‘The majority of the work is Tuesday and Wednesday’

WE all have a fairly basic idea of what the role of the co-driver is all about, largely thanks to the dulcet tones of Nicky Grist on Colin McRae Rally back in the day – or DIRT Rally for the PlayStation 4 generation.

The co-driver is the guy strapped into the rocket-ship beside the guy at the controls, albeit that he’s to a very large extend calling the shots as they hare down country roads and dirt tracks. One left, into three right, over crest. You know the sort of thing. How though does the co-driver come to get such detailed notes of each and every stage, some of which are up to forty or fifty kilometres long. Kerry’s WRC superstar, Paul Nagle, explains.

“A typical event on a European event or a World Championship Rally is that you’d leave home on a Monday, you’d go drive all of the route on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he says.

“I’d start a stage with a blank book and Kris or Craig or whoever, it doesn’t matter, would tell me the angle of the corner, the distance of it. I’d write all those down and then we’d check them all again.

“I’d read the pace-notes back to him and then we’d fine tune them and we’d sometimes have a discussion to see if we’re happy with everything and that’s done over Tuesday and Wednesday and then Tuesday night and Wednesday night we’d go over the video, we’d have an on-board camera on the car and we’d go through the video of the stages.

“Thursday would always be shakedown on the morning, practice. Then you’d have the ceremonial start on the Thursday night followed by maybe a street stage or a super special around the stadium or whatever.

“Then the real nitty gritty starts on the Friday morning where you have three days of the rally, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The majority of the work for the co-driver is the Tuesday and Wednesday.

“That’s where we really have to come into our own, get our notes perfect, get them written down correctly and then come Friday morning when it goes five, four, three, two, one you’re ready to go.”

At the top level, which Nagle reached, there are many different facets to it. The main one of which is the pressure and the nerves. Particularly as you’re sitting waiting for the lights to turn from red to green on that first stage.

“You’ve different sorts of emotions,” he explains.

“On the first stage of the rally you’d have anxiousness, nerves, that would be the big thing. You’d have an adrenaline rush as well. If you were leading then or you’re in a big fight your emotions would be different, if you’re leading a rally you’re nervous, you’re hoping nothing would happen the car, you won’t get a puncture, you won’t make a mistake.

“Emotions vary from stage to stage and rally to rally. The nerves were there always from the first stage of a rally, but that’s a good thing too, it keeps you sharp.

“It’s high pressure the whole week and when you get involved in a manufacture team or a world team the pressure is even bigger. You’ve got to report back on engineers, you’ve got to report back to the team boss, you have the media, you have social media.

“It gets more intense and your basically calling pace-notes is only secondary to all the demands that a factory team or a works team, a Citroen or a Hyundai asks you for.”

There’s also a responsibility on driver and co-driver to have a certain mechanical competence for when things go wrong with the car out on the stages.

“At the start of every year you might spend one or two days in the workshop going through parts,” the Killarney man explains.

“Obviously the team would know weak points on the car. We’re allowed carry certain spare parts in the car if something comes off of the engine, so you have those parts and you learn how to change them.

“You have to adjust the suspension for certain conditions, we know how to do that. You have to bleed the breaks if they overheat, which often happens at the warmer rallies.

“You have to change the wheel as quickly as possible so we have to practice that on a regular basis, where you can get a wheel change down under a minute on ideal circumstances.

“So you have to have a basic knowledge of your way around the car and know where all the spare parts are, spare water, oil. You need to know all those things, but you don’t have to be a mechanic. These cars are so highly tuned that if you have a terminal problem, you just sit and there’s nothing you can do.

“The race engineers would be talking with the driver. The main feedback I’d be giving would be tyre pressures, fuel calculations and temperatures in the car, data about how the car is running, how the car is feeling, the driver totally takes care of that.”

One issue that’s never going to leave motorsport is the inherent danger of it. It’s something Nagle is well aware of, having been involved in a few big smashes in his career, and it’s something he never takes for granted, but he does feel that the current generation of cars are exceptionally safe.

“In the current cars the protection we have is phenomenal,” he says.

“We’ve massive side impact protection. The cars are built like a bubble, you’re cocooned inside in the car. You’re so safe. In any sport there’s risks. You can pick any sport at all. You can get a head injury playing football.

“You can take a belt of a hurl playing hurling. Motorbike racing. Formula 1 they call have risks and you have to put it our of your mind realistically. As I say the FIA and all the safety standards, even look at Ireland the safety levels are huge.

“I feel very safe in the proper factory cars and it’s your job at the end of the day you have to go on and get on with it.”