If you've ever watched a rally car rip through a forest stage at impossible speed, you've wondered the same thing everyone wonders: how does the driver know what's coming?

The road is narrow. The trees are a blur. The car is sideways before the corner even appears in frame. And yet the driver is already positioned perfectly for the exit, already lifting for the hairpin that's still two seconds away.

The answer is pace notes — and once you understand how they work, rally driving makes complete sense. More than that, pace notes change how you think about every winding road you'll ever drive.

What Are Pace Notes?

Pace notes are a sequential, shorthand description of a road — every corner, crest, jump, and hazard recorded in the order they appear, read aloud by the co-driver in real time as the driver races.

Each note is a compact instruction. A typical call sounds like this:

"Right 3 tightens, don't cut, 80, left 4 long over crest"

In plain English: a tight right-hand corner that gets sharper through the turn with a hazard on the inside — then 80 meters to a medium left-hander that continues for a long distance and passes over a rise in the road.

The co-driver reads these calls a few seconds before the driver reaches each feature. That gap — usually 3 to 8 seconds depending on speed — is enough time to choose the right gear, pick a line, and commit to the corner. Without pace notes, the driver would be reacting. With them, the driver is anticipating.

Pace notes are the reason rally drivers can commit fully to corners they've never seen at speed. They transform the unknown into the expected.

A Brief History

Pace notes weren't always standard in rally. In the sport's early decades, drivers either relied on memory from reconnaissance laps or drove stages entirely blind. The formalization of pace notes began in the 1960s and 1970s, with individual co-drivers developing their own shorthand systems and passing them between crews.

By the 1980s, pace notes had become a non-negotiable part of professional rally. The systems were refined and partially standardized — though every driver-co-driver pair still customizes their calls to suit how they communicate. Today, every WRC crew uses them, and the core number system is remarkably consistent across teams, countries, and even video games.

The Pace Note Number Scale (1 to 6)

The backbone of any pace note system is the corner severity scale. The most widely used system in modern rally rates corners from 1 (tightest, slowest) to 6 (fastest, barely a bend):

Important: Some older systems invert this scale (6 = tightest, 1 = fastest). The table above — 1 being the tightest — is the most common in modern WRC and the system used by the Rods app. Always confirm which direction a particular system runs.

Half-Steps: The Plus and Minus System

Six numbers aren't always precise enough. Many crews add half-steps:

• "3 plus" (or "3+") — Slightly faster than a standard 3. You might carry a touch more speed.
• "3 minus" (or "3-") — Slightly tighter than a standard 3. Brake a fraction earlier.

This creates an effective 11-point scale: 1, 1+, 2−, 2, 2+, 3−, 3, 3+, 4−, 4, 4+, 5−, 5, 5+, 6−, 6. Professional crews use this granularity because the difference between a 3 and a 3+ can mean a full gear change or several km/h — and at stage speeds, that matters.

Some crews also call anything tighter than a 1 as a "square" or "acute" — a 90-degree-plus turn where the car nearly stops and has to turn sharply before accelerating.

How to Read a Pace Note Call

Every pace note call follows a consistent structure. Learn this structure and the whole system clicks:

[Direction] [Severity] [Modifier(s)], [Distance], [Next call]

For example:

"Right 3 tightens, 80, left 4 long over crest"

Broken down piece by piece:

• Right 3 — A right-hand corner with severity 3 (tight)
• tightens — The corner gets sharper through the turn
• 80 — 80 meters to the next feature
• left 4 — A left-hand corner with severity 4 (medium)
• long — The corner continues for an extended distance
• over crest — There's a rise in the road during or just after the corner

Every piece of information serves a specific purpose. Nothing is decorative. Each word tells the driver what to do with their hands, feet, or eyes — before they can see what's coming.

Pace Note Modifiers

Corner numbers alone tell you the severity. Modifiers tell you everything else: how the corner behaves, what hazards lurk on the edges, and what the road surface does. This is where pace notes become a proper language.

