Once the stages have been driven for the first time, the resulting notes are edited on the desktop, to give a complete first draft. Next the route is driven again, with the crew swapped and an experienced co-driver reading the draft notes to a different driver. This provides your completed notes.

While this gives a set of stage notes that we are happy with, we can't control things from there, so it's ultimately up to you, the crew, to ensure you do. If you have the opportunity to take part in a recce of the stages, make sure you do and that you both, driver and co-driver, have a talk so you know what to expect from each other. Prepare well and consider the weather that's coming both for recce and the event. On recce, look at the roads and stage notes, but also the surroundings for anything that may be unexpected, like sun strike. Then on the day, drive to both the crew and the car's capabilities in the current conditions, so you have as much chance as possible of getting safely to the finish and, most importantly, of all having fun as safely as possible.

The Note Descriptions page describes the symbols we use in the notes. For some of you the amount of information may seem too much, especially when you're learning, but if you're going to remove some, think about it from a safety point of view. If a note indicates something gets more difficult, leave it in. So if you think you might take out the pluses/minuses and/or the opens/tightens, consider that the minus and tightens indicate these corners are a bit more difficult than you might expect and leave them in.

We don't use many colours, as some crews like them and some don't, but once they're in they're hard to remove. It's better to let you add them as you want, remembering some colours are difficult to see in some lights. The same goes for underlining and brackets. We'll print the best information we can, but leave you to group things as you'd like and make any further changes you think will help you to drive well and stay safe.

Most of all, please remember these notes are subjective; our view of what you're about to see. If you have questions, or comments, or want some advice, come and talk to us, as maybe we can make a suggestion to help you out or you can suggest something to help us and others out.