I observed Prodrive practicing the Wednesday before the event. Mark was very businesslike and dedicated to getting optimum car setup. It was a frustrating day for him and the team. The car wasn't broken, but Mark was never happy with the setup. There weren't any fireworks or raised voices or anything, but Mark flogged his car up and down that 3/4 mile stretch of road all day, going well into Ramana's practice time. Finally, the tranny locked up. The team changed it and Mark went out again. The team worked like fiends on that car. It was very clear to me that Mark was committed to winning the rally. He and the team didn't seem panicked or wigged about it, but it was clear that Oregon Trail was the crucial event of their season.
The nature of no-recce rally requires a bigger safety margin inside the competitor's head. Abroad, the driver and codriver get a personal picture of the road before they drive it. I believe recce allows a crew to match their level of committment to that picture in their head. Without recce, the picture has to be imaginary. Perhaps it's a special danger with experienced recce-rallyists, that they have to imagine a road that doesn't exist, while the experienced blind-rallyist has no expectation of what the road will look like.
At any rate, if recce-rally allows greater control over committment, it also means that if you are good at it, it allows pretty close to maximum committment, just so long as you don't go over the edge, as is the case in any dangerous sport. Pushing very hard in the first mile of the first stage of the first day may seem like a rookie mistake, but from what I can tell, it's a very popular tactic in the WRC. Put the pressure on early and hope it's one of your competitors that makes the mistake, not you.
US no-recce rally doesn't support maximum committment. It is a testament to Mark's experience and dedication to the sport that he gave that kind of committment at our events.
Regional rallies shouldn't necessarily have that level of motivation. Regional rally doesn't need recce, though it's a good venue to experiment with it. It's more about having fun. Committment is important, but comes out more in car prep and chivalrous tradition rather than being all about that last tenth-of-a-second per mile.
Our National rallies are kind-of in-between. The step of having recce is something that may or may not fly, but we should start thinking about it if we want to see the level of committment that a team like Prodrive brought.
If we are going to support the top-level of committment so we can start exporting drivers and maybe get a round of the WRC, we'll have to suck it up and support recce. If not, fine, but we'll have to understand that our top events will always be in-between, and some of us are going to get caught out in the gray area.
andy
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Viva la ProleRalliat!