Shape Modifiers

Tightens — The corner starts at one severity and gets sharper through the turn. "Right 4 tightens" might finish as a 3 or tighter. This is one of the most important calls in all of pace notes. Tightening corners are where most accidents happen — the entry speed that felt right becomes too fast halfway through.

Opens — The opposite. The corner eases as you go through it. "Left 3 opens" means you can start accelerating earlier than a standard left 3 because the road straightens out through the turn.

Long — The corner maintains its severity for a longer-than-typical distance. Maintain your corner speed; don't try to accelerate too early.

Short — A brief corner, over quickly. Useful for managing expectations on a corner that looks tighter than it is.

Late — The apex (tightest point) is past the halfway mark. Turn in later than instinct suggests, run a wider entry line.

Sudden — The corner arrives abruptly, often with limited visual warning. "Sudden right 3" means you won't see it until you're nearly on it.

Hazard Modifiers

Don't cut — Critical safety call. The inside of the corner has a hazard: a ditch, rock, bank, or drop-off. Stay off the inside edge entirely. In rally, clipping the inside apex is a standard time-saving technique — "don't cut" explicitly overrides that instinct.

Cut — The inside is safe and beneficial to clip. You can run a tighter line than the road surface suggests.

Keep in — Stay tight to the inside. The outside is the dangerous side — a cliff edge, ditch, or soft shoulder.

Caution — A general warning for a tricky section: a tricky corner combination, a junction with limited visibility, a surface change, or anything that warrants extra care.

Narrows — The road gets tighter ahead. Often appears before a bridge, gate posts, or built-up sections.

Road Feature Calls

Crest — A rise in the road where visibility is lost over the top. A corner over a crest is harder than the same corner on flat ground because the car's suspension unloads and reduces grip at exactly the wrong moment. "Big crest" and "small crest" add further precision.

Jump — A more severe crest where the car may leave the ground. Requires suspension knowledge and composure.

Dip — A depression in the road. The car compresses, then the suspension extends — affecting braking efficiency and stability.

Slippy — Reduced grip. Mud, moisture, polished surface, or oil. Reduce speed more than the corner number alone suggests.

Rough — Uneven surface. Bumps or broken tarmac that can unsettle the car mid-corner.

Water / water splash — Standing water. Can cause aquaplaning or sudden drag.

Junction — An intersection. Essential for navigation awareness on non-closed stages.

Distance Calls

Between corners, co-drivers call the distance to the next feature. These are measured in meters:

• "into" — Almost no gap. The next corner begins as this one ends.
• "and" — Very short, perhaps a car length or two.
• 20–40 — A short straight. Barely time to straighten up.
• 50–80 — A moderate gap. Time to settle the car and set up for the next corner.
• 100–150 — A reasonable straight. Time to build speed.
• 200+ — A long straight. Time to fully settle before braking for the next feature.

Distance calls determine your exit strategy from every corner. "Right 3, 30, left 2" means almost no straight — you need to exit the right already positioning for the left. "Right 3, 200, left 2" means you have time to accelerate, build speed, and brake for the left as a separate event. The distance call is often as important as the corner call itself.

How Pace Notes Work in Rally Racing

Understanding the calls is one thing. Understanding how they get made — and how they're used in a real stage — is what makes the system come alive.

Recce: Writing the Notes

The pace note process begins during recce (reconnaissance), in the days before a rally event. Driver and co-driver drive each stage at controlled road speeds — usually in an ordinary road car — while the co-driver writes down every meaningful feature.

This process is painstaking. A 20-kilometer stage might take 45 minutes to note, with the co-driver filling pages of a specialized notebook. Most crews drive each stage twice:

1. First pass: The co-driver writes raw notes as the driver calls their gut feeling for each corner. "That feels like a 4" or "Tighter than it looks — call it a 2."

