Targa timing
Encyclopedia
Targa timing is a system of timing used in car rallying
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...

. It was invented by John Brown, the Clerk of the Course for the Targa Rusticana, a road rally
Road rally
A road rally is a car rally that takes place on the public road. It is a popular sport in the United Kingdom, especially Wales, and has traditionally been the core of the "grass roots" of club-based amateur motorsport. However it has declined in popularity since the 1980s and now stage rallies are...

 that used to be run in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in the 1960s by Oumdc
Oumdc
The OUMDC is the karting and motorsport club of the University of Oxford. It is one of the university's Blues sports teams as recognised by the Oxford University Sports Federation. The Club's main activity is competing in the BUKC and related Club100 events...

 (named after the famous Targa Florio
Targa Florio
The Targa Florio was an open road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973...

). Targa timing became the standard timing method used on rallies for almost 20 years following its invention in 1963. However, it was eventually banned as it became widely abused - the standard method by which organisers could set very high average speeds in a manner that left no permanent record.

In all rallies, competitors run against the clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...

, rather than directly against each other. The winner is the crew losing the least penalties for failing to maintain the set average speeds (either under or over). However, determining this result in a fair and logistically feasible manner can be quite a challenge, especially as events may cover a wide area and be broken up into many different sections. Targa timing was one of the practical timing systems developed to allow rapid and accurate results calculation to take place.

By the early 1960s, competitors would carry a sealed watch with them, and show it to the marshal
Rally marshal
In motor racing, a rally marshal is a marshal who is experienced or trained in the area of rallying.They hold different duties than a track marshal, as they are isolated from other marshals with radio cars spaced out along the length of a stage...

 at time controls along the route, who would record the time. The system worked, but was open to tampering and a variety of tricks employed by competitors to cheat. To combat this, the system changed so that each marshal would have his own clock, each of which had been synchronised at the start of the event. In a standard timed event, run to so-called BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 or "telecom" time, each clock would simply show the time of day to the nearest second. A characteristic of this type of timing is that the average speeds calculated for each section are easy to compute, and if this involved breaking the law with respect of speed limit
Speed limit
Road speed limits are used in most countries to regulate the speed of road vehicles. Speed limits may define maximum , minimum or no speed limit and are normally indicated using a traffic sign...

s, etc., it could cause problems for organisers, since it could be seen as an incitement. A competitor's time card would list the actual times and stand as a permanent record of the speeds at which they had driven to attain them. In addition, computing results was a slow and laborious process.

Targa timing solved these problems. On a targa-timed event, each clock is not synchronised to all of the others. Instead, each successive clock is retarded behind by the exact amount that the competitor is due to take to reach that clock en route. Thus, if they are exactly on time, the clock will show exactly the same time at every time control they visit, making it very easy to see whether they are ahead or behind, and if so by how much. In addition, since on most events cars are started at one minute intervals, and the cars are numbered and started in sequence, the time shown on the clock will be their competition number
Competition number
In many sports, a competition number is used to identify and differentiate the competitors taking part in the competitive endeavour. For example, runners in a race will wear a prominent competition number so that they may be clearly identified from a distance....

 if they are on time. To clarify this, imagine a notional car "0" which starts the event at time 00:00 - at every point on the route, if they are on time, the clocks will always show 00:00. Likewise car 1 will see 00:01, car 2 sees 00:02 and so on. If Car 1 sees a time of 00:05, they know instantly that they have lost four minutes. Incidentally, this is the origin of rally competition numbering skipping numbers 60 - 99, then continuing with 100 - this corresponds to a due time of +1 hour. This is still occasionally seen, though it can be a problem for the crucial Public Relations, leading naturally but incorrectly to perceptions of "hundreds of cars".

The original objective of Targa timing was to speed delivery of rally results, and the rally paperwork set out the amount by which each control's clock was offset. This always remained the case on the Targa Rusticana, but other organisers soon realised that Targa timing could be used to conceal the calculated average speed for a section, since the competitors have no way of knowing by how much each clock has been retarded. This in turn led to a further use of targa timing which in practice was its true advantage to organisers - it allowed them to, untraceably, set very high average speeds for competitive driving. This in turn led to the concept of a "target" or "bogey" time for a section, known only to the organisers - the upshot was that crews basically needed to drive as fast as possible to stay on time. The participants' time cards only showed the recorded targa time, and not the actual time taken, so it was not possible to use it as a permanent record of the speeds driven; no record was left that could incriminate anyone after the event.

For road rallies
Road rally
A road rally is a car rally that takes place on the public road. It is a popular sport in the United Kingdom, especially Wales, and has traditionally been the core of the "grass roots" of club-based amateur motorsport. However it has declined in popularity since the 1980s and now stage rallies are...

, Targa timing was banned in 1988, along with a number of other rule changes designed to slow such events down - from then on only ordinary "time of day" timing was permitted. Many of the 'old school' competitors lament this change, though organisers have found new ways to keep events fun and challenging for entrants.
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