Performance Rally . . . is just that . . . performance of car, driver, and co-driver over dirt and gravel road speed tests known as Special Stages. And the backup is the service crew. Even the words and labels used for this kind of motorsport call up images of choreography and drama.
A typical performance rally is 300 to 500 km long, with anywhere from 10 to 20 special stages, each one between 3 to 50 km long. Most special stages are on gravel or dirt surfaces, with roads varying from wide open to tight and twisting, not infrequently with trees on one side and exposures - a quaint way way of saying 30 to 50 foot dropoffs - on the other side.
Art Suderman, 1989 Canadian Automotive Journalist of the Year, describes the sport:
A performance rally consists of a predetermined route made-up of transit sections and special stages. Serenity is the name of the game in transits. Teams strictly follow all the rules of the road under penalty of disqualification.
By sharp contrast, special stages are races against the clock - one car at a time - on roadways closed to public use. Forest trails and logging roads are familiar turf to a high performance rally car as it methodically straightens the curves and flattens the hills.
Rallying is a team sport. The driver is the high profile cog in the wheel to victory. Piloting a racing machine over roads that would give a mountain goat ulcers takes plenty of skill
But the co-driver deserves accolades as well. He or she never actually drives the car. The task at hand is to check engine guages, monitor dual odometers, and reset them at appropriate times while simultaneously interpreting an intricate routebook and calmly reading the instructions contained therin over a helmet intercom. All this while the car is sideways at 160 km/hr. Nothing to it, right?
Last, but definetly not least, vital part of the team is the service crew. Without their selfless dedication, there would be no gas fill-ups, spare tires, or quick fixes when the rally car wheezes into services with mechanical problems. (Calgary Herald, April 22, 1988)