You’re out riding an Adventure Rally. The start location is 300kms behind you, and there’s still another 200 clicks until the finish line. Suddenly it dawns on you that the roadbook isn’t matching up with what you’re seeing in real life. Somewhere you’ve taken a wrong turn and you begin to realise that you are not on course. In fact, you’re not even sure where it was you went wrong. You may be weary at this point, mentally fatigued. As you start to consider backtracking to pick up where you went wrong, along comes a RallyMoto Marshall to swiftly guide you back to the course. You may not think much of it at the time, but in reality what is happening in the background to keep the riders safe, supported and on track is a carefully developed system of tracking and communications.
The remote GPS tracking system was developed especially for RallyMoto events, and gives the marshalls, medics and support crew access to real time data of every rider’s location. An additional ‘ground control’ station is manned and monitored by a ‘working from home’ team member to provide an all seeing eye on the event. Being the only crew member not on the move he is able to keep constant watch, and with the benefit of a big screen, can quickly notice if any rider stops for a questionable length of time or rides too far off course. A heads up is quickly communicated to the team on the ground and they are able to assess the situation accordingly.
However, efficient rider support and monitoring are not the only uses of the GPS tracking. Through ongoing development the system is now able to track to within three meters on the ground, meaning navigational errors do not go unnoticed. Speed is also logged, and alerts are sent when speed limits are breached. Finish times are now also able to be reviewed afterwards by reading the logged data, meaning less manpower and equipment are needed at the event.
Having such precise tracking enables us to take Adventure Rallying forward. Our streamlined events mean we can dedicate more effort into taking our Roadbooks to the next level. At present the navigating aspect of our events is fairly simple to cater for a broad level of rally rider. In the future we are looking to incorporate more challenging roadbook options to really test those who are committed to developing their navigational skills. Even the smallest of errors will be picked up on, and therefore ones accuracy can be finely tuned.
