Codriving with Anders @ Sandblast - From N00b to Codriver (LONG)

[ydant]

I didn't proof-read this, so it's probably full of problems. Cliff notes at the bottom.

Codriving at the Sandblast 2005 Rally

From N00b to Codriving

Like most of you, I've seen the WRC on TV and I had a good idea of what goes into driving a rally. I understood the basic relationship between the driver and the codriver, but there was a lot that was a mystery. For one thing, while I understood that the codriver was reading something that basically described the road ahead, the little bits I had heard on the WRC basically sounded like gibberish. In fact, a lot of it was gibberish - most of the teams don't speak English.

It should be obvious, then, that I was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal - at least until I met up with Anders and Amy. Before the event Anders sent me a couple of links that helped clear up a lot of the confusion. Amy then finished it up with a one-on-one tutorial that lasted pretty late into the night.

So keep in mind what I'm saying here is coming from the point of view of a newly unn00bed n00b. I've learned all of this through Amy's expert instruction and Ander's corrections, so I've likely got a lot of this wrong. I learned a lot of fascinating (to me, anyway) stuff over those two days, and I think there might be others on the board who are interested.

What exactly does the codriver do

In my case, my role was pretty straightforward - I was to read transit and stage notes to Anders while he drove through the course at around 7/10ths. Our job was to check the course one last time before the first car went through. We were making sure all baricades were appropriately marked, no pedestrians/cars/cows were on the course, and that there were no serious ommissions in the stage notes. It was necessary for the codriver to be a ham radio operator in case of emergency and to let control know where opening car was at all times.

Had we been actually competing my job would have been more difficult. For example, I would have had to keep up with timing so that we didn't arrive at any control points too early or too late - either of which would have resulted in a time penalty. As far as other functions of the codriver, I'm not sure.

What are Transit/Stage/Pace notes?

There are three different types of notes involved in the rally - I was only dealing with the first two.

Transit Notes

Transit notes are what we used to get to the stages and to service. These use a combination of mileage (from the start) and tulips to describe the segments.

Tulips are basically simplified line drawings of the turn or action. For an example, see here:



That image is actually from a stage - I'll try to scan in a real transit page when I get the books back.

Between stages it was my job to watch the rally computer's mileage and alert the driver as to any upcoming turns.

Stage Notes

Stage notes were provided by the rally organizers and described the stage that we would be driving. Stage notes do not describe the speed at which particular corners can be taken - they are limited only to the conditions of the road - how tight turns are, where crests/jumps are, corners that can not be cut (ditches, rocks), and possible caution areas (muddy, slippy).

The stage notes took two forms for this rally - the tulip format (see the image above), and the descriptive/numeric format. Where the tulip format is vague and describes caution areas only, the descriptive/numeric format goes into great detail about the road. Tulips require the codriver to pay close attention to the rally computer and pay attention to mileage - just as with transit notes. The descriptive, on the other hand, matches the road very closely - as long as you watch the road it's easy enough to follow along.

Something I find fascinating is that the stage notes are actually computer
generated by the Jemba system. A car with this equipped can drive the stage and then the notes are provided.

An entire description of the Jemba system for stage notes is outlined here:

http://linaracing.com/stage-notes.cfm
http://hem.passagen.se/jemba/notesUSA.htm

Here's a sample from an Oregon rally:



That would get read as:

Right six over crest
Left five CAUTION Right two long
two hundred
Left four plus into right three plus seventy caution right five minus
left one fifty
left six into right three 50 CAUTION
right five tightens four minus
left four
right five plus short fifty
right five minus
right six seventy

Timing is difficult to explain - it took Anders and I 2-3 stages before the timing was even close to right. You could tell we were getting more comfortable with each other as time went on, though.

Pace Notes

Pace notes are in addition to stage notes, and these are generated by the actual team. In order to produce these, the driver and codriver first drive through the course taking notes about the course for the codriver to read back to the driver.

We did not use pace notes at all.

I _think_ a rally where the drivers are not allowed to create pace notes is known as a "blind rally".

