1 Mille Miglia Navigation and Timing Notes Prepared By Steve McKelvie May 2014 These notes were prepared in order to help make the Mille Miglia event more understandable for first time competitors. It is prepared on the assumption that the competitor’s car will not be fitted with an adjustable, calibratable odometer. Know the event schedule and its implications!
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Mille Miglia Navigation and Timing Notes
Prepared By
Steve McKelvie
May 2014
These notes were prepared in order to help make the Mille Miglia event more understandable for
first time competitors. It is prepared on the assumption that the competitor’s car will not be
fitted with an adjustable, calibratable odometer.
Know the event schedule and its implications!
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I recommend getting the car scrutineered as soon as possible as you will get the Road Book
sooner. That will give you more time to become familiar with the Road Book. Also gives you
more time to ask questions if there are things that you do not understand.
From the Provisional Starting List, you might see that your car number will be #395. This means
that, in theory, you will be starting 395 minutes (6 hours 35 minutes) behind the first car. This
means that your rally will run much later than the cars at the front. For example on the First
Day, Car #1 (or the first car) will start at 18:00. You official start time will be (18:00 + 6:35)
24:35 or 00:35. The end of the First Day for you will be (23:00 + 6:35) 29:35 or 05:35 early the
next morning! Your First Day evening meal will be at about 06:00! If you are running on time,
then your whole Mille Miglia rally will be on such a time shift.
A couple of notes about the schedule based on the above starting position:
1. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday your rally will extend well into the night. Make sure
that your lights work well. Also I recommend a headlamp for the navigator as it will be
dark inside the car and you will need a light to read the route book. Check the car to see
how bright the instrument lights are. It will be necessary for the navigator to read the trip
odometer using the instrument’s lights.
2. You will spend many hours of this rally driving at night. A good set of lights and
additional rally lights will make the drive much easier, safer, and would make it much
easier to read street signs to help to minimize the possibilities of getting lost.
3. As much of the rally could be driven at night, the temperature will be cool especially in
an open car or in a closed car with poor heating.
4. Window defogging effectiveness can be an issue.
5. Be sure to check the suitability of the windshield wipers. Take some Rainex.
6. Note how intense the schedule is! At the end of each day after completing the day’s
rallying, the competitors have 8 hours to fuel the car, have dinner, shoot the breeze with
other competitors, sleep, have breakfast, get ready for another day rallying, and get to the
day’s start line.
7. Consider bringing some of those 5-Hour Energy Drinks.
The regulations note that they will be starting three cars at the same time. This will probably
happen at the start of the First Day and perhaps when starting from other major locations. This
can lead to confusion if you are not prepared for this. All three cars will be timed to a different
minute, but you will be initially traveling very close to each other. From the car numbers you
will know where you fit in with the other two cars. You will have to play this as you best you
can. You don’t want to get held up by other cars, but perhaps you don’t want to be out front
“breaking trail”. It might be best to lay back for a few kilometers and see how you feel about the
other cars. The two cars ahead of you might have both Italian crews, so perhaps they know the
roads well.
Caution: Do not trust the car in front of you. If they make a mistake, so will you! You can use
the car ahead of you as a guide or as a suggestion of the action that is needed, but not as the
absolute authority on what should be done. Also don’t let another car ruin your rally. If another
car is getting in your way or holding you up don’t hesitate to pass them.
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Synchronizing Your Clocks
It is important that you have the correct time of day. There should be an official clock at the
rally headquarters, although more and more rallies seem to say to use GPS time. This is a little
scary, as I was in a store in Germany with many “radio-controlled” clocks for sale, but only one
agreed with our GPS time which we felt comfortable with. Be sure to take the time to get your
watches/clocks synchronized with the official clocks. You might have to walk up the Start Line
and synchronize with their official time there. A difference between your clock and the official
clock of 0.5 second over 74 controls could mean an error of 37 seconds over the duration of the
rally. So it is important to get the clock as synchronized as possible with the official clocks.
It is a good idea to have three independent sources of time in the car in case there is a problem
with one timepiece.
Official Notice Board
At the rally headquarters there will be an Official Notice Board. Also note that the location of
this Official Notice Board will move daily as the rally moves along. Check this board at every
opportunity as it is updated with information that competitors should be aware of. Perhaps some
instructions are corrected or some new instructions might be provided, if for example, road
construction requires a route change.
Odometer Calibration
A key to following the Road Book instructions is to know where the instructions are to take
place. This is where you will have to rely on three things:
Matching the tulip diagram with the action location
Noting the additional information, such as signs and sign location
Odometer reading
In order to know your location, you will have to be able convert your odometer reading into
reading in the Road Book.
