In the USA rallies were/are time, distance, speed (TDS) events. The total
distance is broken up into legs and it should take you a particular amount of
time to do the leg. However, you do not know the distance for the leg nor
where the leg will end. You also do not know what route you will be taking,
you are handed instructions less than a minute prior to your departure. The
instructions are not the type that you can look at a map to determine where you
are going, at least for the rallies I'v done. They also indicate a that when
you get to a certain point what average speed to maintain.
Now to the stop watches, I am familiar with three watch boards. There was one
watch for total time, started at the beginning of the leg. One was the time for
the current average speed. The third was the ending time for the last average
speed section and for any specified stop times. These along with the
instructions were all handled by the navigator who was also constantly doing
calculations to determine if you "were on time" or not so the driver could
correct their speed. By the way he was doing these calculations with a slide
rule and using the dual Odometers for those who were really serious about these
events.
For those not familiar with TDS rallies the difference between the time it took
you to do a leg and the it should have taken is your "error", early or late and
can not be made up. The error for all legs are added up and the lowest error
wins.
At least that's the way it was in this neighborhood.
On Dec 29, 2012, at 8:13 PM, Dean Hedin wrote:
> Explain to me (and others on the list)
>
> How are rally stopwatches used?
> Why are there usually two and why are there two diferent kinds of
> stopwatches?
> ------------------------
>
> spridgets@autox.team.net
>
> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation: $12.75
>
> Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
> Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
> Unsubscribe/Manage:
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/spridgets/bkitterer@me.com
------------------------
spridgets@autox.team.net
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|