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Sample Navigation – from head-scratching to tulips in just 40 junctions

   

Driving a SlotNav rally route is not something you can successfully do on your own. Just to practice, you definitely need a driver and a navigator – and any competitive event will require a Rally Master to plan the route, time the runs and judge the navigation. In this post, I’ll demonstrate a simple 40-junction navigation (with two intermediate ‘reset’ stops) that I used in an early practice session, designed for me and my slightly-reluctant navigator to get used to the process...

   

Including the direction of each junction - Left or Right - might help the driver work out where they ought to be on the layout, but it is not essential. Definitely helpful for the learning process was having the extra (blue) text – that’s information for the Race Master and would normally be removed from the navigator’s instructions for a competition run. The blue text explains the reset at each Stop Box, so the crew know if they’re on the right route or have made an error somewhere.

One issue that analogue racers might have – and digital racers aren’t immune from – is that the lane-change sensor is situated about a foot before the visible turn. The lane-change button needs to be pressed before the sensor is reached and then held. It’s a process that needs practice to get as smooth and reliable as possible...

   

Starting with no idea what we were doing, we gradually worked out a method that suited us both: my navigator read an instruction – either ‘Turn Right’, ‘Turn Left’ or ‘Straight On’ – and I said ‘Yes’ when I was ready for the next one. Some junctions are closer together than others, so that allowed me to get the info exactly when I needed it – not too soon or too late. We also discovered that the Stop command should be tagged onto the final instruction – so ‘Turn Right – STOP’. My navigator also crossed out each instruction when it was given, to help keep her place on the navigation sheet.

Until we got in a good flow, I had to stop the car quite frequently to wait for an instruction – usually because I’d forgotten to say ‘Yes’. And I missed a few turns by being late on the lane-change button – I then simply did a loop and took the junction correctly. However, it was a reassuringly gentle learning-curve for both driver and navigator – and after three untimed runs through the route, we raced against the clock...

   

The first timed run was a bit of a nervous 2 minutes 50 seconds. Here’s a video of that run – with lots of “Yeses” which do sound decidedly weird out of context!



Despite some obvious pauses and one missed turn, our communication was improving and my driving speed gradually increased too. After a couple more runs, we eventually stopped the stopwatch at 2 minutes 11 seconds. That time includes two 10 second stops, so a running time of 111 seconds to cover 40 junctions – that’s an average of one junction every 2.8 seconds… and I’m sure we could have gone faster.

Depending on the rally format you’re attempting to re-create, there are ways to keep that rapid-fire stream of junctions manageable. Setting a minimum time or a target time is one way. That requires either a reasonably proficient crew to set a time through the route – or to decide on a standard average time per junction, let’s say 3 seconds. In a competition, any crew arriving at a time control before the minimum time is either awarded that minimum time or gets handed a penalty. Perfect navigation should be preferable to a mega-fast time with errors. Any format can be tweaked to reward that.

Next, we tried the same simple route using a set of basic Tulip symbols, which also give detailed information about the type of junction/lane-changer…

   

This was a new skill for the navigator, but one that she picked up very quickly. Of course, I received the same instructions – ‘Turn Left’, ‘Turn Right’ or ‘Straight-On’ – and I didn’t notice any difference at all. We completed the same route as before in 2m 23s.

Skill progression for the co-driver is probably the key element of navigational rallying – both in real life and on the slot car track. From Tulips, the navigator can move on to Herringbones, Ordinance Survey maps and more... For an idea of different navigational instructions and how a Rally Master might use them, ‘Percy’s Guide to 12-Car Navigation’ is a great start: http://www.sccon.co.uk/share/pprns/SCCoN...ide_v3.pdf

After these first runs, we tried a few different techniques – for example, reading two junctions at a time worked really well... but might have been tricky to begin with and probably risks more errors from the driver. Ultimately, success was down to good teamwork, clear communication, following the instruction sheet carefully and not trying to be clever – plus lots of practice!

It also became clear that the navigator should focus entirely on the navigating and the driver deals with de-slots, a quick clean of tyres at the Stop box halts – plus navigating back to any missed junctions. Driving was a bigger job that I’d anticipated – trying to go fast was the last thing on my mind.

