The following was written by Tony Horseman (better known as 'Tone') a few years ago - some details may have changed but the principles remain the same. Rallying is pretty hard to photograph as it takes place at night, but we're working on some photos for this page to give an idea of what it's like.

The BUMC Crucial Guide to Navigation can be found here. (Adobe PDF format)

An example of Novice Navs can be found here.

An example of Expert Navs can be found here. (Please note that the routes for these Navs are different between the novice and expert categories!)

12 Car Rally

The rallies run by the club are proper motorsport. The challenge is to drive the route in the time allowed - something so challenging that it is almost never achieved! All rules of the road must be obeyed, and all cars must be road legal. Rallies are great fun to compete in, inexpensive to enter, and the club runs two or three each term. The skill in winning an event is not in driving dangerously fast, but in the accuracy of the navigating. In the past, a Renault 4 has beaten a Subaru Impreza Turbo!

Each entry consists of a driver and a navigator, so you don't even need a car to take part. At the start of the event, usually 6.30pm on a Friday in the Physics Building car park, scrutineering takes place (a check to make sure all lights etc. work) and the entrants are told the location of the start point, somewhere outside of Bristol and always on OS map sheet 172. Once at the start, the route for the first stage (section) of the rally is passed out, and a start time is assigned to each competitor. All that remains is to decode the route (navigation or nav) and drive the route to the next checkpoint in the time allowed. We will teach you how to decode the navigation at the table top rally, run on an evening before the first event. You may also find The BUMC Crucial Guide to Nav useful.

The average speed of the event will never be more than 30mph, but this includes the time taken to plot the route on your map and is more difficult to achieve than you might think. Getting thoroughly lost will cost so much time that even the fastest driver will not be able to make it up, hence the emphasis on careful navigation.

As you drive the route, keep a look out for the Passage Control (PC) boards put out earlier in the day. This is the way the organiser judges whether you drove on the correct roads or not. The boards are easy to see, are always on the left of the road, and are never found in built up areas. There should be between 2 and 6 PC boards per stage, and most rallies have 3 stages, with occasional longer rallies of up to 6 stages. 

A PC board with a "!" symbol is a warning sign, for instance before deep water in the road, while other boards carry pictures of objects, symbols and other shapes. Draw a quick sketch of the boards as you pass by, on the sheet provided at the start. At each checkpoint, there is the opportunity to take a break, to stretch your legs, relax or eat chocolate before setting out on the next stage.

The scoring is simple. The winner is the entrant who misses the least PC boards, and has the least time penalties. See below for more details.

Equipment

Rallies require little equipment, and don't cost much to enter. The driver will require a car, obviously, and must fill out an insurance form before their first rally. The insurance for the event is organised by the club, and is included in the entry fee of £10 per person. Also required, for safety reasons, is a red warning triangle. These can be bought for less than £10, and are a sensible item to keep in any car. The club may be able to lend a warning triangle to newcomers, although stocks are limited. Wheel trims should be removed from the car before the event, and all lights, seatbelts, wipers/washers and the horn should work correctly. The route will be 50-70miles, so be sure to bring enough petrol.

The navigator will require a little more equipment, but all of it is inexpensive. An OS map, sheet 172 Bristol and Bath (1:50,000) is used, but the club may be able to lend a copy for your first event. To draw the route on the map, a couple of 4B pencils are ideal, and a good size eraser is essential! A torch is pretty handy too, as all our rallies are run under cover of darkness. A magnifying glass is useful but not essential. Finally, a map board to rest the map on. This must be deformable, in case of an accident, and is best made from two sheets of corrugated cardboard and some good glue or tape. About 18 inches square is a good size.

Rules

Most importantly, these events are held on public roads and we have no right to break the law. Anyone seen doing so by a marshal will be excluded. Examples are:

• Not stopping at stop sign.
• Not slowing down to give way at a junction.
• Speeding.
• Dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.

