NZ software brings home rally spectacle

By CHRIS BARTON

In special stage two of the Catalunya Rally, Panizzi in the Peugeot was in a league of his own.

About two minutes into the 27.64km winding road somewhere on the Costa Brava, he took the lead from Solberg, Burns and McRae, who had each briefly held the front running.

But from that point they all ate his dust. Ten minutes into the stage Panizzi had a four-minute lead on Burns, also in a Peugeot.

At the chequered flag, that had stretched to 7 1/2 minutes.

For the next five stages it was much the same story - Panizzi, Panizzi, Panizzi ... How do I know this? I was there - virtually.

It was both weird and marvellous. Weird because the virtual road snaked through nothing but blackness on either side - as though we were on some journey through hell. And a marvel because I was experiencing all this from my computer here in Auckland - thanks to the internet and some truly amazing home-grown software from Virtual Spectator.

The internet really does change everything - making the distance between Spain and New Zealand insignificant. But it's Virtual Spectator's software that really changes the viewing of rally car racing (wrvs.virtualspectator.com).

I have to confess I'm not a huge rallying fan. Whenever I've watched it on TV, I can never figure out what's going on. Cars tear around corners at impossible speeds and sometimes they crash. That's sort of interesting. But there's only ever one car on the road at time - so you never know who is winning.

With Virtual Spectator all the cars - well, at least six of them in stage two and 11 in stage four - are on the road together. Parallel rally racing, something you will never see in the real world - especially the ghostly moments when one virtual car passes through another as it overtakes. But it's fantastic being able to see which driver is in the lead, how fast they are going, and how far off the pace they are from Panizzi.

You can also change how you view the cars - overhead, from behind, "tracking", like a TV camera and from the driver's seat. Better still you can rewind, replay, freeze frame, speed up and move forward or back to any part of the course you choose.

The magic that makes this all possible is a black box recorder/transmitter in each of the cars providing global positioning and speed data. At present the data is grabbed at the end of each stage and then sent back to New Zealand where the geniuses at Virtual Spectator weave their illusion - transforming the raw data into animations of the cars moving on the road.

For now that transformation is taking between eight and 12 hours. Eventually it's planned to bring the data off the cars and into the animations in real time - in much the same way as Virtual Spectator did with data coming from the yachts in the America's Cup.

Late this year rally fans should get background scenery of the stages rather than the current eerie black void. Virtual Spectator staff have driven the rally stages with specially equipped cars taking global positioning readings, photographs and video footage. Can't wait, but it's likely to be an option that will only work on higher specified machines.

Also in the pipeline are measurements to show acceleration, braking and the heart rates of drivers. Plus a live "tracker" stage map showing where the world rally cars are on the track.

It's hard to be critical about this stunning technology - but there are a few gripes. Data delays at the start of Catalunya - the first internet coverage of 38 championship events over the next three years - caused one fan to write on the World Rally Championship web site (www.wrc.com): "OK, so maybe I am a chump. I paid [US$9.95], it registered. The rally has been already one day old (finished first day at least 8 hours ago, first stage finished maybe 20 hours ago), and NOTHING HAPPENING in the Virtual Spectator program. NADA. You'd think at least they would have a 'downloading now' icon, and maybe a 'nothing to report' icon ?!?"

I agree. I was frustrated too - although I did eventually get an email explaining what went wrong. On Saturday afternoon, a message popped up when I connected telling me of the problems. By Sunday night, stage nine was available, which wasn't too bad as at that time stage 13 was running. But I found the lack of information online annoying.

It will be good also when Virtual Spectator adds news, photos, audio and video highlights, in-car video footage, team and driver biographies, weather analysis and other commentary. At the moment there's nothing - so I really had no idea about the man behind the wheel or how "the wild-eyed Frenchman" Gilles Panizzi had dominated "the abrasive stages around Tarragona to the west of Barcelona".

For colour I had to go to www.wrc.com, where I learned that Colin McRae "has seemingly been untroubled by his injured finger and has settled quickly into changing gear with his left hand for the first time in many years."

I think I'm becoming a fan.

* chris_barton@nzherald.co.nz