M A R S H A L L I N G

Marshal Down

2011-10-04T08:41:00.001+01:00

it’s what you never want to hear. motorsport always was and always will be dangerous. in some ways it is part of the appeal. injuries to drivers happen and can be expected from time to time. incidents in pit lane, especially during endurance events, can also happen. but to have a marshal hurt while trackside, trying to help another driver, is so rare that when it does happen it’s quite a shock to all of us.

our day started with the most important message of all - working trackside at night is fucking dangerous. there is no training for working at night trackside. we all know how to handle incidents, recover vehicles and drivers, but at night it is a whole new ballgame. hand signals become light signals. a simple push to free a car becomes a one man snatch in pitch black. the safety message we always push at the start of a day on the bank becomes your motto. you can not underestimate how dangerous this is.

so after only a few hours of night running we all took a deep breath when the call “marshal down” echoed over the radio.

a car had gone in to the gravel at maggots. that’s a fast entry corner and one of the most dangerous to work in while the track is live. the team had apparently gone to the aid of the car to try and push it free. when that failed, they all retreated to safety to allow the IO and one other to snatch it with a JCB. while they were doing that, another car came off the track at the same spot, apparently as a result of oil on the circuit. it sideswiped one marshal and knocked the IO off their feet. The IO was shaken but not injured, the other marshal suffered a double break to a lower leg.

at an event like a 24hr you have to be so much more aware of what is going on. working with a team you know so well and trust implicitly is a massive help. organising the Oulton Wanderers to take over Luffield was a fantastic idea and it paid dividends when the team was required to take action. tiredness, fatigue, complacency after long periods of clear racing can all add to the dangers. every lap is just as dangerous as the last. keeping that in mind for the entire event, day or night, will help you come home in one piece. but it can not guarantee it.

i’m sure an investigation will take place in to what happened on Saturday night. i’d expect some lessons can be learned from it too. most importantly is the fact that although injured, nothing worse happened. i’m sure everyone involved will replay it over and over in their minds. the most important thing about incidents like this is people will learn from them. and that people are still here to be able to learn form them.

hope the recovery is a swift and uncomplicated one.

Marshalling & Fishing

2011-08-31T17:57:00.000+01:00

Marshalling is a lot like fishing.

You spend countless hours in the cold / wet / wind / blazing sun. You can get days where nothing happens & others where the action is non-stop. It can be frustrating and exhilarating at the same time.

Last weekend was a perfect example. Sunday was spent at Oulton Park on Shell Hairpin. To say i’ve had a quiet season would be an understatement. I’ve had just 3 mechanical pulloffs in about 22 days on the bank, not one incident involving contact. Although i only got involved in the work to deal with one car in the gravel, the team had 4 cars in the gravel in total and plenty of excellent racing and overtaking during the day. It was the first time in ages i can honestly say that more than just the company on the bank was keeping me entertained.

Monday was a long day. I knew it would be, the timetable was an utter joke and was never going to work. The only thing that would give was our lunch break. So we are on post all day with no break from 8am to 6:30pm. Throw in rain showers and 15C & the weather alone is enough to make you wonder why. But the converse side to that is the ingredients for lots of action. Historics, oil, rain, cold track, a decent corner (Lodge) – it should have been a busy day. The early signs were good with the 1st session getting cars off at 3 of the 4 “quiet” posts (Clay Hill, Warwick Bridge & Hill Top) resulting in 2 red flags. But that was it. Everything was tee’d up for lots of action and all we got was one driver in a Hillman Imp who forgot to brake on the last lap of practice.

We were fully prepared to snare that 50lb pike and got nothing more than a pile of weeds.

I’m not saying i want to see huge crashes all the time, far from it. But when the conditions are right and nothing happens there is an amount of disappointment. Especially when its only the 2nd time in the entire year you have been asked to be IO – the practice is vital to gain confidence in your abilities to lead a team and make the right calls. To top that other people in the team needed a decent incident to allow the XPC to assess them and pass their final hurdle to upgrade. Its really hard to get all the admin requirements together for assessments, yet when they are & the drivers stay on the black stuff, it’s an opportunity wasted.

I’ve now got just 2 days left of the season. It has been a somewhat flat, disappointing one and i don’t want to leave 2011 like this because i might not want to come back. Hoping for a belting end to the season to make up for the days of boredom & disappointment, 750MC rarely let me down…

Quick Update on year so far

2011-07-19T19:52:00.002+01:00

26 Mar 2011 Oulton Park IO

22 Apr 2011 Anglesey PC

23 Apr 2011 Anglesey Flag

30 Apr 2011 Snetterton IO

7 May 2011 Oulton Park Incident

21 May 2011 Cadwell Park flag

22 May 2011 Cadwell Park flag

28 May 2011 Croft flag

29 May 2011 Croft flag

2 Jul 2011 Anglesey IO

8 Jul 2011 Silverstone Incident

9 Jul 2011 Silverstone Incident

10 Jul 2011 Silverstone Incident

16 Jul 2011 Cholmondeley flag

17 Jul 2011 Cholmondeley flag

so far this year i can not remember attending a single incident. i'm starting to forget what it feels like to deal with something which is worrying 'cos you never know when the next big one is around the corner...

CPoP 2011 - Things Must Change

2011-07-19T19:34:00.002+01:00

CPoP should be a fantastic event. The idea of bringing the Goodwood Festival of Speed oop narf should work well, but it doesn't. This was the 4th year, i have marshalled every single one, yet too little improves each year and it's very easy to get bored.

As a marshal you don't expect much, but some basics wouldn't go amiss. To list just a few of the issues and complaints from various people over the weekend;

camping in with all the punters, over a mile away from sign on
only after intervention from Fazz did a shuttle bus get put on from the campsite
for day trippers (like me) the car park was almost as far on other side of the estate but again only after complaints was a bus put on
no shelter for people or bags on post. a cheapo gazeebo would have done, like a lot of the car clubs had up.
no vouchers for food or drink. at £2.50 for about 200ml of coffee it was a joke
only 8 people each day won something on the raffle. club meetings at anglesey do better than that
not even a small gift like an event sticker or pin badge which were on sale.
key attractions such as the McLaren MP4-12C, '94 & '03 Jordan F1 cars, ex-Schumacher Benneton, Ford Escort Cosworth, Ferrari 308, Ferrari 458 GT and many others not making an appearance.
rally stage being curtailed due to conditions, but despite many runners dropping out of the sprint stage the rally cars were not asked to fill in the numbers.

By far the biggest issue tho is what you get attending the event. Each year various parts have improved or new additions like this years rally stage, but it isn't growing enough to remain a draw. The vehicles participating on the sprint course have changed little in 4 years. Nice although it is, the Maserati Birdcage brought by the Minshaw's has been there every year. As have a lot of other cars and especially the bikes. There are nowhere near enough of them, not enough variety and you get to see each one at least 8 times over the weekend. And where are the celbrity drivers bringing in the punters, doing autographs and mingling with fans like at FoS? I think Derek Bell made an appearance on Friday (Bentley are title sponsors & his employer) and Tom Sykes on a bike. That was it.

FoS you can spend an entire weekend at and still not see everything. And all for one ticket price which includes all the various paddocks. CPoP were charging £20 in on gate and an extra tenner if you wanted to see the paddock, all 6 small tents of it. If i was a punter i'd never go back, i'd spend the small fortune in fuel and do FoS instead.

At the 1st event as a marshal you were made to feel special. Now there is nothing special about it at all. I've never felt more undervalued at a race meeting than i did at CPoP this year. Sure the weather was shit on Sunday and making life difficult but i was dressed right and stayed warm & dry despite no shelter other than my umbrella. But i get that most of the year at meetings all around the UK, at least those meetings have enough variety to keep me interested. I resorted to punishing Ady & Andy with my own commentary in the unique style of the Goons crossed with Jar Jar Binks on Sunday. Sorry for that guys but i hope it kept everyone entertained!

Unless CPoP get at least double the number of vehicles participating next year then i doubt i'll bother again. Maybe get convinced to do a single day, but the shine of a new exciting event has well & truely worn off. The only way you can survive events like that is with a great bunch of marshals to work with, so many thanks to Faz, Ady, Andy, Steve and all the others that had to endure the weekend too. Next stop, CSCC at Anglesey

Not Enough Time :|

2009-06-25T18:58:00.001+01:00

Just realised I've done over 2 months of marshalling with no weekend off, which is very unlike me. Not sure how that’s happened really, but a ticket snafu has left me with no tickets this weekend. Kind of a blessing really, decided to take the weekend off and catch up with some friends and generally chill for a change. Original plan was Anglesey, so 3hrs there and back + the fuel I'll save isn’t a bad thing.

I’ll do some more updates on recent events including the Ginetta G50 incident at Oulton sometime soon…

Cadwell Won

2009-05-27T20:26:00.002+01:00

So in the end Cadwell won. Donington did get their license, but only at 6pm on the day before the event - too late for me so i went to Cadwell instead, who welcomed everyone with open arms.

Was a good weekend, fair weather, not too much to do but some great racing and some crazy arsed nutters in the stock hatches as usual.

Since then we've had MSVR at Anglesey (dull as hell, 11 cars in a 4hr race and we were told it was going to be much better this year) and wind you had to witness to believe. Twice i was near blown off my feet it was that strong. Then last weekend i was back to Oulton for caterhams, saloons of all shapes, and some historic formula ford and formula renault action. Again was fairly quiet - on Druids all we got was a few spins and a bit of a pant wetting moment as the TVR ploughed across the grass and the RX7 managed to avoid a very big impact. Good fun on post as usual tho, especially with the poor noob that parked his car in the gravel trap instead of using the hard standing to get behind post :)

This weekend is BTCC. If that lot don't throw some trade my way, no one will!!

Also been asked if i'd like to do the Abu Dhabi F1 GP at the end of Occtober - travel, acommodation, food all paid for - to help man the circuit to F1 standards and train the locals at the same time. Too good an opportunity to miss i think.

