What Is Stage Rallying?

WRC Rx8

World Rally Championships

WRC is the pinnacle of stage rallying, although we may start a little slower!

There are two main types of stage rallies:

Single Venue Stage

These rallies use maps or diagrams for co-drivers and tend to take place on old airfields or motor racing circuits.

Multi-Venue Stage

These rallies take place in forests, on tarmac, and when abroad, snow and ice.  Multi-venue events comprise of loops of competitive sections, or stages and normally use pace notes; a series of descriptive notes to describe the route.  Depending on the event, crews may purchase these notes or write them themselves.

Stage rallies are based on straightforward speed and competing crews are timed over each stage and their total time taken determines the overall winner.

The Winner

The winner is the crew (driver and co-driver) that completes them all in the lowest aggregate time.  The co-drivers read pacenotes or call out information from the maps/diagrams to tell their driver where to go.  For multi-venue stage rallies, the co-drivers have instructions to tell the drivers how to get between stages linking road sections to ensure the car is heading the right way.

Whilst these non-competitive link sections have relaxed timings, the co-drivers must still ensure as a crew they arrive at each stage on time so they do not incur any penalties.

Events can last from one day to several days and this type of rallying requires a specially prepared vehicle.