Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Talk about stuff NOT related to SCCV operations.
Post Reply
User avatar
sachilles
Posts: 2666
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:11 pm
Location: Waitsfield, VT

Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Post by sachilles »

An opportunity came up to try the passenger seat in a rally car this weekend. It's been on my bucket list to try for a long time.
Thank you to Chris for the loan of the neck restraint and Cyrus for the radio gear.
If you are thinking about trying it, this is a rally sprint, which is a condensed one day event. Recce and rookie meeting is in the morning. Late morning through afternoon is the rally. Awards by 6 pm. You basically run one stage road, in different directions for a total of 8 stages. Suppose to be novice friendly.
Below is a vid of the road that is being used from a previous event.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
User avatar
sachilles
Posts: 2666
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:11 pm
Location: Waitsfield, VT

Re: Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Post by sachilles »

Well that was fun. Do it if you ever get the chance.
We broke after the second stage. So our day was cut short(rear suspension bent).
We are at 1:44 and 4:05 in the white and black VW


Seriously super fun.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
User avatar
Rabbit Farmer
SCCV Board Advisor
SCCV Board Advisor
Posts: 5193
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:37 pm
Location: Milton, Vermont
Contact:

Re: Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

Does look like fun. Cost prohibitive at the moment. Perhaps one day. Pike's Peak is well ahead of rally on my list.
Steve #702
Go Fast VW & Audi parts at FastAddiction.com
It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it takes only one of them to scatter it all over the highway. - Evan Esar
User avatar
sachilles
Posts: 2666
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:11 pm
Location: Waitsfield, VT

Re: Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Post by sachilles »

Yeah, this was eye opener for costs relative to what a driver needs to provide. This one was pretty abusive to a car even staying on the course 100%. I do think it is probably one of those things where investing in a better suspension up front probably saves you money later. However, I think the tarmac rallies are the hot ticket in my book.
I'd be happy to co-drive for anyone that wants to do the tarmac rallies that RNY administers.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
User avatar
sachilles
Posts: 2666
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:11 pm
Location: Waitsfield, VT

Re: Giving rally co-driving a shot.

Post by sachilles »

Taking out all the transportation issues around getting to and from the rally, it was a very enjoyable experience. Something that I'd prioritize very high on my list to do again.

Some of the things I worried about were really non issues. Things that I thought were pretty minor, played a bigger role.

The speed of everything was more than I expected(in car). However, I think it was more of the context of things.
I think hillclimbing prepared me for speed. I've ridden in the passenger seat up the hill with Nick Wheelock and Butch, so I've gone up the hill quite fast, not once have I felt uncomfortable in the situation. I always thought that given the same car, I could go just as fast...maybe not right away but at least with practice(I'd like to think so at any rate).
So I think I was at a huge advantage as a novice co-driver going fast over the stages. I think an absolute rookie might have a tougher time adjusting to that, if they've never been in a competition car. That being said everything including Recce seemed pretty damn quick to me. It might have been that my nose was in the route book 50% of the time, so things may have appeared faster.
Apparently this is one of the roughest stage roads around, and my driver didn't seem mind punishing his car, so I think we went pretty quick. Our first stage time was a 7:53 I think. The driver had gear box issues in a couple of spots, at first he thought it was mechanical failure, turned out to be driver error. That lost us some time. The next time through the stage I believe we were down to 7:22. The other 2wd car was 7:20. They stayed right at about that same time through the rest of the event(with one stage going up to a 7:53 as well). I think we probably were pretty evenly matched, it's a shame our car couldn't stay together. The game is to finish, so in that we failed. It appears our average speed on the faster of the two runs was 50.78 mph which I think is darn quick. The fastest AWD car was 64.89, and slowest awd was 54.4.
Some things that caught me off guard was pulling the pages out of the route book in the roughness and excitement of the stage. I just looked at the notes and the binding actually came undone, as the pages are not ripped. Unsure the best way to prevent that, but I'm sure somebody has devised a solution. All the math and procedural stuff was really a non issue, once you figure out how the timecard works, it's pretty easy from that point, that math isn't mind bending
Calling stage notes is a bit of an art. You have to customize it for the driver. I imagine that can vary greatly dependent on who was behind the wheel. My driver was good about letting me know something wasn't right in a quick manner, without being frustrated. I did get lost in the notes in the same place twice. In retrospect the notes weren't correct, and since we didn't do Recce in that direction we had no way of knowing. We had made corrections for the third time through, but we never got the chance to use them again.
I'm very good at remembering things in chaos, but not very good at keeping organized in a traditional way. Having done this event I have a better idea of what sort of organization helps and what doesn't. Without the frame of reference it made things tough.
I certainly wouldn't mind a smoother stages. When we came down hard and bent the suspension it really compressed us pretty good. I thought my back was going to hurt like hell after that, but surprisingly it has not. Not sure it means my back is getting better, or whether it wasn't as hard as I thought. The hit made me groan, so I think it was more that my back was more resistant. Unsure if a day full of that stuff might cause issues with my back or not. So in that respect, I might be more choosey of what event to participate in. I can also see heat being an issue. Fortunately, I didn't have any heat related issues. The suits are normally pretty hot. I was smart enough to not drink a beer the night before and I hydrated well before hand.
The other item was his rally computer wasn't working. It wasn't a huge issue, but it could have helped me get from being lost on occasion, and in a bigger rally it would have been needed for transits. Honestly, though I think it would have been just one more thing to worry about if we had one....so in this case it was probably a blessing in disguise. The transits were pretty easy and repeated.

So if you ever need a co-driver, I'd be happy to do it. If you ever decide you want to be a co-driver, I think I could guide you enough info so that you could do it effectively. I had a ton of fun doing it and would do it again in a heartbeat. As much as I'd love to drive a gravel rally car, I don't think I could handle the cost given the entry fees and mechanical abuse, but I could see myself co-driving a bit more.

As to Rally New York itself. The head dude comes off as being pretty stern. I think that puts a lot of people off. However, having organized a lot of events I understand where it comes from. There are a lot of moving parts in a rally. He is basically that hard donkey hockey coach, that every player encounters at some point. He's firm, but really is for the greater good. From the worker perspective, he was very good to the workers. His wife does a lot of the organizational stuff, and she is a grandmotherly type(she also co-drove). I'd guess she is about the same age as my mother. She made sure I had a snack before for I headed out on the stages. This particular area was pretty cool to camp at, I can see folks digging it. Ten times more plush than slmp. I certainly want to take Rhonda and Andrew there at some point, as they'd love it. It's basically a boy scout camp/reservation. Lots of land, ponds, wildlife.

Anyways, I had a real good time. I think the event was well run. I'd go back in a heartbeat as a driver/co-driver/volunteer worker. If you thought about doing it, do yourself a favor and try it.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
Post Reply