HERO - How to Tackle Regularity Sections

How to Tackle Regularity Sections
by John Brown

1 Foreword

Regularity Sections are where the competitor is required to maintain a constant set speed, rather than an average speed, and is penalised at secret controls for being ahead of or behind schedule, i e for travelling faster or slower than the speed set.

Sometimes, competitors are penalised for each second early or late (or even for fractions of a second); at other times, timing is to the minute.

The set speed may vary during a section. Speed change points may be defined by location (e g at a given junction), by distance (e g travel at 30 mph for 6.25 miles), or by time (e g travel at 24 mph for 12 minutes 28 seconds).

Timing points (or controls) are set up on different events in different ways. Sometimes, they may be hidden completely; sometimes, they will be controls which you see when you pass them, but at which you do not stop; sometimes, you must stop and get your time recorded. See also Section 5 below.

On some events, there is only one control on a regularity section, which therefore ends when you reach it; on others, there may be a number of intermediate timing points between the start and a known finish point.

Most of this introduction refers to the classic regularity section, in which you, the competitor, are responsible for measuring the distance you travel, and for calculating the time at which you are due at any given point.

On HERO events and some others, a different and much easier system is used: Jogularity. On this, the organisers give you their official distance to a large number of intermediate points and calculate for you your due time at each. See Section 7 below.

2 Setting up adjustable trip distance recorders

If the regulations allow, you should if possible use a good adjustable trip distance recorder, preferably an electronic one such as a Brantz or a Terratrip; or if these are banned, a Halda Tripmaster, Twinmaster or Speedpilot; Belmog; Retro-trip; etc.

There is a lot to be said for the trip part of Speedpilots, as against Tripmasters: the latter are fiddly to change and you are limited by the range of cogs available, whereas a Speedpilot is infinitely adjustable; can with care be even more accurately set; and can (if you look closely at the gradations) be read to hundredths, too. However, you cannot use the average speed reading of a Speedpilot to keep to time on regularity sections timed to the second; they are not accurate enough.

Many highway and police authorities have their own measured miles. If you can find one of these - your County Council Highways Department may be able to help - and set your trip to come up to exactly to 1.00 at the end of it (or use it to find the correct digital code to dial into a Brantz or Terratrip), this should be fairly reliable. However, a hundredth of a mile is 17.6 yards, or 52.8 ft, which is equivalent to 36 secs penalty over 30 miles at 30 mph, so you must be sure that the measured mile coincides exactly with the point at which 1.00 comes up.

Otherwise, it is best to check over longer distances, of which the most reliable are the numbered posts beside motorways and other new roads, which are theoretically at exactly 100 metre intervals. You should aim to get your trip to read 10.00 miles at the km post 16.0 km from your starting point, plus nine-tenths of the way to the next 100m post. Don’t try to zero or read trips when driving quickly past the posts; your reading will be too inaccurate. Some motorways are more accurately measured than others; try to use a stretch which was built all in one go, and which does not pass through any major junctions with other motorways.

You can use the same methods to test the accuracy of non-adjustable trips or odometers. You can then calculate and apply a Correction Factor, as below.

3 Calculating your Correction Factor

Even if your trip or odometer is carefully set against an accurate official distance, there is a good chance that its readings will vary from organisers’ distances - and these are the ones that are deemed correct for that rally.

Most organisers set up a distance check over a stretch of road before the start, using the trip that has been used to measure their regularity section. Better organisers go to some trouble to do this over a reasonable mileage (at least 5 miles), with a number of mileage check locations en route, ideally all measured by them to thousandths of a mile; this enables you to check your instrument very accurately against theirs. In other cases, you may have to make do with a measured 1.00 mile.

If there is a discrepancy between your reading and the official one which you cannot get rid of by adjusting your trip, you should calculate your Correction Factor. This you do simply as follows:

your trip reading divided by the official distance

Thus, if your trip reads 10.35 when the official distance is 10.00, your Correction Factor is 1.035. WRITE THIS DOWN.

This system can also be used if the organisers’ distances are in kilometres and your trip or odometer reads only miles (or vice versa). If the organisers’ distance is 10.00 (km) and your reading is 6.26 (miles), your Correction Factor is 0.626.