As in this case it is being assumed that you do not have a special adjustable and calibratable rally
odometer, you will have to rely on the standard odometer that you have in the car. For these
purposes it is assumed that your car is fitted with two odometer readings:
Total distance display (miles or kilometers, reading to whole units)
Resettable trip display (miles or kilometers, reading to the 1/10 unit)
An odometer factor can be established that will allow you to convert official distances to your
trip display. The overall equation that you will use to do this is as follows:
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Odometer Factor X Official Distance = Trip Odometer Display
In order to establish the Odometer Factor, use the following equation:
Odometer Factor = Trip Odometer Reading
Official Distance
Let’s look at two theoretical examples about how to establish the Odometer Factor.
Example 1
After resetting your trip odometer to 0.0, you drive for an official distance of 3.26 kilometers, but
your trip odometer reading is 3.42 kilometers. (take the time to carefully look at the 1/10
rotating dial to interpolate the 1/00 value – it will greatly increase your trip reading accuracy
during the rally). As a result, your Odometer Factor can be calculated as follows:
Odometer Factor = 3.42 = 1.049
3.26
Example 2
After resetting your trip odometer to 0.0, you drive for an official distance of 3.26 kilometers, but
your trip odometer reading is 2.08 miles. Again look carefully at the 1/10 rotating dial to
interpolate the 1/100 value. As a result, your Odometer Factor can be calculated as follows:
Odometer Factor = 2.08 = 0.638
3.26
There very good possibility that the organizers will provide a measured distance for all
competitors to drive before the event starts, so that everyone will be able to calibrate their
odometer. Note that for a good factor the longer the measured length then the more tolerance
there is in the trip odometer reading.
When traveling over an official measured distance for the purposes of calibrating your odometer,
always follow the usual traveled route. For example, don’t cut or apex the corners – follow the
path that a normal car would have traveled when setting out the measured distance.
When you start a section, be sure to zero your trip odometer. Then if the Road Book notes a
right turn at 23.74 kilometers then by using the Odometer Factor as follows you can determine
the trip odometer reading at the location of the right turn:
Odometer Factor X Official Distance = Odometer Reading
0.638 X 23.74 = 15.15
Therefore expect the right turn to happen when the trip odometer says 15.15.
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If you get lost or miss a turn then your trip odometer will be off. When that happens, then you
will have to rely on the Incremental Distances. For example, say your trip odometer is reading
21.56 (or so) at a known location, but you know that it is off because you have driven extra
distance because of an off-course error. From the instructions in the Road Book, you know that
the incremental distance to the next instruction, say a left turn, is 6.32 kilometers. Therefore the
incremental distance on the odometer would be (0.638 X 6.32) 4.03. Therefore the trip odometer
reading should be about (21.56 + 4.03) 25.59 when you get to the left turn. You will have to
continue this approach until the next opportunity to re-zero the trip odometer. You could also
reset your trip odometer to zero once you regain the proper route and add the incremental values
from that baseline of zero.
It might be difficult to read the trip odometer from the passenger’s seat, but it will have to be
done especially at critical times. The driver might be able to help read the odometer, but in most
cases, the driver is too busy steering the car to read the odometer.
Road Book
The Road Book describes the route in detail (using symbols as well). You absolutely must not
lose the road book or any of the time cards! If it is not in your personal possession they should
be placed in a secure place.
After looking through it and getting some rally miles under you, you will learn how to find and
use the many pieces of information contained in the Road Book. In the first few pages of the
Book, there will be a legend explaining the symbols that are used in the Road Book.
Tulip Instructions
For tulip diagrams remember that you enter the instruction at the “ball” and leave in the direction
of the “arrow.” The following is a legend of the tulip lines and symbols, and their definitions:
Tulip, Line type Meaning
Basics of a "tulip". Dot at bottom signifies where you are coming from. Arrowhead shows which way you are to go. This will typically be given with a distance in kilometers.
Go straight.
"X" Indicates a quoted sign or landmark. The sign will be usually be defined in the adjoining column.
Go straight, perform indicated action, if any, at "sign".
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A dotted line, like the one at the top, usually indicates a non-road. A non-road may be a driveway, or a road that is marked "no entry", "dead end", "not a thru road", "one way", or "no outlet". It is not an option as a way to go at that intersection.
Turn left at an intersection with a non-road across the way and the matching sign as shown and stated in the adjoining column.
This tulip shows an intersection with an island. All sides of the island are legal, conventionally, you would take the first opportunity to make the right.
Turn right before the island at an intersection with the quoted sign indicated by "X".
Another intersection with an island. This time, the dotted line shows a non-road, which means you cannot go straight ahead. Follow the path of solid line road through this intersection.
If you are at the proper intersection for this tulip, turn right before the island, then left.
A squared circle over an intersection, indicates an intersection with a traffic light. This may be a flashing light, or a full stop light.
