Skip to Navigation

A little lateral thinking can at times save you penalties, or cost your opponents more.

Here are some ideas but the sportsmanship of some is dubious at best!

Don't stop just after a control to solve a clue, tell the driver to carry on at a gentle pace to the next distinctive junction which you must describe sufficiently for him or her to recognise. You can then work on plotting the route which hopefully you will solve by the time you get to the junction, then provide the required directions and start reading the road. Driving on can save a lot of time.

If you can't figure it out, follow someone who looks like they know what they're doing. This can be dodgy because if they take the wrong way you may end up worse off than if you had just cut.

If you come into a control about to 'wrong direction' (WD) try sneaking past quietly in the hope that the officials are busy and don't spot you. Then, well out from the control (out of sight!) do a U-turn and proceed briskly to the control as if nothing unusual was happening. You just might get away with it and if not it will probably give the officials a laugh.

Not uncommonly, a number of cars will end up stopped at a junction trying to sort out the route. When one of them thinks they have it, the rest usually follow. If you are still working on it, consider whether the chance is worth trying, but do take notice of where the other cars go.

If you are first to plot the route and a competitor who is supposed to be ahead of you on time follows , drive on but time it so your arrival at the next control is just on time. They will be late and incur a penalty.

If you must let a competitor past who has been annoying you for some time by signalling with lights and/or horn, a good place to do so is just before the next observation control board, which you can carefully conceal by pulling over in front of it. If at night, either turn off your lights or make sure they don't illuminate the board.

If you are being followed by another car the driver will be able to use your brake lights to easily stay with you. The driver touching the brake pedal very lightly with his/her left foot when least expected is considered acceptable gamesmanship. A switch which disables the brake lights is neither acceptable nor legal.

If you are coming onto a suitable junction a good ploy to get rid of a team tagging along on your route plotting is to go just past the junction and then to let them past. Once they are out of sight, execute a smart U-turn and go back the correct way.