2. Second pass: They drive again with the co-driver reading the notes back. The driver confirms or adjusts. "Make that a 3, not a 4" or "Add 'opens' to that right-hander."

3. Hotel review: Many crews spend another session that evening reviewing notes, cleaning up handwriting, adding detail to complex sections, and highlighting key danger spots in red.

The result is a document that encodes the entire stage. Every corner, every crest, every hazard — in order, in shorthand, ready to be spoken aloud at 160 km/h.

During the Stage

When it's time to race, the co-driver sits with their pace note book — or increasingly a tablet — and reads a steady, rhythmic cadence as the car tears through the stage.

The timing of calls is everything. Too early and the driver forgets the instruction before reaching the corner. Too late and there's no time to react. Expert co-drivers develop an instinct for this timing, adjusting their delivery based on car speed, road conditions, and even the driver's stress level during a tough stage.

Listen to onboard footage from any WRC stage and you'll hear it: the co-driver's voice becomes a metronome. The calls drop into gaps between gearshifts and engine notes like a second instrument. The best driver-co-driver pairs develop an almost musical rhythm — and that rhythm is what makes full commitment possible.

Practice Reading Pace Notes

The fastest way to internalize pace notes isn't to study them — it's to read them aloud. Co-driving is a spoken skill. The rhythm, timing, and flow of delivery matters as much as accuracy.

Here are three example sequences. Read each one aloud as if you're calling corners to a driver, leaving a deliberate beat after each comma for the information to land:

Example 1: A Flowing Mountain Section

"Right 4 long, 80, left 3, 50, right 3 tightens don't cut, 100, left 5 over crest, into right 4"

Translation: A long medium right-hander, then 80 meters to a tight left, then 50 meters to a tight right that gets sharper with a hazard on the inside, then 100 meters to a fast left passing over a rise, immediately into a medium right.

Notice the rhythm: number calls cluster in threes (direction-severity-modifier), then a distance, then the next cluster. That pattern repeats through every sequence.

Example 2: A Technical Hairpin Section

"Caution, left 2 long, 30, hairpin right, 40, left 1 opens, 60, right 3 over crest"

Translation: General warning — a long very-tight left, then just 30 meters to a hairpin right, then 40 meters to a hairpin-tight left that gets easier through the turn, then 60 meters to a tight right over a rise.

Short distances dominate this sequence — there's barely time to straighten between corners. The caution up front signals that the whole section needs respect.

Example 3: A Fast Section with Hazards

"Right 5, 150, left 6, 200, right 4 sudden, don't cut, 80, left 4 slippy into right 3"

Translation: A fast right, then a long straight, then a nearly-flat left, another long straight, then a medium right that arrives with almost no visual warning and a hazard on the inside, then 80 meters to a slippery medium left that immediately flows into a tight right.

This sequence has long straights and sudden transitions. The "sudden" and "don't cut" calls compress a lot of information into a moment — which is exactly why rhythm and clarity matter.

Read each sequence several times. Notice how a natural cadence develops — a pace that gives the driver just enough time to absorb each piece before the next one arrives. That cadence is what makes a great co-driver, far more than technical knowledge alone.

Pace Notes Beyond Rally: Everyday Roads

Pace notes solve a fundamental problem that isn't unique to rally stages: you can't see through corners.

Every winding road presents the same challenge. You don't know if the next corner tightens. You don't know if there's a crest hiding a junction or a gravel patch waiting on the exit. This is where most single-vehicle accidents on rural roads happen — a driver enters a corner faster than the corner allows, or is surprised by something they simply couldn't see.

Pace notes address this by giving you advance knowledge of what's ahead. Even in simplified form — "tight corner, tightens" or "corner gets easier" — that information changes how you approach every bend.

Who Benefits from Road Pace Notes?