Even if you have a separate trip, you should also note the car’s own trip or odometer reading, and calculate its Correction Factor, as this gives you a back-up if your Halda breaks (and they do!)

4 Applying your Correction Factor to your Average Speed Tables

Once you know your Correction Factor (vis-à-vis organisers’ distances), you can use it to make it easy to keep to the organisers’ set speed.

You do this as follows:

When the organisers give you a set speed to follow, you multiply it by your Correction Factor. This gives you a Phantom Set Speed.
For example, if the set speed is 28.5 mph and your Correction Factor is 1.035 (as in the above example), your Phantom Set Speed is 29.4975 mph, or as near as dammit 29.5 mph.
In the Average Speed Tables, you then simply follow the column for the nearest speed to Phantom Set Speed, not the actual set speed.
In the example above, you would simply read from the 29.5 mph column, rather than the 28.5 mph one, using your own mileages.
This will deliver you to the timing points at the correct time.
If the Phantom Set Speed falls between two speeds in the Tables, you must look at the columns either side of this, and work to a time between the two.

5 Checking the timing system in use

Check the regulations to see how you will be timed at timing points:

Is timing on sight (i e before you arrive at the control itself), or astride the line (i e on arrival at the control)? Most competitors prefer the latter , and it is becoming the more common, but the former is still encountered
Are you timed to the second or to the minute? And if to the minute, how is your leeway calculated?
(There are at least three different ways of calculating leeway on regularity sections run to the minute:
1. whereby you must arrive within the time-of-day minute which contains your due second (e g if your speed/distance calculation makes you due at 15:06:46, your leeway would be from 15:06:00 to 15:06:59, which in this example means that you incur a minute’s penalty if you arrive more than 13 seconds after your exact due time)
2. whereby you must arrive within the 60 seconds following your due second (e g from 15:06:46 to 15:07:45); this allows you 60 seconds lateness tolerance, but nil early arrival tolerance
3. whereby you must arrive within a band of 60 seconds centred on your due second (e g from 15:06:16 to 15:07:15); this allows you 30 seconds tolerance either side of your ideal time
  The organisers may not say which system they are using, and may not even know! Your safest approach is probably to aim to be about 5-10 seconds late!)
If your due time at a second or third intermediate control based on the time you started the section, or on your time at the preceding intermediate control? In other words, must you carry over any lateness or earliness, or recover it? On British events, the rule is always that, if you are late or early at one control, you must be the same amount late or early at the next; but some events in other countries require you to get back to your original time schedule.

6 Keeping to time during regularity sections

Different navigators have their own personal methods which seem to work for them. For what it’s worth, here’s mine:

