ONE OF THE CONSTANTS at the Donegal International Rally over the years has been the presence of the Pattersons.
At recce sign in on Saturday morning, Michael Patterson was busy distributing the Patterson Pacenotes to competitors ahead of this weekend’s 2016 Joule Donegal International Rally.
He remembers coming to Donegal as a boy with his parents, Brian and Liz, whose pacenotes and in-rally bulletins are a real feature of rallies across the country.
Picture caption: Brian and Michael Patterson with RTÉ’s John Kenny during recording of a radio documentary.
“The drivers have the option of making their own pacenotes or they have the choice of buying them. It’s something we fell into 40-odd years ago,” Michael told Donegal Sport Hub.
[adrotate group=”11″]“The pacenotes now, and especially the technology behind them, has advanced so much since the early years.
Michael said: “It’s become a bit of a science now. It’s more advanced. We have packages now where it’s digital and they can download an on-board video. A lot of them work in advance now and they study it at home.
“The technology involved now has really moved into the 21st century. We have a very advanced system that was developed for the World Rally Championship that measures the road, the radius of corners and the severity of the jumps.”
[adrotate group=”70″]In rallying, it is generally the driver who gets the headlines, but as Michael points out, the navigator’s job is equally as important.
He said: “It’s an amazing relationship in a rally car that passes people by. The relationship between driver and co-driver is paramount. At this level there are few people who aren’t capable of doing it. The driver trusts implicitly what the co-driver says.”
[adrotate group=”46″]Listen to the full interview below …
https://soundcloud.com/donegalsporthub-club-notes/michael-patterson-on-pacenotes-development
