MOTORSPORT - Co-drivers play crucial role in drivers' pace and morale

In rallying, the value of the co-driver is mostly overlooked, at least in the public's eye, while the limelight pours over the star of the show, the driver.
But where would the driver be without the other half of the team while competing in a modern rally championship?
There once was a time when the driver would pilot the car and the co-driver was there to manage the maps, keep an eye on the temperature gauge and perhaps pour the tea from a flask while the pair drove long, gruelling stages - even throughout the night.
Nowadays, a rally is made up of two or three days of fast-paced competition where each day will include several stages, which are more akin to an extended rally sprint being anywhere from around 3km to 40km in length.
The co-driver not only guides their driver to the starting line of each special stage, ensuring they get there in time but, while the pair are racing, he indicates the characteristics of each road and, more importantly, lets him know where and when the next corner is and the very nature of it.
The co-driver uses pace notes which the two have worked over prior to the competition. The more accurate those are and the more the pair are in tune with each other, the faster they can get to the end of each stage.
In the modern world of rallying, there can be a difference of one or two seconds between top drivers at the end of one, two or sometimes even three days of competition.
It has been said that a driver is born with their talent but a co-driver has to learn his trade - so where do these unsung heroes of rally learn the tools needed to perform the task?
In May, the New Zealand Motorsport Scholarship Trust invited nine co-drivers to Wellington for a trial run of a new coaching scheme for co-drivers, to show what assistance was available and also to gain feedback on what was needed and wanted from such an innovation.
The nine students were shown where they could play an even more important role in the two-player team, from supplying moral support to their driver to ensuring rules and regulations were followed as well as improving their own techniques in reading, writing and calling pace notes.
The students were then run through a series of rules and regulations from Motorsport New Zealand's Ian Snellgrove.
They were then taken through a practical, hands-on exercise with veteran co-driver Raymond "Crunch" Bennet on writing pace notes.
At the same time, they were being driven around the streets of Wellington in a van.
"Crunch has been doing this for about 30 years so he has a lot to offer the training scheme," said co-driver Ben Hawkins. The academy has given high-level training to New Zealand drivers from all formulas who are leading their craft in this country or have since moved on to compete overseas.