Time Allowances

We hope you enjoyed the Bluenose Rally on May 24. I know things went well at CP 8 and it was great to hear the stories of rally mayhem over a wonderful curling club dinner at the finish. The rallying community is full of top-notch people and spending post-rally time with them over sustenance and refreshment is always time well spent.

As we turn our attention to the ASCC Tarmac Trial (TT), we need to revisit the Richta Rally system and some of its features which may be relatively new to our region. One of these features which will be used on the TT is the Time Allowance.

A Time Allowance (TA) permits a rally crew to add an amount of time to the ideal leg time to allow for slow traffic, nature calls, construction, traffic lights, punctures, etc. along the rally route. We first ran into this concept on a SCCA divisional Course rally in Indianapolis, where we were stuck behind a slow-moving truck in the middle of endless Hoosier cornfields. Of course, we soon came across a CP and I explained we were held up. “Do you want to take a TA?” Wendy asked. We had no idea what she was talking about and said no, and therefore we dropped some unnecessary points. Had we known, we could have adjusted our expected time at the CP and saved some points. Live and learn.

From our perspective, TAs are a safety feature in that if a crew is losing time due to traffic or construction, they can take a TA rather than increase speed into the realm of illegality to try to make up time. Using Richta, the rallymaster can adjust the maximum TA permitted, and I would argue that should be slightly less than the maximum late/early score at a CP. More on that later.

Competitors using Richta can add or subtract TA times using the TA+ and TA- buttons on the Competitor screen. It’s important that TAs are taken in :30 second increments, as that puts the crew between two on-minute crews on timing. It’s very important to note that you need to take a TA when you need it, as TAs are valid for the leg you’re on. If you wait until after you’ve passed the next CP, they won’t count for the leg on which you lost the time. Take them when you need them!

One of our concerns is that the feature will be abused by crews who know they’re early or late and will use the TA function to negate that, even if the reason for the delay is within their control. In the spirit of sporting fairness we would hope that wouldn’t happen, but we also recognize it’s a tempting balm to self-inflicted wounds. For that reason, you’ll see some rallies where the maximum TA would still result in penalty points should a crew be wildly off course or out of time.

There are a number of documents about Richta and how the TA function works, so I would hope you’ll take the time to study this information in preparation for the Tarmac Trial. It may also be a good idea to revisit some of our blog posts about numbered turns and herringbone diagrams. But that’s entirely up to you…

Stay tuned as we’ll be talking more about Richta and the TT as we approach September. Rally on!