Special Time With Amy

I have to thank Amy for all of the time she spent helping me get ready for
Saturday. I started the session with her more than a little nervous, and I
finished totally ready for the next day. She's amazing, and I am convinced she has infinite patience. I know I was tired of hearing myself confuse < for widens and pronounce 250 as two-hundred-fifty (that should be opens and two-fifty).

My time with her first involved an accelerated (We don't like the word crash - we're not teaching him to make us crash! -Anders) course in transit and stage notes.

The rest of the time was spent marking the book up for the next day so I could easily do my job. This involved hilighting the cautions, adding tabs to the beginning of each stage/transit, and folding over every other pInage for easier turning.

In addition to our time learning me the ropes, I owe Amy more than money could possibly repay for having food available when we showed up for the afternoon service. While meals were provided by the organizers, we arrived late and nobody had saved us anything. It's obvious from their setup that this sort of thing has happened to them before.

Thanks

I just want to add special thanks to all of the ham radio operators who came out and volunteered. Most of the guys out there were just local people who didn't necessarily have an interest in the rally - they were just doing what hams do. Without them the rally couldn't have happened, and I thank them for that.

Also all of the other volunteers. Almost everyone out there was a volunteer in some way or another, and they are the reason the really went so well. Thanks guys!

Anders, for letting me codrive for you. I would LOVE to do so again any time.

Interesting Tidbits

Special Stage

(I hope I don't butcher this) The term special stage comes from the fact that rallying originally was all TSD (time/speed/distance) where each stage had to be completed in a certain amount of time. Eventually another stage (the Special Stage) was added where the time goal was impossible - basically this stage was a an opportunity for the drivers to drive balls out. All of the stages in these rallies are now like that, and thus are called Special Stage #.

Yump

Jump = yump. It's just something rally has inherited from the Swedes (I think). I tried to pronounce jump as yump, but it's hard to do with a straight face. Yump's also a little easier to say at speed.

The radio

Apparently the microphone got keyed on for all of one stage. So everyone with a radio for about 50 miles around was hearing everything I said mixed in with acceleration noises. It gets bumpy in that there rally ka and the microphone just bounced and got wedged against my leg. Ooops.

The ride/the seat/queasy

I've never been one to be sensitive to stiff springs or bumpy rides, so the ride felt fine to me. The seat was an absolute dream - once I got used to it being just a tad bit tight. If I had eaten a heavy breakfast it might have been tight Saturday. Driving with a harness and tight bolstering is wonderful, though.

Nope, I didn't get the least bit queasy. I used to read while riding ALL the time, though.

The interesting thing is riding and codriving are NOTHING alike. I was so focused on reading the notes that I really didn't notice a lot of the rally. I certainly didn't notice much of the car sliding around and whatnot. I felt it, sure, but it was pushed far down into the subconcious. I was WAY focused on the road and the notes.

Confusion

Except for one case on one of the stages, I got more confused on the transits than I did on course. In one case I was reading the wrong transit notes... We ended up leaving some nice handbreak turns in the sand...

I did totally freeze up on one part of one stage. And the rally computer didn't help much. It's EASY to follow the turns by watching the road - taking Anders's reading of the road and the rally computer's mileage and locating your spot in the stage notes is AMAZINGLY difficult. Luckily we had a left 2 (90 degree) not too long after to help me find my spot. It turned out later that Amy had the same problem in about the same spot when she first codrove that stage.

Cliff Notes

Rally is cool!

* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

[ydant]

As you can tell, I have a lot to say about the experience. I had to stop because my fingers were getting tired...

Anders, or anybody else, correct me if anything I said is horribly wrong.

[Silent23]

nifty, cool, and nice

and it wasn't that long

[Matt]

Very cool and it sounds like it was a great time.

Great cliff notes! thats mad tite y0!

[BlackAndBlue]

sounds like alot of fun, cant wait to drive one

[anders8]

Originally Posted by ydant

In my case, my role was pretty straightforward - I was to read transit and stage notes to Anders while he drove through the course at around 7/10ths. ... Had we been actually competing my job would have been more difficult. For example, I would have had to keep up with timing so that we didn't arrive at any control points too early or too late - either of which would have resulted in a time penalty. As far as other functions of the codriver, I'm not sure.

