Road Rally Timing

Standard clock time, known in rallying as 'BBC Time' or 'Telecom Time', must be used in all forms of road rallying these days (Blue Book K.17.1). Therefore marshals on Twelve Cars will normally use their own watches in timing their controls. On road rallies they'll have competition timing clocks, whose operation is supervised by an MSA approved Timekeeper.

Crews will be given a certain time to cover a specified section; The Motor Vehicles (Competition and Trials) Regulations 1969 stipulates that the times must never require competitors to average more than 30 mph between any two time controls (K.3.3.1). Non-competitve sections are usually timed at even lower average speeds. Cars will normally run at one minute intervals. The time that crews should arrive at a set control will frequently be defined by the time that a mythical Car 0 should arrive; crews should then add their start number to that time to work out their scheduled time of arrival.

The aim is to arrive at every control at your scheduled time. If you arrive before your scheduled time on a competitive section you will receive a penalty. If you arrive after your scheduled time than the penalty is usually the amount of time that has elapsed since that time; this penalty will be in either complete minutes or minutes and seconds; controls timed to the second should be identified on the route card as such (K.17.8). The time a crew is given will either be the time at which the car enters the control or the time at which the competitor's time card is handed to the marshal - which method is being used should be highlighted by the organisers.

To illustrate these points I'll use a couple of examples. The organisers have laid down that Car 0 should arrive at the first control, TC1, at 20.20 and at the second control, TC2, 3 miles away at 20.30. Car 4 should then book into TC1 at 20.24 (20.20 + 4). In the first example they take 8 minutes to complete the section, they arrive at TC2 at 20.32, their due time is 20.34. If they book in straight away (20.32), they will pick up 2 Fails for booking in 2 minutes early. If they enter the control but ask the marshal to put 20.34 on their time sheet, they won't have any penalties, they'll have 'cleaned' the section.

In the second example they take twelve minutes to get to TC2. They should book in straight away, i.e. at 20.36, and will receive two minutes penalty. Note from this example that the marshal can give the crew any time they are asked for as long as it hasn't already passed. Arriving at 20.36 Car 4 could have asked for and got 20.38 if they'd wished, but could not be given, for example, 20.35.

Once time has been dropped it cannot normally be regained. To continue the example above, Car 4 has dropped two minutes; the mythical Car 0 is due at TC3 at 20.45. Car 4 is now due at TC3 at 20.51 (20.45 + 4 + 2).

To prevent an event from getting to spread out and to allow controls to be closed, a maximum lateness is usually given. This is the amount of time after their due time a car is allowed to visit a control; this period is normally 29 minutes 59 seconds, but may be altered by the organisers if they wish (K.17.3.g). To continue the example above, Car 4 had to arrive at TC2 before 21.04 to avoid exceeding their maximum lateness. After this a car is considered to be outside total lateness (OTL) and will either receive a fail or be excluded from the results depending on what the organisers had stipulated for that control.

To avoid going OTL competitors can regain time by various methods:

• Organisers usually include at least one Time Recovery section in a rally, this is normally at the halfway petrol halt, crews ignore any lateness incurred in the first half and restart at their scheduled time.
• The 'three-quarter rule' can be used in Transport and Standard Sections. 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.
• Having dropped time at a control, competitors can book into the next control at any time between their maximum lateness and their scheduled arrival time - their scheduled time being the time of Car 0 plus their start number. However this method is usually excluded from use in an event's Supplementary Regulations.
• Crews can 'cut', i.e. miss out a given section or sections and restart at a later point at anytime as long as it isn't before their scheduled time for that control.

Maximum lateness can be extended by an organiser but only at a Main Control and only for sections that competitors have yet to tackle - maximum lateness cannot be extended retrospectively (K.17.6.1.c).