We worked up to a longer route – 87 junctions, split into five sections with three intermediate stops…

   

That took a second under six minutes – or 329 seconds running time, without the Stop Box pauses – meaning a junction every 3.7 seconds, on average. The slickness of our navigation did ebb and flow, but we reached the correct Stop Box each time. I reckon a route that takes around six minutes feels like a real test of concentration – although the short two minute route was perfect to begin with. That means an ideal competitive route on my development track might be somewhere between 80 and 120 junctions in length. However, that decision is down to the Rally Master, to whom the final two posts are dedicated...

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for those - but you do have enough info already to set up a track and practice that basic navigation.

[Kevan]

What I love about this is the fact it's not all about having a super fast car, it's a team event.  You could do a turn each driving then navigating, no doubt one will be good at one or the other.

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A brief-ish note for the Rally Master about route planning

The sample navigation I used in the previous section was created simply by referring to the track diagram. I planned what I thought would be an interesting route, including some elements – such as repeated ‘Straight-On’ instructions inside the ‘wings’ – that I wanted to check could be suitably adjudicated. And yes, the Race Master will need to keep a close eye on such things! Otherwise, the Stop Boxes identify almost all navigational errors.

This simple way of route-planning is perfectly excellent – especially for a beginners’ event. A whole event could be created with a long string of Turn / Don’t Turn instructions planned entirely from the track diagram – or by running the layout and recording junction instructions via a voice recorder or a human note-taker.

However, to understand how the Rally Master can use a real route, let’s go right back to that Hampshire 12-Car rally I mentioned in the first post. Here is the marked route map that was given to beginner crews that night – the route is made up of the roads enclosed in the thick black lines…

   
   

For SlotNav, a marked map is not a navigational instruction suitable for beginners. On a SlotNav layout, simple turn instructions – or maybe even a series of Tulip diagrams – are ideal for people starting out. A Herringbone is a bit more difficult, so that could fall into the Novice route instruction - as does a marked map.

For a SlotNav event, the crew might get the map a minute or two before the start of their run – time to quickly mark the junctions on it. Let’s take the first part of the Hampshire route, from the start – or Main Time Control 1 (MTC1) – to Time Control 2…

   

You can immediately see some limitations – the direction of a turn at a junction on the map is not going to translate to our track. So any type of turn at a junction will become a ‘Turn’ instruction – and any junction where a turn is not made on the map is a ‘Straight-on’ instruction. This actually makes things slightly more difficult for the driver.

Another thing to note are the tiny roads and tracks that might lead to a farm or to nowhere. These ‘white’ roads are usually ignored on a road rally event and instructions are marked ‘CRO’ – or ‘coloured roads only’. If white roads are to be used, this will be stated clearly. Also, if the type of a junction is unclear, the route instructions could clarify whether it's a turn or straight-on – or the Rally Master can answer any questions before the car sets off.

So, using coloured roads only, here’s that section of the maps marked with SlotNav navigator-driver instructions, emphasised with the digital equivalent of coloured highlighter pen…

   

Apologies, the map is a little pixelated – but hopefully you get the drift. What we have is an eleven junction navigation before a first Stop Box pause – something that will fit to my development layout only if we start from the pub or the church… otherwise another junction is needed to get to a stop box. With nine Turns and two Straight-ons, we only use the spine and one loop. So that's food for thought when the Rally Master picks up an unmarked map to start planning.

What we learn from that is a real-world route will transpose onto our track, but we should plan a fresh route on the map with at least half an eye on our SlotNav layout. That also gives us the opportunity to build in the more cryptic navigational puzzles that are well explained in the Percy’s Guide document: http://www.sccon.co.uk/share/pprns/SCCoN...ide_v3.pdf

An Expert crew simply gets a clean map and a sheet of cryptic clues - of which these are for that first leg of the Hampshire event...

   

We are a long way off something like that for SlotNav! But it's good to show you the direction of travel.

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Competitive Formats, Timing & Penalties – some common themes to consider

This is the last post for this introduction to SlotNav – just a few pointers and things to think about when you go into Rally Master mode….

   

There’s such a rich variety of real-life navigational events to find inspiration from – including any number of classic rallies, modern day 12-Car club events, Targas (a mix of navigational and ‘special’ tests), themed regularity events or an all-night endurance road rallies. This framework could even be adapted (with signs rather than a navigator) for low-speed car-control disciplines like Autocross, Autotests, Autosolos and Gymkhanas. Plus there’s loads of scope to create your own unique events – go with whatever grabs your imagination.