Other codriver duties can consist of

• timing
• managing the driver
• scheduling the service activities
• calculating fuel
• collecting data from other teams that you're in competition with
• figuring out what the h is going on with the rally schedule for reseeds and regrouping controls: unlike the Zero car, you don't get a direct radio link to the rally organizers to ask questions
• handling / writing protests
• checking scores

Excellent description of tulips/route book vs stage notes vs pace notes. There are very few non-competitors who understand what is actually being used and the differences between them.

Timing is difficult to explain - it took Anders and I 2-3 stages before the timing was even close to right. You could tell we were getting more comfortable with each other as time went on, though.

Between having a totally new codriver, and my rear diff making a huge racket, I did just start out easy. After several stages I figured that the diff wasn't going to break, and my codriver wasn't going to freak out... so we went a little faster....

Until I totally lost my clutch on stage 4.

The clutch cable had come loose and backed itself off... the pedal just got softer and softer... After a while I just left it in third. H6 has enough torque all over to not worry about it. Fixed that at the next service and had no more problems with it.

I have to thank Amy for all of the time she spent helping me get ready for Saturday.

She is really good at this.

The rest of the time was spent marking the book up for the next day so I could easily do my job. This involved hilighting the cautions, adding tabs to the beginning of each stage/transit, and folding over every other pInage for easier turning.

For the uninitiated, yes, there are usually 2-4 hours of prep work that the co-driver does with the physical book and analyzing the course. You can't just jump in and read.

I owe Amy more than money could possibly repay for having food available when we showed up for the afternoon service. While meals were provided by the organizers, we arrived late and nobody had saved us anything. It's obvious from their setup that this sort of thing has happened to them before.

Well, we arrived exactly when we were supposed to be there. But that didn't mean that anyone had made any lunch plans for us.

Competing in rally is so much about infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. Planing, spares, more plans, times, plans, equipment, schedules.... You have to have all of that right. Your chances of winning without it are super small. Many of you are most familiar with autocross, which is usually one box of tools and yourself remembering to get up early. In comparison, when I went up to Maine Forest Rally to codrive for Bob Wall (the super clean silver WRX) I had to organize:

• 20,000 pounds of equipment moving 2400 miles over six days
• two guys flying in
• one guy driving up from nc
• coordinating schedules with another team sharing lodging (another 2 guys)
• two local guys from maine that were going to help crew

and that's just getting them all to the same spot, one time!!! Then during the rally when you have service parks 80 miles apart, and different equipment that needs to be at each, with different schedules... phew!

I just want to add special thanks to all of the ham radio operators who came out and volunteered.

Yeah, sometimes one wonders what "those guys" are doing out there... but there isn't a rally in this country that gets put on without the hams. )

Also all of the other volunteers.

I think many of the NABISCO crowd has figured out that volunteering is even cooler than spectating. This year they did a great job. I've never spectated a whole rally: working roads or crewing for people always ends up being more fun.

Anders, for letting me codrive for you. I would LOVE to do so again any time.

Werd. Dude, you need to start looking at getting a suit and helmet... you're perfectly positioned to start naving for a starting driver.

Jump = yump. It's just something rally has inherited from the Swedes (I think). I tried to pronounce jump as yump, but it's hard to do with a straight face.

It gets easier when you hear other people using it.

I've never been one to be sensitive to stiff springs or bumpy rides, so the ride felt fine to me.

Interestingly, the DMS feels very stiff/vibrate-y on the street. Once you hit 40+ on rough stuff, it's much smoother.

The seat was an absolute dream - once I got used to it being just a tad bit tight. If I had eaten a heavy breakfast it might have been tight Saturday. Driving with a harness and tight bolstering is wonderful, though.

It's amazing what you get used to. Matt said that he thought the seat was too small when he first got in to it. *grin*

The interesting thing is riding and codriving are NOTHING alike. I was so focused on reading the notes that I really didn't notice a lot of the rally. I certainly didn't notice much of the car sliding around and whatnot.

Yeah. Its a serious job, and there's not time for that kind of stuff on-stage. But remember those two fishermen out on the boat that we saw on that really misty lake? That was cool!

