Co-driving a classic car rally: tasks, equipment and typical mistakes

Navigating. The roadbook describes the route in sketches, arrows, tulip diagrams, herringbones or the Dutch bol-pijl system. The co-driver always reads one instruction ahead and calls it in time: distance, direction, landmark. How to read the symbols is explained in Reading the roadbook.

Keeping time. In regularity tests the co-driver calculates the target time from distance and average speed, zeroes the tripmaster and calls the deviation at every intermediate point. The maths with tables is in Driving a regularity test.

Controls. At time controls and passage controls the co-driver hands over the time card, checks the entry and notes the time. A missed control costs more penalty points than any time deviation.

Overview. Schedule, breaks, fuel stops, start time of the next leg: the co-driver keeps the day in view so the driver does not have to.

Little is needed to start: a roadbook holder or clipboard, two pens, a stopwatch or rally clock with a large display, a highlighter for the controls, a table of target times and a small lamp for the evening leg. Anyone wanting to drive regularity tests to the tenth of a second needs a tripmaster with a 100-metre display and a wheel sensor. Navigation rallies add map sections, a ruler and a map measurer.

The full list with prices is in Equipment; what has to be in the car in the morning is in the Checklist.

Before the start: collect the roadbook from the organiser, count the pages, mark schedule and average speeds, calculate the target times of the tests, check the time card, set the tripmaster on the calibration section. Agree call-out language and roles with the driver.

On the road: read one instruction ahead, compare the tripmaster with the roadbook distances, hand over the time card at every control, note the time after every test. After a mistake on the route: stop, recalculate from the last safe point, do not guess.

After the finish: hand in the time card, compare results and go through the tests that went wrong. How the result is calculated is explained in Scoring and penalties.

The most common mistake is reading at the spot instead of before it: if you call the junction when it is already there, you have missed it. The second is a tripmaster that does not match the roadbook because it was not zeroed at the start or never calibrated. The third is the time card in a pocket when the control appears. The fourth is riding along instead of working along: whoever watches the scenery loses the page. And the fifth is arguing in the car. In doubt, the co-driver decides the route and the driver decides on safety.

Regulations often state explicitly that teamwork is required. Rallye YORS describes the Rallye Autumnus Classic as a sporting regularity rally in which the cooperation of driver and co-driver counts above all. The ADAC Hagen-Klassik sets navigation tasks in its sporting group based on arrow sketches, tulip diagrams and map sections. At the Kids Benefits Rally a co-driver who has twice finished in the top three is given a handicap in the sport class. The co-driver is not a passenger but part of the classification.