Each format will be different – as will the regulations for the cars – but there will be some common themes for the Rally Master to think about…

Running the stage. It’s probably best if only one car is on track at one time – although digital does lend itself to multi-car racing... Ideally, each crew shouldn’t be watching the action until their turn with that route – if only to avoid learning the order of the Stop Boxes and time controls. If more than one route is being used at an event, then all the crews can be assigned them randomly – and no-one really knows what’s going on, so watching the other crews is less of an issue.

Classes / crew gradings. Beginners, Novices, Semi-Experts and Experts are some of the terms you’ll see on road rallies. On many events, crews of all skill levels take the same route – with the complexity of the navigational puzzle increasing for the Novices and Experts. That’s easy to replicate – but possibly more appropriate to a slot car track is a shorter route for beginners, with more experienced crews running a longer, more complex route and Experts getting the most difficult navigation to interpret.

Receiving the navigation. For basic directions – including Tulips and Herringbones – the navigator is given a sheet of instructions immediately before they start the route. For more complex navigations, some preparation time is probably best... with only a couple of seconds between each junction, there’s no time to plot on the move! However, that Stop Box pause is an opportunity that could be used.

Timing. In grass-roots navigational events, cars are almost always timed manually with synchronised digital watches held by marshals at time controls. For most navigational formats, it is also vitally important the navigator keeps a close eye on the time. A simple, practical approach for a SlotNav event is to have a large digital timer (with minutes and seconds) that both the Rally Master and crew can see clearly. I use the ‘Countdown: Big Clock & Timer’ app on my iPad and will be timing road routes to the second.

Penalties. Depending on the event you’re trying to replicate, you’ll probably want to be adding either time or awarding ‘fails’ to penalise navigational errors, poor time-keeping (early or late), technical infringements or unacceptable behaviour such as cheating. The criteria for different penalties should always be made clear beforehand in the event regulations.

Results. How the result is determined differs from event to event – but it’s usually a combination of time and penalties (added time or a tally of ‘fails’). Many navigational rallies award a prize for a clean run (no penalties) – and the winner will usually be the crew with the least fails, rather than the fastest time. The choice is yours – a SlotNav rally decided on overall time – plus extra seconds for any penalties – is simple and works perfectly well. Here's one example from real-life, that Hampshire 12-Car rally again...

   

Resources. There’s so much out there – in books, on websites and especially from the clubs that organise navigational events. However, it’s very clear that there are as many different formats as there are events! That’s why this SlotNav framework is just that – a framework from which you can build your own events and innovative formats. The crux of SlotNav is the slot track junction – the digital lane changer – and the ‘turn / don’t turn’ choice that is the basis of any navigation.

I’m looking forward to using the SlotNav framework – starting with event formats based on real-life 12-Car and night rallies... but my imagination is taking me down other paths too...

   

This is based on a spoof Google map I found online of Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green. And yes, a Google map would make a perfectly good basis for a SlotNav event. A regularity event for classic road and rally cars of the 1950s and 60s feels about right, with several different routes around the Trumptonshire countryside and through the town. After all, the aim of a regularity event is: ‘Never too quickly, never too slowly’.

An event I’d love to pay homage to is a late-50s / early 60s RAC Rally – just before the big shift into Forestry Commission special stages. There were a few ‘tests’ – including forest stages and the Rest and Be Thankful hill climb, plus Gymkhanas at the various seaside towns the rally finished at. The amazing Rally Maps website (www.rally-maps.com) has an archive of thousands of rallies – mostly modern stage events – and includes approximate routes, the positions of time controls and details of tests or special stages. The RAC archive starts in 1960, which will do…

   

Along the way, there’s certainly a lot to learn – especially about using the SlotNav framework in a competitive setting. It should be a fun and fascinating ride.

Whatever your navigational motorsport passions, I hope this SlotNav framework can give you the opportunity to enjoy them in 1:32 scale. I’m looking forward to seeing people get creative with imaginative formats, layouts, navigations and scenic cues. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and make suggestions.

And if you want a format that’s more ‘off-the-peg’ for your club or racing group, I’ll be very happy to come up with something and help make it happen. Just get in touch. I'm planning a club-night format on the south coast this summer and I will be sharing details of that here at SlotRacer.

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Here's a short video, summarising the SlotNav framework...