When the Internet Table-Top Rallying Championship was
resurrected last winter after being dormant for five years,
there was clearly a market of navigators in waiting. Attracting
234 competitors with many overseas entries, the four round
Championship raised over £5,000 for charity.
Following a
couple of summer events which were organised by competitors
instead of the regular host "Crow", a new winter Championship
has been announced for 2018/9 - but with a big
difference.
A classic table-top rally requires
plotting a route on a map from a set of route cards. In its
Internet form the canvas is a digital OS map where you tramline
a route and submit it for automatic marking; points being lost
for missing undisclosed time and passage controls. For 2018/9
the Internet series has been considerably enhanced to simulate
everything a navigator has to deal with - not just solving the
navigation. With the route on the map, the navigator/co-driver
must now guide a car around the route adjusting speeds in
real time to: maintain the correct average speeds on
Regularities; adhere to a (30mph) time schedule on Road rallies;
or try to beat the target time (75mph) on Stage rallies. Each
rally will demand full concentration for about 30 minutes.
Easy? Well, no, because on route there will be restrictions
and hazards to take note of. For a start you must keep to any
designated speed limits: 60mph on the road, or 100mph on a
stage. But for "safety" (and of course to make you drop time),
some sections through villages for example, may limit you to,
say, 30mph. Exceed this and you'll get a warning from the
ever-present DSO (Driving Standards Observer); three warnings
and you are excluded. Go too fast round a bend and you'll be off
the road for a while; much too fast and you'll have a terminal
accident.
But there's more to consider. You'll have to
wait for the marshal to sign your time card at each control; you
may get baulked by another competitor; you'll have to stop at
Give way junctions; and there'll be "incidents" which will delay
you even more: drown in a ford, pick up a puncture, or your
driver may need to stop briefly for a natural break. To add
to the realism, most of the actions are qualified with sound
bites: the marshal will count you down at controls; you'll hear
the splash in a ford; the hiss of a leaking tyre; and the noise
of a "natural break". It's seriously competitive stuff, but
you'll laugh along the way.
Because of the real-time
nature of a rally, any plotting is straightforward plot and
bash. There won't be time for solving complex route cards which
need Googling for a solution otherwise you'll be OTL before you
leave the start. Some of the rallies, particularly stages, will
be pre-plot, but occasionally you will be presented with pace
notes to define the route. And if you want a good thrash on the
road, the last section of each Road rally is a Selective
(remember those?), still set at 30mph, but with lots of route "furniture" to slow you down.
Is there any more that can
be done to add to the real-world aspects of desktop rallying?
Ray Crowther ("Crow") hasn't finished development yet. "I
plan to include driving tests on Regularity rallies where the
competitor will have to steer the car around a network of cones.
A car "preparation" element is still to come. This will allow
certain attributes to be selected such as waterproofing to avoid
drowning in fords, and a sump guard to allow faster speeds on
"whites". And I'm sure a Street View of the roads being used
might be an interesting perspective."
Practice
Rallies are freely available now and entries are open for the
2018/9 Championship with rounds in December, January, February
and March. All entry fees will be donated to four charities.
Further details are available at
http://table-top-rallying.org.uk.
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