Watching back their onboards, hitting the gym, jumping on the simulator or better yet, getting behind the wheel for a test.
There are several ways World Rally Championship drivers can look to hone their craft in between events.
What you wouldn’t expect them to do, however, is hop into the co-driver’s seat.
But that’s exactly what Josh McErlean did last weekend, sitting alongside friend and sponsor Paul Rowley at the Show-Me Rally in Missouri.
As a round of the ARA Central Regional series, this wasn’t the same scale of challenge McErlean is used to facing alongside his co-driver Eoin Treacy in an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1.
That’s not to say he didn’t walk away with some valuable lessons, though.
Rowley was keen to contest the event in his Ford Fiesta R5+ and was able to learn from McErlean’s tuition, but his primary objectives were to re-introduce McErlean to an American audience ahead of next year’s Rally US, and help him experience things from the other seat that would ultimately help his driving career.
Rowley told DirtFish: “I was somewhat ruthless in that I didn’t do anything. We got a puncture in stage seven and drove to the end because it was a short stage, but I got him to change it himself because I wanted to put the pressure on him to see how he’d react.
“I had little tests going on like that inadvertently all weekend. Stuff that I normally would be part of, stuff that I would help with, even building the itinerary for the weekend and all of those things. I was like: let’s see how he reacts.”
The pair finished second behind Patrick Gruszka and John Hall, with McErlean passing his co-driving test with flying colors.
“We had a differential problem for the first three stages but after those three he got confidence in his own note calling and the notes that were written. And you could hear the different intonations in his voice, how confident he was,” Rowley added.
“Then on Saturday night we had night stages where there was a lot of dust. Even though the intervals were two minutes, it was just hanging. It was a good lesson of how important it is for the notes to be precise enough that you can drive through, for example, fog in the dark of Monte Carlo.
McErlean and Rowley had a lot of fun - but there was more to the exercise than that
“That note will be written very differently if you are anticipating that there could be fog in that corner. Both of us talked about it when writing those notes for those night stages, and when the dust did occur he realized this isn’t dust, this is complete darkness!
“You’ve got 100 yards to go at 100mph in complete darkness, do you trust the note that you wrote? Which can happen in Monte, say. There was that realization: maybe my notes do need to be more precise for Monte in the dark with flares and blue smoke etc.
“We had a great time, but on the road back to the finish there was a moment of quietness, and I said: ‘Did you learn anything?’ And he said: ‘Yeah, I always knew the navigator has a big job but I really learned this weekend how much the navigator has to do, that maybe over the last year and a half, I had started to unrealize again until now’.
“He says: ‘From when we started yesterday morning with recce, I haven’t been able to switch off at all.’ And I said: ‘That was part of this exercise. It wasn’t just about me and you going for a cool spin.’ Maybe it’ll only save a thousandth of a second but learning that side again can only help his situation.”
McErlean admitted it was a useful experience to re-learn what a co-driver goes through. The 27-year-old last co-drove in 2024, before he became a Rally1 driver.
McErlean was left to do the work he wouldn't normally do, growing his appreciation for Treacy's job in the WRC
“It was definitely a good reminder of what a co-driver is doing and what they’re actually thinking about during the road sections. As a driver I’m in complete set-up land or thinking about something that’s very different from what they’re thinking about at that time,” McErlean said.
“The co-driver is constantly thinking of adding up times, calculating when they’re going to be at the next stage, what the road section is like, reading the roadbook… they’re always in the zone at that point.
“Whereas us, as drivers, take off our helmet at the stage end, put it on the co-driver’s lap and you expect them to talk away to you as if nothing’s going on. But actually, they’re doing a thousand other jobs in their head!
“So it was a good way to put it into perspective again. Of course, I’ve co-driven before, but it’s a good reminder of how busy it can be. I think, as a whole, that appreciation has probably benefited me to then benefit Eoin in the future!”
McErlean wrote an exclusive column for Club DirtFish members on his experience – explaining his biggest challenge, the nerves on rally morning and the tricks he’s learned from WRC co-drivers – which you can read now by joining the Club or by purchasing the individual piece of content.