Go straight at a 4-way intersection with traffic light, and a quoted sign as indicated by the "X".
A four way intersection with 3 paved roads shown by solid lines, and one non-road, straight ahead, shown by the dotted lines.
Turn right at a signaled intersection with a non-road across the way and the matching sign as shown and stated in the adjoining column.
The boxes, or rectangles represent stores, shops, or buildings, or mentioned in the information column.
The boxes help to identify which buildings you are looking for.
The symbol to the right that looks like brackets lying down represents a bridge.
Turn right at a 4-way intersection to cross a bridge. The sign must match what is stated in the adjoining column.
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Other typical rally tulips are shown below:
Each rally will have its own style and you will be provided with a legend for the tulips at the
front of the Road Book.
Overview of the Control Types
There are several different types of controls that you will encounter in the Mille Miglia. These
controls are outlines as follows:
Time Controls (CO)
Basically, Time Controls place the competitors in a certain order and keeps the event moving
along. Participants will be given a start time to begin the event or to start a day. The competitors
are expected to show up at that time ready to start the first sector. For example, if your start time
is 7:50:00, then you should be at the Starting Line at 7:50:00. Sometimes there might be a delay
for some reason and they might assign you a slightly different start time for the sector while you
are at or near the start line.
Once you start the sector, the time to go through the next Time Control (your in-time) is the
required travel time (which is written on the schedule or Time Card) added to the real departure
time or start time from the last Time Control. For example, if your out-time or start time from
the last Time Control was 7:50:00 and the required travel time is 1:03:00, then your in-time to
the next Time Control (CO) is (7:50:00 + 1:03:00) 8:53:00.
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Controls in Transit (CT)
Controls in transit are used to ascertain that the pre-established route is being followed.
Each team will be assigned a time limit, or a period of time, in which they must show the time
card to the officials.
Passage Control
Regularity Stages (PC)
Regularity Stages or time trials will be held en route. In order to participate in these trials,
participants must do the time trails in the times indicated on their schedules. The Regularity
Stages or time trials consist of a series of closely spaced timing lines. These Regularity Stages or
time trials might be at the end of a section or might be at the beginning of a section. There is no
standard location. Contrary to the Time Controls, the start of the Regularity Stages or time trials
is not regulated. Each participant will decide when to do them and place themselves at the
starting marshal’s disposal. The time for these Regularity Stages or time trials begins when the
car activates the starting line air pressure hose. Time (in hundredths of a second) will be
measured through “pressure switches” or rubber tubes connected to a printing chronometer,
which reads the impulse taken from when the front wheels go over the tube. Those who cross
too early or too late will be penalized.
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Average Speed Controls
This year the Mille Miglia will be having average speed stages for the first time in about 10
years. The details as to how these stages will be run, but we know that they will be having 6
timed stages. At this time it is not known how these stages will be run, so the information
provided herein is based on a potential scenario. We do know that the timing controls will be
“hidden”. “Hidden” can have at least two meanings. One is that simply the controls are not
known beforehand, but that the controls are very visible when you pass by the controls. The
other meaning of “hidden” is that the controls truly are hidden and you do not know when you
drive by them. This last meaning seems somewhat inconsistent with the Mille Miglia timing and
scoring methods. The organizers seem to like using air hose timing lines and I think that they
would want the teams to know when they drove by a control so that the teams can time
themselves in order to verify the scores at the end of the day.
The style of the Mille Miglia has been to have consecutive similar scoring stations, so one
possible layout is to have two groups of three hidden average speed controls. Each group would
be positioned in one sector.
Presumably the target average speed will be provided. The average speed might be given in an
integer number (say 35 km/hr) which would allow you to use speed/distance/time tables, or they
might be given as a decimal number (say 38.26 km/hr) which will require special preparation.
Pacing Example
Let’s assume that the average speeds are provided in decimal numbers and that you want to be
able to provide pacing timing at every 0.5 interval on the odometer. From a previous example,
let’s assume that the Odometer Factor is 0.638. By re-arranging the equation for the Odometer
Factor the following equation is provided:
Official Distance = Odometer Reading
Odometer Factor
Set Odometer Reading Interval = 0.5
Odometer Factor = 0.638
Therefore the Official Distance traveled for every 0.5 increment on the odometer:
Official Distance = 0.5 = 0.7837 kilometers
0.638
The Speed-Time-Distance relationship is as follows;
Time = Distance
Speed
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We know the required average speed is 38.26 km/hr, therefore for every 0.5 increment on the
odometer (actual distance traveled = 0.7837 km) the time can be calculated as follows:
Time = 0.7837 km = 0.02048 hours
38.26 km/hr
More convenient time units can be calculated as follows: