HOW TO CHOOSE AN OFF-ROAD RACE NAVIGATION APP.

A race navigation app has a different job from a road GPS or a trail app. It has to work at speed, with gloves on, with no phone service, and keep up with a course you may have seen only once on the prerun. These are the things worth checking before race week, whichever app you end up running.

1. IT WORKS WITH NO SIGNAL.

Desert and outback courses rarely have coverage the whole way. Check that the map, your recorded line, your waypoints and any callouts keep working with zero bars, and that satellite imagery can be downloaded ahead of time rather than streamed. The easy test: put the device in flight mode at home and try to navigate a saved course.

In DirtGPS, navigation, track recording, waypoints and voice callouts all work offline. Offline satellite maps are part of PRO and are downloaded on WiFi or mobile data before you go.

2. YOU CAN MARK A HAZARD IN ONE TAP.

Prerunning is where race notes are made, and stopping to place a pin and type a name every few hundred metres does not work at pace. Count the taps it takes to mark a washout. Then check whether the buttons can be set up your way: your words, your icons, your colours, big enough for gloves.

DirtGPS prerunner mode is a fully customisable bar of hazard buttons. You choose the label, icon and colour of each one, and a single tap drops a named waypoint where you are.

3. CALLOUTS COME IN COURSE ORDER.

On race day your eyes need to stay on the track, so spoken callouts through helmet comms or car audio matter more than anything on the screen. Two details separate a race tool from a generic one: callouts should come earlier the faster you are going, and they should follow your position along the course rather than the order the waypoints were created. Otherwise a note you added later, or a marker you missed, can throw the whole sequence.

DirtGPS voice navigation times each callout to your speed and sorts every waypoint by where it sits along your track, so late additions slot into place and a missed marker never skips you ahead.

4. YOUR FILES ARE NOT LOCKED IN.

Courses, notes and recorded lines move between teammates, co-drivers and devices. GPX is the common format almost every mapping tool reads, so check that the app imports GPX and exports what you recorded, ideally a whole event at once.

DirtGPS imports GPX from any GPX-compatible app and exports tracks and folders, with a folder going out as a single file of tracks and waypoints.

5. FAMILY CAN FOLLOW WITHOUT AN APP.

If people at home or in the pits want to watch, the link you send them should open in any browser with no download or account. You will also want a choice between a public map and a private link. Live tracking always needs an internet connection in the car, such as mobile service or Starlink, and it is not a substitute for any tracking the event itself requires.

DirtGPS live GPS tracking gives you one permanent watch link, shown on the public DirtGPS live map or kept private.

6. VIDEO AND CREW COMMS, IF YOU NEED THEM.

Streaming from the car is a nice extra for sponsors and fans. If you want it, look at which cameras are supported, how many can run at once, whether sponsor logos can go on the video, and whether you can send the same stream to YouTube or Facebook. For the pits, a messaging link the crew can open on any phone is far simpler than a radio network.

With DirtGPS Premium, live race streaming takes up to 4 GoPro or RTMP cameras onto your watch link and the live map, with sponsor overlays and Multistream. Pit crew messaging sends one-tap messages from the car and reads crew replies aloud.

7. THE HARDWARE IT RUNS ON.

The app is only as good as the device under it. A bigger screen is easier to read on rough ground, but it has to have a real GPS chip: iPhones do, and so do cellular-model iPads, even with no SIM or plan, while Wi-Fi-only iPads do not. Mount it solidly, keep it powered, keep it out of direct sun, and test the whole setup on a prerun before you trust it in a race.

DirtGPS runs on iPhone and cellular iPad with iOS 17 or later. There is no Android version.

8. WHAT IT COSTS.

Check what is free, what needs a subscription, whether there is a trial long enough to use on a real prerun, and whether you can drop to monthly outside race season.

DirtGPS is free to download. PRO is A$149.99 a year or A$19.99 a month, Premium is A$399 a year or A$44.99 a month, both with a 7-day free trial, billed through the App Store. See what each plan includes.

A QUICK CHECKLIST.

• Navigates, records and calls hazards in flight mode
• Satellite imagery can be downloaded before you leave
• One tap marks a hazard, with your own labels, icons and colours
• Voice callouts timed to speed and in course order
• GPX import and export
• Browser watch link for family and crew, public or private
• Runs on a device with a real GPS chip that you can mount and power
• A free trial long enough for a real prerun

WHERE DIRTGPS FITS.

DirtGPS was built by Australian off-road racers in Horsham, Victoria, around exactly these jobs: prerun the course with one-tap hazard buttons, then race it with every hazard called in course order, offline. It is iPhone and cellular iPad only, the app is in English, and the live features need internet in the car. It is a navigation tool, not official timing or safety tracking.

Racing a specific event? See DirtGPS for the Baja 1000 (en español), the Finke Desert Race and Australian off-road racing.

COMMON QUESTIONS.

What should an off-road race navigation app do?

Work fully offline, let you mark hazards in one tap at speed, call those hazards out loud in course order on race day, import and export GPX, and run on hardware with a real GPS chip. Live tracking, video streaming and crew messaging are extras that need an internet connection in the car.

Is a phone or iPad good enough for race navigation?

An iPhone or a cellular-model iPad has a GPS chip and works with no SIM or plan. Wi-Fi-only iPads have no GPS. Mount it solidly, keep it powered and out of direct sun, and test it on a prerun before you rely on it.

Which app works for the Baja 1000 or the Finke Desert Race?

Any app that meets the checklist on this page. DirtGPS is one option: an iPhone and cellular iPad app with customisable prerunner hazard buttons, voice callouts in course order, offline satellite maps, GPX import and export, live tracking and in-car streaming. It is not affiliated with either event and is not official event tracking.