Russ,
Something like that happened to me last year in another all night brisk winter TSD (Snowy Safari)in Ontario. I gave my driver hell for coming back to the car with a blank timing sticker. He wondered what I was talking about! We wasted about 20 seconds getting that sorted out until I realized that the control people wrote the time in using red ink.
I think that for a stage rally a low, focused white light on the notes is just fine. But for a TSD event, a navie has to be more concerned about looking in various places (more odo adjustments, more timing calculations, route book to follow, etc.) which requires more light on the right side of the car. This is where I think that red lights are better, as that much white light would be a bother to the driver.
Steve McKelvie