Rallying has been around for many years, in various different formats. The generally accepted design is to have a number of "Special Stages", most of which vary in length, and are understood to be the competitive parts of the rally event, as they are always timed, sometimes to the tenth of a second. These Special Stages could be on a gravel or Tarmac (Sealed) Surface depending on the event, and can often be arranged in such a way that they form a "Cloverleaf" around a town, city, or centralised "Service Area", where the rally cars are worked on. The Special Stages Could be anywhere from 600 metres to 40 kilometres in length (longer on rally raid events), and are joined together by non-competitive sections of the event, known as "Liasons". These sections are quite often on public roads, and drivers in the event must obey all road rules on these parts of the event, or penalties will be incurred by the local police and the event organisers.

Basically, a rally may begin with a Liason section, which will lead you to a Special Stage, which you drive at the highest speed that you are capable of, which will then connect with another Liason Section, upon which you must again follow road rules. Each Special Stage is timed for each car, between a "Start Control", and a "Finish Control", and this time is written on a card that is held by the co-driver, inside the rally car.

This system of Liason followed by Special Stage, followed by Liason continues for each day of competition, which could be from 5.30 am until 9 pm or so, and could also be over a 1 day or 4 day period, or more in the case of a rally raid event (the Paris - Dakar is a Rally - Raid Event).

Each day generally begins in or close to a town or city, and quite often starts with a "Service", which is conducted in the main "Service Area", in the case of most major events. This a 15 or 20 minute period of time during which each rally car can be worked on by your trusty Service Crew, prior to beginning the first group of morning Special Stages. The Service Area has an "In" and an "Out" Control, and so the time is strictly monitored. If a team takes longer that the allocated time, they are given a time "Penalty" for being late leaving the Service Area, and this is added to the overall time for the day for that team.

Once the rally car leaves and is on it's way to the first Special Stage via the Liason, The Driving Part has begun, it is quite normal to undertake 2 or 3 Special Stages in one go, one after the other, before seeing the Service Crew at the Service Area again. Hence, a great Service Crew is essential, whom are technically expert in all that they do as well as very fast. During each Service, of which there may be 3 or 4 during the day, all tyres will probably be replaced, the car will be jacked up at both ends, and everything on the rally car will be checked and/or tightened. The car may have to have the gearbox, drive shafts, clutch, or suspension components repaired or replaced, and all this must be done during the allocated time. Additionally, the car must be refuelled to the correct level to allow completion of all driving that must be done prior to seeing the Service Crew again.

Following the completion of the final Special Stage of the day, and assuming that there is another day of competition tomorrow, then all teams are allowed a very long Service at the day's end. This can quite often be at night and so it is conducted under lights. This Service may be up to 2.5 hours in length, and allows for major repairs and/or major service and repair work to be carried out on each car, prior to entering it into "Parc Ferme" later that night, where it will stay with all other rally cars until the morning. Then, you can do it all again!!!.... Until finally at the end of the Rally Event, there is a seriously major party and prizegiving, and an opportunity for everyone to tell some great stories well into the night, accompanied by the consumption of masses of alcohol!