18.08.2025

L, R: drive it to the ground
1,2,3,4,5,6: from hair pin to sweeper
Over Time Limit (OTL)
CKD*
*completely knocked down
+, -:   sixth-gear sweeper, tightest bend
: pitstop collaboration // ham ham ham  
40,50,60 ... 200:  wheelspin
&:  oil of a kind_   
->:st control check//bodywork
Cr:  heat for hire//K7 dans la 4L
Jmp: uphill downhill
/: breaktime//cease to strive
OC: off-camber No pressure
Slippy: oil of a kind
Grip:  special stage
Care: fuel me once difficult road ahead
!: ceart go leor
!!: towards torr head
!!!:  coming back from far

This time last year we are very much back on the road again, enroute to Rathlin Island via the backroads of Donegal and still planning some few detours including a large stone circle that caught our attention on the map. At this stage, we were beginning to understand that our detours were central to the concept behind the tour. With our heroe’s journey monomyth; referencing labyrinthine paths, challenges, obstacles, uphill downhill peaks and troughs, we were navigating the longest way around, which is the shortest way home according to James Joyce in his own referencing of the heroe’s journey monomyth.

In rally driving, pace notes are the co-driver’s script which they call out to the driver to close the gap between perception and action. The driver and co-driver often go out on a ‘recce’ (reconnaissance) ahead of a rally to tune the pace notes and this can give them the edge as they are better prepared to deal with terrain. During ‘recce’ the driver and co-driver progress through circuit stages at a relaxed speed. In the pace notes, they document every corner, road surface, every jump, crest and steep verge that might impose on their journey. While the general ideas and principles of these coded, shorthand notes are concrete and utilised in real rally - every individual driver, co-driver pair can tailor make their pace note style to suit their own preferences.  

In the context of tour de force, where Liliane Puthod (visual artist) and myself (writer) teamed up to deliver this round the country tour, we might think of our initial meetings as ‘recce’ for pace notes. Each day for the month of January 2025 we workshopped possibilities for tour de force, scripting the journey down to the kilometers, then loosening it up again for divergences and tangents. These notes helped us during the six week tour, where we were navigating realms of artwork, art and work, friendship and collaboration.