Rally Thoughts: The Basics
For those that don’t know, for the past couple of years, I have gotten into watching the WRC (World Rally Championship).
During my thirty (coming on forty - eek!) or so years spent on this Earth, I have never been much into sport - besides watching the odd Olympic event and following English football as a kid. Rally appeals to me, though. It technically always did, if you count all of the hours I have sunk into playing games such as Colin McRea Rally, V-Rally 97, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer: Type 4 as a youngster. What pushed me over the edge, though, was YouTuber PandaMonium’s stunning retrospective video of SEGA’s classic Arcade and Saturn racing title, which captured my imagination enough to get me to check out the real thing. Seriously - if you have whopping four hours and forty minutes to spare (I watched it in parts) - give it a watch. You won’t regret it.
Anyway - here we are, almost sixteen months on from watching my first Rally - Kenya 2025 - from start to finish. I have kept up with each one since, and I love it. Watching these tiny, mighty cars trot around the world, leaping over jumps, and traversing over the most difficult of terrains, in challenging weather conditions. It pleases the Lupin III fan within me. Unlike other sports, although Rally’s are split into stages, the competition is measured from the start - that is, the moment the cars leave the service park - all the way until the very end. Even the podium ceremony is technically not where the clock stops, as teams still need to make it back into service once the champagne bottles have been popped. It truly is a sport of endurance - for both the drivers, co-drivers, mechanics, and the cars. Teams are penalised if they arrive to a stage too early or too late. Good time keeping is essential, and the co-driver has a responsibility to keep their driver in check. The rally does not always end if things go wrong, either, with teams allowed to stop on stages, exit the vehicle, and attempt to make repairs. It’s a varied, interesting sport, and you never truly know how things are going to go down.
The basics of a Rally is that there are around sixteen to twenty stages, some of which are run twice, over the course of three days. This happens twelve or thirteen times across a years’ championship, with crews travelling all around the world - from the likes of Sweden, to Kenya, to Japan, and most recently, to Saudi Arabia. There has been some controversary in the past year or so, with competitors advocating for more time between stages on an event - allowing them to eat, rest, use the rest rooms, and prepare. Organisers and manufacturers have also recently made the most of more condensed events, with Estonia 2026 running a slightly more compact itinerary. As a viewer, I think it is important that the crews be happy and comfortable, as this is a dangerous sport and the days are long, with most getting up at 5am and only returning to the hotel at around 8 or 9pm. Sometimes less is more when it comes to performance - drivers are less likely to push and put on a show when they feel exhausted.
Each car contains two people - the driver and co-driver. Both are vital to finishing stage unharmed and in good time. While it often feels like the drivers are the stars of the show - the co-drivers are where this sport really shines. The core of their role is to produce hand-written notes (referred to as pace notes) in conjunction with the driver, through reviewing videos, reconnaissance (recccy) events, and drive experience over repeating tracks each year. These notes are taken with the crews and are read aloud by the co-driver to the driver during the stage. They often involve a number, indicating speed, and angle of the corners they come up against. Any dangers - such as rocks in the road, jumps, and more are also noted. Each driver has a preference of how they need their notes read - some faster, and more in advance than others. Elvyn Evans and Scott Martin, who race for Toyoto Gazoo Racing, for example, often have notes read out a corner or two in advance. Think of this like chess - Elvyn is mentally always two corners ahead, and everything that happens between the moment he is in and that note, is essentially his “zone”. It is incredibly impressive and driving the car at such a speed whilst thinking of the stage in that way, must be mentally and physically exhausting.
Co-drivers also have plenty of other responsibilities, from keeping stage times, to cleaning window screens between stages. While drivers make the cars go fast, co-drivers make sure it can happen, helping to keep things on track. I adore how nationality is not important in this sport, with some unlikely matchups within the cars themselves. Take Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta and his Irish co-driver Aaron Johnston, for example. Two very different individuals from entirely different walks of life, working together to recently have been top of 2026’s championship standings.
Aside from the two in the car - there are whole teams of people back at base, watching on from the service park. These people include the mechanics that work on the cars in-between certain stages, the bosses of the manufacturer teams themselves, and people who handle the essentials - for example, packing the driver’s lunch. Family and friends of the drivers and co-drivers often come along to watch, too. In general, it’s a huge team effort despite there only being two faces per car on the stages themselves. Even logistically, it takes a lot to ship those cars around the world, with the recent Rally in Greece even involving an overnight cruise for both the crews and their cars!
I could spent hours more writing about Rally, and in this new off-topic section of the website, I may do just that.
For this first entry to Rally Thoughts, I wanted to stick to the basics. If you like the sound of anything you have read here, and enjoy the car chases of Lupin III, then I suggest checking it out. There is a fantastic premium service you can watch each event on - Rally.TV, and you can catch some nice highlights over on YouTube. Personally, I would recommend checking out the More Than Machine series, or Hyundai Motorsport’s superb YouTube content for an inside look at a Rally, and I will leave you with a few clips from my favourite event - the harsh wilds of Rally Kenya!