If there is likely to be more than one timing point per section, have TWO stopwatches
On arrival, before pulling up to the start line:
1. zero both stopwatches (wind them, if clockwork)
2. zero all trips (including the one on the car’s speedo)
3. if you already know the speed to be enforced, open your Average Speed Tables to the correct page/column (i e the Phantom Set Speed, if applicable)
4. get out the route instructions for the section (if you already have them)
5. have pencils, etc, ready
At the start line:
1. check the marshal’s clock against the start time he is giving you
2. zero trips again
3. receive any paperwork the marshal gives you; note the set speed and find the right place in the tables (BUT don’t necessarily be in too much of a hurry to do this - see below)
4. above all, BE READY TO START STOPWATCH 1 EXACTLY AT THE WORD GO. (This is VITAL - you have time for other things later)
On the word GO:
1. start Stopwatch 1 - THIS IS VITAL
2. DON’T rush off as if it were a Special Stage - take your time
3. if the marshal has just given you any paperwork at the word GO, look quickly at this BEFORE you move off - on British public roads, it must be at least 2 miles (or 4 minutes) before the first timing point
4. if you get the set speed only at this point, find the right place in the Average Speed Tables BEFORE you move off (unless it is an "easy" speed - see below)
5. if there are no nasty surprises in the paperwork, move off, plotting the next section as you go (at least as far as the first junction!); tell your driver to go quickly if you have been stationary on the line for more than a few seconds, to catch up lost time
On the move: as soon as you can pay attention primarily to timekeeping rather than plotting, use the following system:
1. at each tenth of a mile on your trip, find in the tables the time due at the next tenth: e g at 29.5 mph, as you pass 1.10 miles, you note the time due at 1.20 miles (0:02:28)
2. call this due time to your driver: "should be two twenty eight"
3. as you come to 1.20 miles, call the actual time on the stopwatch: "is two thirty one"
4. your driver then knows that you are three seconds late and that he must speed up slightly (If he doesn’t, tell him!)
5. repeat the process for every tenth of a mile Certain speeds are "easy" speeds; e g at 30 mph (or km/h), 0.1 mile (or km) must be covered in exactly 12 seconds; at 24 mph (km/h), in 20 seconds; and so on. In such simple cases, Average Speed Tables are not really necessary.
At timing points:
1. if there is likely to be more than one timing point on a regularity section, the most important thing to remember is to START Stopwatch 2 as you cross the Timing Line (which may be either at or before the actual control, depending on the system in use); write down the time at which you cross the Timing Line
  If you’ve got only one stopwatch, stop and zero it BEFORE the timing line, so that you can RESTART it on the line; or else If timing is on sight, the time at which you start the next section is NOT the time at which you stop at the control, but the time at which you had already crossed the Timing Line BEFORE the control. You may be able to see the marshal pressing his watch to time you; start your stopwatch 2 immediately he does so. The section you have just completed is already history - what matters most is to have your start time for the NEXT section right.
2. also at the Timing Line, or as soon after it as you can, zero the trip again (ideally simultaneously with starting Stopwatch 2).
3. as soon as possible after that, stop Stopwatch 1, to give you something resembling your arrival time, to check against the marshal’s time; but this is a LOWER priority than starting Stopwatch 2 on time (NB if you have a 3 stop-watch lap timer or some other sophisticated device which lets you stop Stopwatch 1 and start Stopwatch 2 simultaneously, so much the better)
4. then take your time to book into the control without panic. Again, don’t be in a hurry to rush away; get yourself straight first: Stopwatch 2, stop Stopwatch 1 and zero your trip before moving off. (Note: if the regularity section is wholly or partly on private land - which allows the organisers to place timing points as close to each other as they like - or if the time schedule is likely to be very tight, the above remarks about taking your time before leaving controls may not apply!)

7 Jogularity

Jogularity is a variant of regularity used on events run by HERO, and some others. It is named after LE JOG (the Land’s End to John o’Groats Reliability Trial), on which it was first used.

This system makes life much easier for the navigator, and greatly reduces the need for either an accurate trip or (I hate to say it) Average Speed Tables.

The organisers provide a list of landmarks (road signs, junctions, cattle grids, etc) along the route, and give the official distance to each from the start of the section, usually to the previous hundredth of a mile (17.6 yards) or kilometre. This sheet also shows the time to the nearest second which competitors should ideally take. Normally, timing points will be located only at one of these landmarks. If you arrive at each point at the second shown, you will lose no marks.

This system obviates the need for the competitor to measure the distance accurately, or to calculate his due second from the speed and distance. It is thus ideal for events which seek to place less emphasis on brainbox navigation.

The Jogularity sheet sometimes gives full route instructions as well, either in plain language or as Tulip arrows. At other times, you will have to follow separate route instructions or a map.

The simplest way to tackle a Jogularity section is to use just the organisers’ sheet and a stopwatch, keeping to schedule purely by use of the printed distances and times, referring to your own trip only for a rough check as to your whereabouts. We do not recommend that beginners either use separate Average Speed Tables, or try to keep up with instead of (or as well as) your own trip with the organisers’ distances, as you are likely to get into a muddle.

The only danger is that distances between Jogularity landmarks can sometimes be on the long side, and on these occasions it does pay to revert to the standard methods; but mixing the two methods is best left to the experts.

Some important tips:

Before or as you start the section, write your actual start time on the right hand side of the row for it on the Jogularity sheet
When you come to an intermediate timing point, write in that row any discrepancy between your due time (start time plus the ideal intermediate time show on the sheet) and your actual time
Your due time at all subsequent points must now be adjusted by this discrepancy (e g 5 secs early, or 1 min 10 secs late); this is a sum you must do in your head as you go

For more tips on regularity sections from Andy Gibson, go to his website How to survive a Regularity Section at www.hrcr-roadrally.freeserve.co.uk/regularity.htm

Happy rallying!

John Brown

January 1994 - revised February 1999