The answer is broader than you might expect:

• Driving enthusiasts exploring canyon roads, mountain passes, or twisty roads near me for the first time
• Motorcyclists — particularly vulnerable on blind corners, with less margin for error than four wheels provide
• Touring drivers covering unfamiliar regions, where the roads are unknown and every corner is a discovery
• New drivers building confidence on winding B-roads — knowing a corner tightens before you can see it is genuinely reassuring
• Anyone who regularly drives rural roads with blind crests and limited visibility

This isn't about driving faster. It's about knowing more before you commit. That knowledge makes unfamiliar roads both safer and more engaging to drive.

How to Get Pace Notes Without a Co-Driver

Historically, pace notes required two things most people don't have: a professional co-driver and a recce run on a closed road. Technology has changed that substantially.

Manual Note-Taking

Some enthusiasts create their own notes by driving a road at cautious speed, recording observations, then transcribing them before a second run. This works but it's time-consuming and impractical for roads you'll only drive once or twice.

Community-Shared Notes

Online communities share handwritten notes for popular driving roads — classic routes like the Stelvio Pass, Tail of the Dragon, or various UK B-roads. The limitation is inconsistent quality: notes created by one driver in their own shorthand may not communicate clearly to another, and road conditions change over time.

Pace Note Apps

The most practical modern solution is automatic pace note generation. Apps analyze road geometry from map data, calculate corner severities, identify crests and hazards, and deliver real-time audio calls as you drive — no recce, no preparation, no co-driver needed.

Rods is built specifically for this. It uses the standard 1-to-6 rally scale for corner calls, so a "left 3" in the app means the same thing as a "left 3" in a WRC stage notebook. For drivers new to the system, a simple mode replaces numbers with easy/medium/hard callouts — a gentler on-ramp that still gives you advance corner information. As your ear adjusts, you can switch to the full rally scale.

Rods works on any road in the world, runs entirely offline using GPS (no cell signal needed), and is free to download for iOS and Android. Routes work offline with GPS-only pace notes once loaded, and a Free Roam mode (no route needed — just start driving) is coming soon.

For a deeper look at how the co-driver role works in professional rally and what makes a good driver-co-driver partnership, the rally co-driver explained guide covers that territory in full. And if you want to hear how pace notes sound in your favourite racing game, the pace notes in Dirt Rally and EA WRC guide breaks down how the sim versions compare to the real thing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pace Notes

What do the numbers mean in pace notes? Numbers 1–6 rate corner severity. 1 is the tightest — a near-stationary hairpin. 6 is almost flat, barely a bend. The higher the number, the faster the corner. Half-steps (3+, 3−) refine the scale to 11 points for professional-level precision.

What does "tightens" mean in a pace note? A corner that starts at one severity and gets progressively sharper through the turn. "Right 4 tightens" might finish as a 3 or tighter. Tightening corners are particularly important to call because drivers who don't know a corner tightens often enter too fast — it's one of the leading causes of corner exits gone wrong.

What does "don't cut" mean? A safety call warning the driver not to clip the inside of the corner. There's a hazard on the inside edge — a ditch, rock, bank, or drop-off. In rally, clipping the inside apex is standard technique for speed; "don't cut" explicitly cancels that instinct for that specific corner.

How do rally drivers memorize pace notes? They don't — the co-driver reads them aloud in real time. That's the entire point of having a co-driver. During recce, both crew members drive the stage and write the notes together. During the stage, the co-driver reads them and the driver responds. No memorization required.

What is the difference between pace notes and a road book? A road book provides navigation instructions with tulip diagrams for following a route — it tells you where to turn. Pace notes describe the character of the road itself: corner severity, shape, hazards, and distances. They answer "how does this corner behave?" rather than "where do I go?"

Can you use pace notes on public roads? Yes — and they're genuinely useful. Knowing a corner tightens before you can see it, or that a crest hides a junction, is valuable information on any winding road. Apps like Rods generate them automatically for any road in the world, making the co-driver experience available to any driver, on any route.