The morning recce works very well. Mountain Trials in BC did this (or rather a combination).
I believe the roads were open during it. No EMTs. You had to be on the lookout for traffic, another encouragement to drive sensibly.
You could run a two pass recce on the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, or a one pass recce on Saturday morning (if you couldn't make Friday). Some of the stages were reused in the rally, so the recce does NOT have to take as long as the entire event.
Certainly one wrong note can cost you big time, but without notes the people at the front have to push very hard driving blind, and you can just as easily make a mistake.
With stage notes, they don't describe course conditions (slippery bit, narrow, etc) so from my point of view pace notes are much better for me than stage notes.
WCRA had volunteers collecting recce cards at the start and ends of the stages. The only issues we had were dust, and a few people stopping on the stages (which doesn't help those behind them because you lose the pace...)
I don't know if they had any road closure issues, but the number of volunteers required was a lot less than you need to run a stage. You could probably do it with 2-4 people per stage (1-2 at each end).
It doesn't really space people out because some people slow down or stop to fix their notes. Pat's advice was to keep moving at a fairly constant (but obviously not too fast) speed.
If you'd like to try pace notes and recce, Pacific Forest Rally in BC will be using them this year. Great roads too! It appears to be following a slightly different format, recce on one day, and then a FULL day of rallying the next day. (8:30A-8:30P for car 0).
http://www.pacificforestrally.com/archives/2004/2004PFRsups2.pdf
Typically there will be a speed trap or two on the stages during recce. I don't see speeding as a big issue if the penalty is made severe enough.
I *MUCH* prefer this format over stage notes. I understand how the Jemba notes are made, but there is certainly something different when you call it out yourself to be written down and then have to drive it. It is a new discipline to learn for the team: how to communicate during the recce.
It also keeps the co-driver busy before the event! (re-writing the notes)
So while a lot of the Americans (except Rally NY) are whining about how hard it is and bring up all of the issues, the Canadians are just doing it!
Glenn