DIY: Pacenotes

"Pacenotes.. ahh.. what a boring subject..i mean, who cares bout pacenotes right? It's just some random bits of scribble which the co-driver used to nag the driver while the driver's doing the hard work of driving.."

WRONG!!

The fact is, pacenotes is one of the most important part in rallying. Look at 6 times WRC world champion Sebastien Loeb for example, his notes is so detail, he can practically drive with his eyes closed! Having good pacenotes enables the driver to push more confidently in the Special Stages (SS)..

For today's post, i'm not going to talk about pacenotes, but rather, how to DIY your own pacenote book.. While it might not directly affect the driver's performance in the rally, having a proper pacenote book will help in making your rally experience easier..

Step 1: Gather the materials

- A4 size paper (100gsm at least.. makes flipping easier..)
- 2 thick A4 size card board (makes a good base for your pacenotes.. else the notes will seem flimsy..)
- Garden wire
- Wire cutter
- Broom stick
- Spray paint

Step 2: Prepare the notes and cover

- Since i'm a junior in pacenote writing, i've devised a template for each sheet.. it makes my life easier coz it help me organize the space on each page better.. it makes my notes neater too.. Besides that, at the top of each page, there are columns for Stage information such as Special Stage (SS) name, SS length, as well as page number/total of pages. It is important to note the page count so that you won't mixed the pages by accident.
- To get the template on the paper, i used a photocopier.. coz it's much cheaper and much faster.. (plus there's a copier in my company.. hehe.. i hope no one from my company reads this..)
- After preparing the templates, it's time to send the notes and the hard cover for binding.. if you have access to round shaped binding machine, then it'll be great.. else like me, you can bind it using the normal square binding.. (also available in my company.. kekekeke.. )

Step 3: Making spring

- The technique that we'll using for the binding is coil binding. The reason why this type of binding is chosen is because it has the ability to open flat on a desk and offer 360 degree rotation for easy note taking and flipping.
- The spring/coil making part is the toughest part of all.. the reason is simple: first you need to get wire with proper thickness for this; 2ndly, you need to estimate the length of the wire to use.. it depends on the size of the ring and the number of binding holes you have; 3rdly, it's very hard to judge the distance between 2 holes.. in my case, what i did was to roughly estimate the length, and the distance between the holes.. then after it's done, i'll adjust it according during the test fitting session.. :D..
- To summarize the whole process in 4 steps, you need to:
#1, Cut the wire accordingly.
#2, Roll it on a broom stick with a rough estimate on the gap.
#3, Test fit the spring with the prepared notes, and adjust accordingly
#4, Cut off excessive wire..
- Size of wire? Hot co-driver Christy Goh recommended bigger rings to make flipping easier, and thicker wire so that it won't go out of shape during SS.. i find her advise very useful.. :D

Step 4: Test fitting

- Test fitting is simple.. All you need to do is the spin the spring through the binding holes on your notes.. The spinning direction is either clockwise or counter clockwise depending on the direction of your spring.. But one advice though, please make sure to align your notes properly before binding to make it easier..

Step 5: Spray the momma

- But before you spray the momma, you need to sand-paper the sharp edge.. this is to prevent the razor sharp edge from cutting and hurting you..
- After the sharp edge is smoothed, you can start spraying the spring with your favorite color.. This is to keep the spring from getting rusty after being exposed to the harsh rally condition..

Step 6: Assemble the parts

- Putting everything together: the hard cover, the notes, the spring, to make sure that it fits and flips properly..

Step 7: Zhng your pacenotes with stickers

- Just for the extra ego boost..

The benefits of this pacenotes DIY:
- Being able to arrange the notes after recce.. By doing so you can group notes for consecutive SS together in one book..
- Note: Remember to wrap the edge of the wire with tapes.. This is important to keep the sharp edge from hurting you during the stages..

Well, that's all folks.. enjoy your DIY and Zhng-ed pacenotes..

Rally of Bahau, Round 2 of MRC2010

Bandar Seri Jempol - Karamjit Singh wrapped up the Malaysian Rally Round 2 title at Bandar Seri Jempol in convincing style today ...........Scratch that, that sounds way too formal to be coming out from me. It's almost like reading that straight out of the paper (it is LOL)

So how was our rally you asked? It was awesome! The sport just keeps on getting better & better.

As usual, we tried to start the preparation way ahead of the competition and AS USUAL, we didn't try hard enough LOL. Anyhow, it seemed like there's always not enough time, we did however managed to get the rear pair of absorbers as well as a pair of brake calipers serviced. And on top of that, the 'drifter' in of me requested for the car to be setup to have a mild understeer & a neutral tail for a change.