Strangely, when I'm racing a certain amount of what the car "is doing" sort of disappears as well. Focus on the _next_ three corners.

I did totally freeze up on one part of one stage. And the rally computer didn't help much. It's EASY to follow the turns by watching the road - taking Anders's reading of the road and the rally computer's mileage and locating your spot in the stage notes is AMAZINGLY difficult.

So, when Matt told me he was lost, I started dictating what I thought the stage notes should be. He then tried to match them up with what he had. Then he looked ahead and saw a left 2 coming up (which is pretty much a 90 degree intersection with another road) so we knew we could sync up at that point.

Rally is cool!

Yes! And yes, Vantro does actually have a disco ball in it, so:

Matt did a great job of jumping in the deep end of this and getting us through the day. Thanks ydant!!!

Anders

[astrotrain99]

great write-up

[GreenMarine]

Damn... Cool story Matt ... I might have to book the Awesome Amy for a Co-driver class sometime in the near Future

[ydant]

Originally Posted by anders8

remember those two fishermen out on the boat that we saw on that really misty lake? That was cool!

You've mentioned that one other time, and no. I don't remember them.

Originally Posted by anders8

Yes! And yes, Vantro does actually have a disco ball in it, so:

I noticed that. So it has a name, eh?

[crash]

Very cool write up....

And sorry to see that you're so upset w/ Bham

[DrBiggly]

Awesome writeup Matt.

[bhamwrxman]

Originally Posted by crash

Very cool write up....

And sorry to see that you're so upset w/ Bham

Did I miss something?

[anders8]

re: Disco ball

Originally Posted by ydant

I noticed that. So it has a name, eh?

VANTROOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

And Matthew Johnson's (orange WRX) nearly identical van: that's "Vantwotro".

Anders

[ydant]

Originally Posted by bhamwrxman

Did I miss something?

I'm wondering the same thing.

I'd defend, but I'm not sure what I'd be defending... AIM me, nate...

[kwh29]

Originally Posted by anders8

Other codriver duties can consist of

• timing
• managing the driver
• scheduling the service activities
• calculating fuel
• collecting data from other teams that you're in competition with
• figuring out what the h is going on with the rally schedule for reseeds and regrouping controls: unlike the Zero car, you don't get a direct radio link to the rally organizers to ask questions
• handling / writing protests
• checking scores

Excellent description of tulips/route book vs stage notes vs pace notes. There are very few non-competitors who understand what is actually being used and the differences between them.

Anders

A few things I've learned that prospective co-drivers would probably want to know:

From Anders' list above the top two items are finally becoming understandable to Kent and I. We started as both total rookies. My entire rally experience at the first event was pre-driving a TSD for Highlands, working a stage at the previous Sandblast, and watching WRC on TV. That was a VERY tiring day.

Timing: There's two things to keep track of -- event/stage timing and timing of calls to the driver.

Driver call timing -- I had a bad tendency at this last event to not read ahead enough of what I was calling in the notes and we #$%^ near blew right by one of those pesky 2's after a mile or so of 6R 500 5L 300. Note to prospective co-drivers: read ahead! Mark the tight stuff after fast stuff so you remember to call it early and clearly.

Event timing/stage timing -- this is getting easier but I'm still terrible at adding up time in my head. I need to start carrying a calculator around to add up transit/timecard times. It's now automatic to double-check the timecard guy at the beginning and end of each stage -- so far I've caught a few errors and made course workers rewrite/initial things a few times when they were hard to read.

Managing the driver: Being both beginners Kent and I haven't done a whole lot of this. I've been working on sounding certain about corners and stuff after getting behind/lost. Also I'm starting to know when to tell him to floor it and try to give him more confidence to push. At previous events I'd call small jump and we'd slow down. Now I call small jump keep it floored or the like and it works!

Misc:
Follow the diagrams in the routebook in regards to controls unless you get direct instructions from a control worker to the contrary. We almost got a penalty for doing the regroup wrong at the last Sandblast.

Mark in your notes where cars are off and make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that all of them are showing the OK page or directly signal to you that it's OK to continue. Passing a disabled car that has no OK or red cross without clear confirmation from the drivers is extremely bad. When you get to the end of the stage let the control workers know how many off cars you passed -- most of the time they will already know about this but sometimes they will radio in new news.

