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What regularity is

This chapter explains what a regularity rally asks of you, before you open the app. You learn the words on the roadbook and why arriving early can cost as much as arriving late.

The idea in one minute

A regularity rally is not a race. The organiser gives you a route and, for each part of it, an average speed. Your job is to be at every point of the route at the time that speed gives. The crew closest to those times wins, not the fastest crew.

The time you should have at a point is the ideal time. It is the time you would show if you had held the imposed average speed from the start to that point. The organiser checks your time at some points. Your result is the gap, in seconds, between your real time and the ideal time at those points. Every second of gap, early or late, costs penalty points. The lowest total wins.

distance time ideal time your time late early start check A check B

The solid line is the ideal time. The dashed line is the real time of one crew. At check A the crew is behind the ideal time, so it is late. At check B it is ahead, so it is early. Both gaps cost points.

The roadbook and the time table

The roadbook (also road book or radar) describes the route: turns, junctions and landmarks, each with its distance from the start. You navigate by it.

The time and distance table (TDT) gives the speeds and times. It lists the sections of the test, the distance of each, and the average speed you must hold. When the speed changes, the table starts a new row. The change always happens at a place you can see on the road and find in the roadbook, such as a junction or a sign.

Here is a small test. The start is at 14:00:00.

Section Distance Average speed Time for the section Ideal time at the end
1 5.00 km 40 km/h 7 min 30 s 14:07:30
2 3.00 km 30 km/h 6 min 00 s 14:13:30
3 4.00 km 48 km/h 5 min 00 s 14:18:30

The time for a section is its distance divided by its speed. The ideal time at the end of a section is the start time plus the times of all sections so far. If you pass the 8.00 km point at 14:13:50, you are 20 seconds late.

Some tables give distance and time instead of speed. This is the same information: speed is distance divided by time.

Some terms you will meet:

  • Average-speed test (also regularity test or zone): a stretch driven at an imposed average speed. This guide is mostly about this kind of test.
  • Short timed test: a very short test, often under 200 m, scored to a hundredth of a second.
  • Time control: a point where you must arrive within a given minute. It is used on the liaison sections between tests. See Liaisons.

Each country has its own names for these. The format pages list them.

Roadbook distances are the organiser's measurements. Your car and the app measure slightly differently. This is why calibration matters.

Timing points and secret checks

The organiser times you at points along the test. Some are secret checks: you are not told where they are, so you cannot speed up or slow down just for them. You must be on time everywhere. Rulebooks usually require several secret checks in a test and keep them away from the start. Your event's regulations give the exact numbers.

You are scored at the checks, not only at the finish. A test with a perfect finish and a bad middle still loses points.

In the app, you can record your own time at a point. This record is a time control (TC). Recording a TC always restarts the ideal time from that moment.

Two separate choices

Before you build a stage, find out two things about your event. They do not depend on each other: every timing works with either kind of section change.

1. How you are timed: cumulative or restarted.

  • Cumulative. The ideal time runs from the start of the test to the finish. If you are 10 seconds late at one check, the next check uses the same plan. You press no TC button inside the test. At a secret check you keep driving and press nothing. The French rallies, the Belgian and Dutch events, Spain, Portugal and the Italian average-speed tests work this way.
  • Restarted. The ideal time restarts at each timing point, from your real time there. An earlier error does not carry forward. You record a TC at each control: with a button that ends in + Restart, or a long press on Ideal Time. The UK, the USA, India and Japan work this way.

The app has no setting for this. The buttons you press decide it. Chapter 7, Time controls and re-bases, shows it with numbers.

2. How the sections change: automatic or manual.

  • Automatic (the default): the section changes by itself when your stage trip reaches its end. You correct the distance with Sync at the landmark.
  • Manual: you change the section yourself with Next Section.

This is the Auto-switch sections by distance switch of the stage, see Options. Both kinds have a plain button and a + Restart button. In a cumulative test use the plain one (Sync or Next Section). In a restarted test use the + Restart one at a control that is at a section end.

The Quick guide and the Demo stage ask only the second question. Your regulations and the format pages answer the first.

Why early is often worse

Most rulebooks charge a penalty for each second between you and the ideal time. Some charge the same for early and late. Others charge more for early:

  • The Belgian Legend Boucles and the Indian FMSCI rules charge 2 points per second early and 1 per second late. The French open-road rally (RRO) may charge double for early.
  • At some Spanish events (Costa Brava Historic) and in the Italian Rally di Regolarità, the early penalty has no upper limit, while the late penalty is capped.
  • Other formats are symmetric, such as the UK and the USA (SCCA TSD) rules.

Early is also hard to repair. You can only lose the time by slowing down or stopping. Many rulebooks penalise stopping near a check, and also penalise driving fast to recover lost time.

So drive for the ideal time. If you must be wrong, be slightly late rather than early. This is a rule of thumb, not a law. Read your event's penalty table.

What the app does for you

The app counts distance from GPS and keeps your Rally Time, which is its clock. You enter the sections of the test, and the app works out the ideal time for your current distance. It shows the gap in the Ideal Time panel:

  • A plus sign means you are late. The header changes to SPEED UP.
  • A minus sign means you are early. The header changes to SLOW DOWN.
  • While the gap is smaller than the threshold (1 second by default), the panel shows only the number.

Under one minute the gap is in seconds and tenths, for example +3.4s. A line under it shows the ideal clock time for where you are now.

The app does not replace the official timing and cannot score you. The organiser's times are the result. Some events restrict or ban electronic devices, and some ban average-speed indicators. Read your event's regulations before you rely on the app. The format pages list what the published rules say in each country.