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India: FMSCI TSD

Indian TSD rallies run "Non-Cumulative": each control restarts your clock at your check-in time plus a short dead time. The app can follow that with the Restart time field.

Devices may be allowed but handicapped

The FMSCI 2024 General Prescriptions allow extra trip meters and rally apps, but Closed and Open events may apply a penalty factor of 2 to crews that use them. One real supplementary regulation used 2.5. Phones may be sealed in a box. Apps that record virtual time controls need the organiser's permission and FMSCI approval. Read your event's supplementary regulations before you bring the phone.

Not yet checked by a competitor

This page comes from the 2024 General Prescriptions. The only event regulation found is from 2020. Nobody who competes in India has read this page yet.

How this format times you

  • Speed chart. A table of blocks: Start ODO km to Finish ODO km (2 decimals) to either a speed (km/h or mph) or a time allotted ("45 minutes"). Speed changes are at official odometer distances, not landmarks. The tulip roadbook is a separate document.
  • Non-cumulative. At a manned control (disclosed DTC or secret STC) the out time is check-in time plus a dead time. The dead time is at least 20 s, and the event sets the exact value. If the marshal gives a restart time, it overrides. Example in the rules: in at 11:07:59 with a 30 s dead time gives out at 11:08:29. At a self-time (SFTC) or virtual (VTC) control, in time equals out time, with no dead time.
  • Seconds. The fraction of a second is dropped at controls. Some events work in whole minutes: check-ins are truncated to the minute, and an STC restart is rounded up to the next minute.
  • Controls. DTC: disclosed, the car stops, time is when the card is handed over. STC: secret, the time is when the first part of the vehicle crosses the line. SFTC: the crew writes the time on its card. PC: stamp only. VTC: recorded automatically by a GPS app, open events only.
  • Penalties. 1 s per second late, 2 s per second early, with no cap per control. Stopping, waiting or zig-zagging in sight of an STC costs 5 minutes. A missed time control costs at least 30 minutes.
  • Start. 2-minute intervals by default.
  • Fixed additions. +10 minutes at every manned level crossing, at least 60 s for a marshal's delay, 2 minutes for an en-route check, and a 30 s add time if a mid-route chart is handed to you away from a control.
  • Free zones. There are no time controls near guarded level crossings, junctions, highways and expressways. Whether the clock keeps running at the chart speed there is open.

Stage setup

See Turning the roadbook into a stage.

  1. Stage type Regularity. Start signal Time, at your start time, or Tap.
  2. One section for each block of the speed chart. For a block with a speed, enter the Distance and the Speed. For a block with a time allotted, enter the Distance and the Time (for example 21.52 km in 45 minutes), and the app works out the speed.
  3. If your chart starts at an odometer reading other than 0, set Start distance in the speed chart.
  4. Free zones. Set the Section type to Free zone. The app then shows no speed target or overdue warning, but the section's distance and time still count in the schedule. Whether that matches an Indian free zone is open.
  5. Keep Auto-switch sections by distance on. Save the stage.

Button recipe

  1. Start. Load the stage and press Start.
  2. At a manned control (DTC or STC). Press the TC when the card is handed over, or when the car crosses an STC line. Use Next Section + Restart (manual sections) or Sync + Restart (automatic sections) if the control is at a section end. Use a long press on the Ideal Time if it is not.
  3. Set the dead time. Change Restart time on the TC in the Checkpoints sheet. The sheet opens with the newest TC open. For a 30 s dead time pick +30s. For 20 s, or any other value, pick Set and enter the clock time (the check-in time plus the dead time). The ideal time restarts at the moment of your press plus the restart. The long press on the Ideal Time opens the sheet at once. Next Section + Restart and Sync + Restart open no sheet: tap Checkpoints in the toolbar afterwards.
  4. A marshal gives a restart time. Pick Set and enter that clock time. It replaces the dead time.
  5. Self-time or virtual control. Press a TC and leave Restart time at 0s.
  6. Add time. For +10 minutes at a level crossing, or a 30 s add time for a mid-route chart, there is no button, and the app cannot apply it the way the organiser does. The organiser adds the time to the leg where the delay happened, so your arrival at the next control is judged against a later due time. The app cannot move that due time. Until the next control the Ideal Time reads late by the added time: drive on at the chart speed and ignore that much lateness. At the next control, record the TC as usual. Its restart then starts the schedule again from your real time, so the added time no longer matters after it. Do not put the added time into the Restart time of that TC: that would shift the schedule after the control, not correct the leg before it.
  7. End. Press Finish.

Pitfalls

  • Early costs double. An early error is worth 2 s per second, a late error 1 s. The app shows both the same. When in doubt, be slightly late.
  • The press is not the marshal's time. The control records your check-in to the second, and fractions are dropped. The app keeps the exact moment of your press, fraction included, so its restart can be up to 1 s later than the official one. For the exact official time, type your check-in time from the card into TC time (typed times are whole seconds), or use Restart time > Set.
  • Check-in plus dead time, not the press time. If you leave Restart time at 0 at a manned control, the ideal time restarts too early by the dead time, and you will read late.
  • Secret controls. At an STC you do not stop. Press the TC as you pass the marshal, and add the dead time from the SR.
  • Free zones. The dead time and the free-zone clock are not settled by the published rules. Do not rely on the display inside one.
  • Mounting. Devices more than 8 inches up the windscreen are banned.

How well the app fits

Mostly good, with these gaps:

  • no early x2 hint (the display is symmetric);
  • no automatic virtual time controls, and no FMSCI approval for this app;
  • no fixed-addition button (+10 min and so on), and no way to correct the leg where the delay happened;
  • no setting for the dead time, so you choose it on each TC;
  • new speed charts issued en route need a stage built in advance, or a stage change at a stop.

Legality note

The General Prescriptions allow extra trip meters and rally apps but allow the organiser to penalise them. Some grassroots events permit only "designated timing devices prescribed by the organizers". Phones may be sealed. Do not assume that this app is allowed or that no penalty factor applies. Ask the organiser, and keep the answer.

Sources

The 2024 General Prescriptions are a firm source. How current events apply them is unclear: the only supplementary regulation found is from 2020. Article numbers in brackets.

  • FMSCI 4W TSD General Prescriptions 2024 [1.4, 2.3, 2.10, 2.12, 2.13, 8.1.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.2, 13, 16.3, 16.6, 16.8.1, 16.9.1, 18.2, App II-4, App II-6, App II-9, App II-10]: PDF
  • FMSCI Grassroots TSD Toolkit [2, 3, 17]: PDF
  • SJOBA TSD Rally 2020 supplementary regulations [1.1, 9.3, 9.4, 13 b]: PDF