this exercise - loudly grade every corner, distance to the corner entry or a crest, how this corner should be passed, should you cut it or not, i.e. train your eye and get yourself used to pace you gonna use in race.

[COD]

Duff gave really good advice. But if you want to start making good stagetimes, one advice I got way back may help:

When your mind says brake, count to three and then brake!

[WRCfan]

The above advice from Duff is good advice!

I have co-driven and started from knowing nothing with a driver who was in the same shoes. We just started out steady and knew that going like a bat out of hell was going to get us nowhere but a wrecked car.

I can only second duff's advice as it is very good!

Best of luck and have a great time!


Look forward to some photos!

[Sami]

Not a bad car to start with

3. Slow into the corner and fast out. Don’t try to test your late breaking too much (again this will come with experience) a lot of rally pace comes from the exit speed of a corner. Play with the car and try to make it do what you want it to.

4. Stay in the wheel tracks. You always have to be thinking about grip and getting the most of it. This is a big part of good stage times especially in a 2 wheel drive.
Along with this as you are far down the order there will be a lot of loose gravel at the side of the road, Stay out of this at all costs!!!

Gongratulations, you have the perfect car to have fun with.

I totally agree with point #3. Especially now that you have a RWD car to begin with. With that kind of a car you are able to drive enjoyably and spectacularly even though you enter the corner quite safe. Just nail it when you see the end of the corner and you'll have a nice spectacular opposite lock slide! Fun and totally risk free!

About point #4 I don't agree totally, cause there's some risks. If you concentrate too much on keeping the car on clean line, you'll end up driving front end first, which has its risks. That way you'll loose first the front end of the car and even though you are driving an agile car, you will have difficulties to turn the car in that case.

In first rally you will make mistakes, you will enter corners too fast and in a wrong line, that is a fact, so with that fact in mind you should minimize the consequences of the mistakes and risks.

I personnally like to drive so that I throw the car's rear end a bit in order to quarantee the turning, no matter the rear end sometimes ends up on the loose momentarily. With that powerful rwd car, let the gravel fly!

If you concentrate too much in safe driving, clean lines and carefulness you won't enjoy and you will be slow and unsafe. You can't scare and drive rally, rally is a risky sport, risking your financial health by destroying the car and risking your personal health, that is a starting point. There's no such a think as safe rallying!

So don't concentrate on that, you have a chance to rally, so enjoy the speed. If you don't find the natural joy and rhythm, it won't be good.

Concentrate on having fun, with that approach you will find a good rhythm, you will enjoy and get the best result. In my own experience, if you driving is forced and you don't find the rhythm, you will end up upside down.

[Zico]

About pacenote, dunno if it helps, but I had a bad experience writing it without carefull thinking of how and what I have to tell my co-driver.
During the first run of writing the track I graded corners in six grades plus extra grade for each corner number lis '3+' or '2-' after couple of stages I realized that I can't freakin' understand what I'm saying and worse of all, what does those numbers mean, because in beginning one corner had a mark of 3-, and couple of hours later it was like 4 (faster than 3).
So after some re-thinking we ended up with simple pacenote that had 4 grades of a corner, than it went quite well. All because of lack of experience and untraned eye.
What I mean is, when you drive alone no matter where you are, try this exercise - loudly grade every corner, distance to the corner entry or a crest, how this corner should be passed, should you cut it or not, i.e. train your eye and get yourself used to pace you gonna use in race.

Thanks Shurik, The pacenotes for the event will be the standard 1-6 in severity to 90 deg, 6 being 90deg, as released by the event organisers.. so no recce for this event.
My brothers advice to try and avoid information overload was to drive visually for numbers 1-3 and concentrate on the higher numbers which is what he did until experience meant info overload wasnt an issue.
In the forthcoming test I'll ask my bro to take Alan the navigator out to take notes for the course then cross reference my idea of corner severity and my idea of the distances with the trip-meter. Visually judging distances isnt a strong point of mine so this should help.

Thanks again..

[Zico]

Duff gave really good advice. But if you want to start making good stagetimes, one advice I got way back may help:

When your mind says brake, count to three and then brake!

