Targa timing
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Targa timing (sometimes also called target timing) is a system of timing used in car rallying. It was invented by John Brown, the Clerk of the Course for the Targa Rusticana, a road rally that used to be run in the United Kingdom in the 1960s (named after the famous Targa Florio). Targa timing became the standard timing method used on rallies for almost 20 years following its invention in 1963. However, it was eventually banned as it became widely abused - the standard method by which organisers could set very high average speeds in a manner that left no permanent record.
In all rallies, competitors race against the clock, rather than directly against each other. The fastest time overall is the winner. However, determining this in a fair and logistically feasible manner can be quite a challenge, especially as events may cover a wide area and be broken up into many different sections. Targa timing is one of the practical timing systems developed to allow this to take place.
In the early days of rallying, competitors would carry a sealed watch with them, and show it to the marshal at time controls along the route, who would record the time. The system worked but was open to tampering and a variety of tricks employed by competitors to cheat. To combat this, the system changed so that each marshal would have his own clock, each of which had been synchronised at the start of the event. In a standard timed event, run to so-called BBC or "telecom" time, each clock would simply show the time of day to the nearest second. A characteristic of this type of timing is that the average speeds calculated for each section are easy to compute, and if this involved breaking the law with respect of speed limits, etc. could cause problems for organisers, since it could be seen as an incitement. A competitor's time card would list the actual times and stand as a permanent record of the speeds which they had driven at to attain them.
Targa timing solved this problem. On a targa-timed event, each clock is not synchronised to all of the others. Instead, each successive clock is retarded behind by the exact amount that the competitor is expected to take to reach that clock en route. Thus, if they are exactly on time, the clock will show the exact same time at every time control they visit, making it very easy to see whether they are behind, and if so by how much. In addition, since on most events cars are started at one minute intervals, and the cars are numbered and started in sequence, the time shown on the clock will be their competition number if they are on time. To clarify this, imagine a notional car "0" which starts the event at time 00:00 - at every point on the route, if they are on time, the clocks will always show 00:00. Likewise car 1 will see 00:01, car 2 sees 00:02 and so on. If Car 1 sees a time of 00:05, they know instantly that they have lost four minutes of time. Incidentally, this is the origin of rally competition numbering skipping numbers 60 - 99, then continuing with 100 - this corresponds to a due time of +1 hour. This is still occasionally seen.
Targa timing conceals the calculated average speed for a section, since the competitors have no way of knowing by how much each clock has been retarded. This in turn leads to a further use of targa timing which in practice was its true advantage to organisers - it allowed them to, untraceably, set very high average speeds for competitive driving. This in turn leads to the concept of a "target" or "bogey" time for a section, known only to the organisers - the upshot is that crews basically need to drive as fast as possible to stay on time. The competitors' time cards only show the recorded targa time, and not the actual time taken, so it is not possible to use it as a permanent record of the speeds driven; no record is left that could incriminate anyone after the event.
For road rallies, targa timing was banned in 1988 along with a number of other rule changes designed to slow such events down - from then on only ordinary time of day timing was permitted. Many of the 'old school' competitors lament this change, though organisers have found new ways to keep events fun and exciting for entrants.