Additionally, it is impossible to find roads which go nowhere, so from time to time we pass by houses. These areas (which will normally have a 30mph or 40mph speed limit) are designated Quiet Zones. In these areas, it is forbidden to use the main beam (dipped headlights only) and a high gear should be used to minimise noise. 

It is especially important to drive responsibly in Quiet Zones as there is most risk of injuring others. As everyone is obliged to slow down for these areas, it is only a fair competition if this rule is obeyed. Occasionally, there might be Black Spots, areas where we are not allowed to drive because of irate members of the public. These areas should be avoided, failure will result in exclusion from the event.

In addition, all entrants should drive with consideration to their skill and the conditions at the time. It has be known to be foggy for rallies (we do go near Bristol Airport y'know!), and 90% of the time the roads are wet and muddy, so stopping is not as easy as it is in town and speeds are higher. Every driver should expect oncoming traffic at every corner, and wildlife is plentiful on country roads.

Some sample regulations

Marshalling

To run these events, officials are required. This is a job anyone can do. Marshals are generally sent out in pairs in a car. They will track the competitors movements in and out of the Time Controls, and mark the sheets with PC boards on so that no more may be added later. Two cars are required to drive round the course before and after the event to distribute and collect the PC boards. Normally, 3 or 4 cars are required for each rally, and all the officials petrol is paid by the club. Without marshals, these event cannot take place, so if you have the time then please come along and help out. As a bonus you will earn points in the BUMC championship equivalent to a second place finish.

Winning

The event is scored as follows:

Each minute early at the Time Control:	2 marks
Each minute late at the Time Control:	1 mark
Each 10 minutes late at the Time Control:	1 fail
Each PC board missed:	1 fail
Entering a Time Control in the wrong direction:	1 fail
Failing to register at a Time Control:	Exclusion

Timing is performed to the previous whole minute using BBC clocks as a reference (eg, arriving at 8h 47mins 45seconds will result in 8:47 being entered on the time sheet).

The winner shall be the entrants with the fewest fails. If there is a tie, the entrant with the fewest marks will be declared the winner. The first three places in each event will win prizes, generally alcohol or chocolate!

Tactics

The tactics for the driver are obvious - Give the road your full attention.

Most navigators (even the very experienced) find it very difficult to decode the navigation and direct the driver at the same time and while the car is moving. So the traditional tactic is to decode the whole stage of navigation before leaving the checkpoint. Then the navigator can concentrate on following the progress of the car along the route, and keeping an eye on the time.

Helpful marshals will also spot the confused at a Time Control and give them some hints, mostly because we do this for fun more than anything else! As you can see from the way the event is scored, arriving more than 10 minutes late at the finish is as serious as missing a PC board. Many competitors will take a shortcut to the end of the stage to avoid a "10 minute late" fail, especially if there have already been 3 or 4 PC boards in the stage. It's sometimes worth the risk!

If the navigator thinks they are lost, it's often best to stop sooner rather than later to right the problem. Travelling a long way down the wrong road can take a lot of time, and leaves you with the predicament of whether to go back and do the proper route (to spot all the PC boards) or take a short cut to the correct route to avoid finishing too late. Villages can be tricky as there are many junctions, so finding the correct road can be confusing. The sight of a PC board does wonders for the confidence! 

Other landmarks on the map such as overhead power cables, streams and footpaths are useful guides to which road you are using. Virtually every building is marked on the map, which makes spotting junctions next to buildings quite easy. Some time spent familiarising yourself with the map before your first event is very useful. Notice what is shown on or near typical yellow roads, and what the co-ordinates are for the different areas of the map.

Enjoying it so far? Then organise an event yourself! If you enjoy the clubs rallies, take it one step further by organising an event yourself. We'll teach you how, then you can send the competitors down your favourite country lanes and tie their brains in knots with your navigation! All that required is a few hours spare time to drive around in the car and to write up the route for the competitors. Petrol is paid by the club so all it costs is your time. Points in the BUMC championship are awarded for each event organised.

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Author: Tony Horseman - BUMC Motorclub Competition Secretary