Thanks, but Im not experienced enough to begin to think about posting good times on what is really going to be a tricky event. I believe that slow in/fast out and hitting the apex, getting a good exit is by far the safer and quicker option for someone with my limited experience. My number 1 rule is to get to the end in 1 piece, to have fun and totally forget about setting a good time.
Im quite a late braker naturally so if I followed that advice Im afraid I'd wipe out at the 1st corner..

Thanks anyway..

[Zico]

Gongratulations, you have the perfect car to have fun with.

I totally agree with point #3. Especially now that you have a RWD car to begin with. With that kind of a car you are able to drive enjoyably and spectacularly even though you enter the corner quite safe. Just nail it when you see the end of the corner and you'll have a nice spectacular opposite lock slide! Fun and totally risk free!

About point #4 I don't agree totally, cause there's some risks. If you concentrate too much on keeping the car on clean line, you'll end up driving front end first, which has its risks. That way you'll loose first the front end of the car and even though you are driving an agile car, you will have difficulties to turn the car in that case.

In first rally you will make mistakes, you will enter corners too fast and in a wrong line, that is a fact, so with that fact in mind you should minimize the consequences of the mistakes and risks.

I personnally like to drive so that I throw the car's rear end a bit in order to quarantee the turning, no matter the rear end sometimes ends up on the loose momentarily. With that powerful rwd car, let the gravel fly!

If you concentrate too much in safe driving, clean lines and carefulness you won't enjoy and you will be slow and unsafe. You can't scare and drive rally, rally is a risky sport, risking your financial health by destroying the car and risking your personal health, that is a starting point. There's no such a think as safe rallying!

So don't concentrate on that, you have a chance to rally, so enjoy the speed. If you don't find the natural joy and rhythm, it won't be good.

Concentrate on having fun, with that approach you will find a good rhythm, you will enjoy and get the best result. In my own experience, if you driving is forced and you don't find the rhythm, you will end up upside down.

Again.. sound advice there.. and good point Re- #4.. I guess its about finding a compromise. I also like to throw the car about a bit..

On the last test I had.. I soon gained enough confidence to push quite hard due to knowing the course after 2 runs. On my 4th run I was really making the car dance, braking very late, throwing the car in sideways and having a great time... but I nearly had a serious off when I didnt take into account something I wasnt aware off...the 2-way diff (The last Escort I'd driven was 1-way) This one also tightens on de-acceleration although to a lesser degree than on acceleration.
It was a 2 right followed by another 2 right within 10 yards effectively making it a long 2 right.. from hard on the throttle I let off throttle abrupt to throw more weight to the front and clip the 2nd apex.. This action made the car spin and I narrowly missed a tree due to the diff locking/tightening on the abrupt de-accelation, whipping the car right round totally against the logic from my brain.. which was thinking in 1-way diff language. I lost a bit of confidence and sat down to understand why it had happened.. Reason.. 2-way diff that I didnt even know the car had.. (beamer smiley)
I studied and researched about this type of diff so I could regain my confidence in the car and its handling and changed my driving style from let-off for weight transfer to left foot braking which was difficult to master but soon made the car far more predictable and stable than before.

Lots to learn.. and always learning, there are lessons though that only personal experience will teach me. Thanks again..

[shurik]

Thanks Shurik, The pacenotes for the event will be the standard 1-6 in severity to 90 deg, 6 being 90deg, as released by the event organisers.. so no recce for this event.
My brothers advice to try and avoid information overload was to drive visually for numbers 1-3 and concentrate on the higher numbers which is what he did until experience meant info overload wasnt an issue.
In the forthcoming test I'll ask my bro to take Alan the navigator out to take notes for the course then cross reference my idea of corner severity and my idea of the distances with the trip-meter. Visually judging distances isnt a strong point of mine so this should help.

Thanks again..

Your brother's right, cuz imo at the begining, no one can capitalize on those small details well enough, but those small details will bother and distract for sure.
BTW, the rally you goin to take part, is it sort of blind rally or is it ordinary rally only you just being provided with standard pacenotes? Do you still allowed to do recce? Just curious, because I never heard of similar events here in Russia