FF drift yo!

And there we were at Bahau a day earlier for the recce (to make pace note). We did alright I guess but this is our first recce without a water 'boey' (Andy Boey) LOL. The joke didn't end there. We actually got pulled over by cops when we stopped for lunch break just outside a warong (food stall by the road)! The cops weren't aware that the rally was in town & thought we looked suspicious coz we drove ultra dirty & muddy car. We had to explain for ourself that we just came out of the estate mah, of course it'll be 'muddy'. They bought our story but only after they did a search off our trunk!

How the cops caught us

"Francis, we have a problem". This is something that I have to get used to. Balan (hamsapian) came to me & said that one of the brakes is leaking at the seal. We had to make a trip back to the workshop in KL to get the service kit. It was ultra exhausting driving with poor visibility coz it rained cat shit & dog shit, & most of the journey was on trunk road :(

We survived that. And then, it's the first day of rally. Safety & remember to have fun, this has always been D24's strategy, not so much of a strategy huh and away we go. The car felt really good, so we went flat out (FYI our flatout is others 1/2 throttle) straight away. Unintentionally, we even flew at a crest which was marked as 'flat crest' (it means go flat out over crest), only to find ourself gasping for air & searching for balls somewhere behind the lower abs later. Yet again, we learned something here, that recce speed is NOT the same as rally speed! We changed that to 'do not flat crest' afterward.

Flat over crest

Do you know that Bahau rally has tonnes of ruts?! So much that I had to grab hold of the steering very tightly or we would veered off course. So much groping or grabbing that my fingers get cramped at every last SS before every service. Damn, I didn't take Eido-san's lesson too well about my steering technique. I'll explain more on this next time.

Fluffy steering

Both OBK & I are slowly getting up to speed. I'm trying to understand more of the gravel tire by trying sorts of technique to find the traction. I'm getting more sense of grip at low speed but still hesitate at the faster stuff. We tried to stay more in the power band this time, somewhere between 3-5k rpm, though we still lack of power when some others are hitting well over 7k rpm.

Borrowed from Yoong :P

At the navigation department meanwhile, OBK had to call much faster this time around when things happen a lot quicker. We covered 30 (metres) faster than OBK can say it. This meant that OBK had to call things much earlier & I had to stack more notes in my head too.

We came back for a final service on Day 1 with a broken rear camber arm. The bolt broke right off the chassis for doing too much sideways. And we thought that the car dialed in too much angle due to lighter fuel load at the end of the day. The crew worked effortlessly to weld the bugger back into place but they couldn't finish the job as we only had a 40 mins window. They had to spot weld to keep it in place before finishing the job on the 1st service in the next day.

Broken camber arm :(

We would then start Day 2 at an awesome 5th overall, 1st 2wd & 1st 1600cc. Its our first time starting at such position & its really really awkward I must say to start just behind the 4WDs. We were leading with the next car for about 55s but were later cut short by 10s coz we left the service late to get the rear arm done.

Little that we know, we lost another precious minute when the car failed to rev smoothly at the first SS of Day 2. We couldn't get the rev past 4k rpm & had to shift up early so as not to waste more time limping at 4k rpm. I had to constantly kick the clutch (refer to image on how to do that) as the rev took ages to climb. We didn't have the faintest idea that it's the plug fault until Karam told us so at the start of the third SS where we had a slightly longer interval time. I managed to minimize the damage by accelerating smoothly & cutting more corners to avoid dropping more speed. Sounds like technique taken off Initial D geh

This is how you should kick the clutch

We went back for midday service with the front lower arms bent & I guess we can blame it on the ruts. We got them replaced but came out with steering pull hard right. No time for alignment. We rejoined the rally under a gloomy sky and heavy rain. We almost went into a ditch before a bridge at SS11, but thanks to quick reaction with the ebrek & then power out to pull us out of harms way.

We brought the car back safely and finished at 5th overall, 2nd 2wd & 1st 1600cc class! Its almost the same result as APRC Johor but this time, we worked really hard for this, and boy did that feel great!

We would like to use this opportunity to thank our sponsors, MRU Motorsports, Asahi Chassis & Suspension, Universal Nutribeverage, SOL Helmet, Q8 Oils. And of course everyone else who had supported us along the way, you know who you are!

And hey, here is a compilation of video taken from our onboard camera, do watch till the end for a super finish www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_T4n0RYWcg