Road Rally Sections

Any section within a road rally must be designated as one of four types of sections; the four types can be grouped into two, non-competitive and competitive.

Neutral Sections

Neutral Sections are designed to take competitors through built up or PR-sensitive areas. They cannot be timed to an accuracy of less than a minute (K.15.3.2) and crews are not allowed to make up time on the public road (K.15.3.3). Auxiliary lights cannot be used unless the prevailing weather conditions allow them to be used (K.15.3.6).

Neutral sections are frequently used as the Time Recovery sections at the halfway petrol halt. The start control being as cars enter the petrol station and the finish as they exit; this circumvents Rule K.15.3.3 as the petrol station is not on the public road.

No penalties for lateness can be applied on a Neutral Section other for those regarding maximum lateness (K.15.3.4). Penalties for early arrival are still valid.

Transport Sections

A Transport Section has to adher to the similar rules to a Neutral Section, in that they cannot be timed to an accuracy of less than a minute and no lateness penalties should be applied. However Transport Sections must be at least four miles in length (K.15.5.3) and time can be recovered. This type of section was originally introduced as a method of time recovery, utilising the 'three-quarter rule'. This rule stipulates that for any section over four miles in length competitors can complete the section in three-quarters of the time allowed, without penalty for early arrival (K.17.7). When using the three-quarter rule fractions of minutes are ignored.

Standard Sections

Standard Sections have traditionally made up the meat of the competitive motoring in rallies. Timing on Standard Sections can be to the second, but where that is the case the following rules apply:

• Not pass through any villages or hamlets unless all residents and the MSA have given approval (K.15.2.1)
• Not use any private property other than footpaths and bridleways for which approval has been given (K.15.2.2)
• Not cross or join an 'A' road without a manned control being present at the junction (K.15.2.3)
• Not use an 'A' road for more than 200 metres (K.15.2.3)
• Not start before Midnight (K.15.2.4)
• All competitors must have completed the section one hour before sunrise (K.15.2.4)
• Not contain any Quiet zones (K.15.2.5)
• Not include any roads covered by a 30mph or 40mph limit (K.15.2.6)

The three-quarter rule can be used in a Standard Section.

Regularity sections

Regularity sections require crews to cover the distance between two points in a set time; secret controls can then be set up at one or more secret locations between these two points, crews should arrive at these points at the same average speed as for the whole section. Penalties are awarded for early and late arrival; normally heavier penalties are given for early, rather than late arrival. Penalties are also imposed for stopping within sight of a control (K.15.4).

The normal method to define such a section is to give the competitors the distance and average speed required, the navigator then has to work out the time at which they should book into the second control. To illustrate its use I'll take a simple example: the instructions inform you that you're to cover 5 miles at an average speed of 15mph; the equation will give you the answer - 60 divided by the average speed (15 mph), gives 4, by multiplying this by the distance (5 miles), you reach the answer of 20 minutes.

The average speed need not be the same for the whole section. For example the route instructions may indicate that an average speed of 20mph must be kept for 2.3 miles, but then an average speed for 23.5mph is required for the next 4.5 miles.

Crews may not be required to stop at intermediate time controls, the Supplementary Regulations must indicate whether this is the case or not.

The second variation is the one that has become standard on Welsh road rallies. This was developed after the Welsh Association banned rallies from having more than one Standard Section timed to the second. Regularities allowed for a number of controls timed to the second. In this variation the average speed is always 30mph. Organisers choose roads and farm tracks which will mean that keeping to 30mph is impossible and therefore early arrival and stopping within sight of a control need not be considered.