After the event, particularly your first event or two, you'll be more tired than you can imagine. The mental load of doing so much at once is amazingly tiring until you get used to it.

--Kevin H.

[thrdeye]

*subscribe*

Cool story ydant. Next time your up here, I'll let you make some pace notes for the dragon.

[ydant]

Originally Posted by kwh29

Driver call timing -- I had a bad tendency at this last event to not read ahead enough of what I was calling in the notes and we #$%^ near blew right by one of those pesky 2's after a mile or so of 6R 500 5L 300. Note to prospective co-drivers: read ahead! Mark the tight stuff after fast stuff so you remember to call it early and clearly.

The problem for me was that I was worried about overloading or confusing him by reading too early for the upcoming turn. I played around with different ways of handling this - but I don't think you can really pick this up on the first event. Plus, with no intercoms and helmet padding it was a little difficult to hear each other sometimes.

Managing the driver: Being both beginners Kent and I haven't done a whole lot of this. I've been working on sounding certain about corners and stuff after getting behind/lost. Also I'm starting to know when to tell him to floor it and try to give him more confidence to push. At previous events I'd call small jump and we'd slow down. Now I call small jump keep it floored or the like and it works!

Speaking of, yelling out "Holy ****!" as we come over a jump around a corner and see deep ruts probably isn't the best idea. If we'd been actually competing, I think Anders woulda hit me for that.

After the event, particularly your first event or two, you'll be more tired than you can imagine. The mental load of doing so much at once is amazingly tiring until you get used to it.

I really noticed the fatigue in the last two stages. My mind was just having trouble keeping up with the notes. And I was only doing about 1/2 the job of a real codriver at less than full speed.

[ydant]

Originally Posted by thrdeye

*subscribe*

Cool story ydant. Next time your up here, I'll let you make some pace notes for the dragon.

Thanks.

Heh. I've thought it would be cool to put a Jemba system on a car and drive the Dragon... I would never post out stage notes for the dragon, though. I know how much having crash co-drive for me through one of the stages at Sandblast made me push the car that much harder. Posting up something like that for a public road would just be asking for trouble.

Besides, I know the dragon basically by heart now.

[anders8]

Originally Posted by ydant

I've thought it would be cool to put a Jemba system on a car and drive the Dragon...

Reminder to all: that would produce stage notes, not pace notes.

Stage notes: a description of the geometry of the road

Pace notes: a description of the road, with added information, customized for one team, describing not only what the road does but how fast and hard to drive it (the pace) given the unique capabilities of that driver and that car.

Thus, it is impossible to generate pace notes for a group of people with varying degrees of skill and equipment.

Cheers,
Anders

[anders8]

Originally Posted by ydant

Speaking of, yelling out "Holy ****!" as we come over a jump around a corner and see deep ruts probably isn't the best idea. If we'd been actually competing, I think Anders woulda hit me for that.

What were you doing looking out the window! You're supposed to be reading notes! I'm going to mount your seat backward next time! *grin*

(of course navigators _do_ have to look out to sync up the notes)

I really noticed the fatigue in the last two stages. My mind was just having trouble keeping up with the notes. And I was only doing about 1/2 the job of a real codriver at less than full speed.

And this is a SHORT rally!!!

Anders

[ydant]

Originally Posted by anders8

Reminder to all: that would produce stage notes, not pace notes.

Crap. I know the difference and I still made that mistake. It's all these people saying the wrong thing screwing me up.

[rallygirl]

Originally Posted by GreenMarineSVX

I might have to book the Awesome Amy for a Co-driver class sometime in the near Future

Dude... we would have a GREAT time!

[crash]

Originally Posted by ydant

I'm wondering the same thing.

I'd defend, but I'm not sure what I'd be defending... AIM me, nate...

You already know this, but for everyone else:

It's because of this:
Location: 150m west of where I should be

[ydant]

Originally Posted by crash

You already know this, but for everyone else:

It's because of this:
Location: 150m west of where I should be

That doesn't say I'm upset with Birmingham, though...