Oops!

2009-05-05T19:18:00.004+01:00

Guess this hasn't gone too well then?!

OK we'll start again. First up tho this is my take on the Donington fiasco. Its something i want to cover because this weekend i have 2 events i could cover - masters at Donington or 750MC at Cadwell, both of which are desperate for bodies this weekend.

The way i see it is thus. Gilletts' company was looking to fund the redevelopment thru several sources, mainly bank loans (possibly secured on future profits) and a debenture scheme. When the financial crisis hit, the banks became much more risk adverse and looked at the dono project as a risky prospect (debentures not being a particularly safe means of raising funds) and so either reduced or flatly refused to loan the cash.

This leaves Gillett stuck for cash when he needs it most. In order to get the work done he needed to start early, but contractors are notorious for ensuring smooth cashflow so any hint of non-payment will have killed the project there and then. So, without all the funds from the banks and probably working hard to increase the cash from debentures (and failing) they decided to default on the rent payment to the Wheatcroft's and use that cash to keep the contractors working. If the bank issue had been a few months delay that would have probably worked out, but it seems the issue is still there and now they are really up against it.

So now they have the same cashflow issue as several months ago, rent arrears which they are being taken to court with and no sign of the incoming cash issue resolving itself soon. Whats most frustrating tho is the fantastic shortsightedness of the construction plans which has left the circuit without a race license, and this is where all this ties in to marshalling.

To get the heavy machinery in to the circuit they had to extend the tunnel between McLeans and Coppice. They did this by seriously eroding the size of the run off area, to the point that the MSA withdrew their race license on safety grounds. Until the size of that runoff is returned to the MSA's satisfaction, they will not get that license back which means NO racing at the circuit. That not only puts promoters, teams, marshals and the public out, but it means donington looses vital money from circuit hire fees as the events are cancelled, postponed or moved to other venues such as Rockingham. Money they cannot afford to throw away.

Someone, somewhere in the planning office should be hung, drawn and quartered for not seeing that one as an issue. So this weekend it leaves me with 2 options. Currently i am promised that the masters at donington will go ahead, but in the end the people making those promises are not in the position to guarantee that. Whereas by the luck of an administration error (or the cunning plans of Mr Harding of the 750MC) i have also got tickets for Cadwell which i know for a fact will be running a full meeting and will be desperate for marshals. Do i risk a 5hr return journey to donington to have no meeting, or at least one where part of the circuit is run under permanent yellow as happened earlier this year, or go to cadwell? i have been really looking forward to the masters as there should be some cracking machinery on display, but if i'm having second thoughts then whats to say the teams aren't doing the same?

I think i'll wait until Thursday and, no matter what anyone else says, if the MSA have not announced that donington have their license back then i'll take the zero risk option and take the trip to cadwell instead.

new year, new season

2007-01-03T18:12:00.000Z

yeah i know hardly a riveting read this blog, but i'm going to try and keep it up to date this season, if nothing more than to remind me what the hell i did! Nothing planned yet as the Oulton / Anglesey dates have not been released, but probables are;

Feb - Training Day
April - A1GP
May - 1st date at the NEW Anglesey
July - F1 at Silverstone
August - Gold Cup
September - Britcar 24hrs

Anglesey 20/21st May 2006

2006-05-24T21:46:00.000+01:00

Meeting: Leinster Motor Club

Competitors: Legends, Formula Ford, Fiat Uno & Punto, Porsche, Historic GTs
==========================================

Well, you can't say we weren't warned about the weather. There were severe weather warnings in place in several parts of the UK, and Anglesey certainly had it's fair share. I've not marshalled the Legends in ages and was really looking forward to the close, hectic racing that they always bring. I left work at lunchtime Friday (for a change!) and headed south that afternoon. Just as I got on to the isle, it started to rain and I just knew it was going to be one of those weekends. After the long drive, I wasn't in the mood to put a tent up in the rain so I sat in the car for a while, watching the various teams turn up and get their cars ready. Eventually I gave in, realising the weather wasn't going to get any better any time soon, and put the "Portable Pleasure Palace II" up. It's the first time out for this tent, and have to say the thing is so much easier to put up than my last one, as the poles are already installed and all you have to do is fold it out, fix the knuckles and peg it down. 20 seconds it ain't, but less hassle it certainly is. Money well spent.

This was probably one of the most disappointing meetings I've marshalled at, mainly because I was really looking forward to it and we got let down for all sorts of reasons. Nothing major went wrong, it was just a combination of many little things that mounted up and started to get to people. It started with an admin cockup which meant we had no tickets or instructions. No biggie, the circuit soon sorted that for us although all we got told was "be at the circuit for 9am to sign on". On Saturday morning, it was still pissing down as it had been all night. It'd been so heavy I woke up at 4am as it was pounding so loudly on the tent canvass - I'm not a happy bloke without a decent amount of sleep, so it doesn't take much to get to me during the day.

The next problem was signon - no one knew where it was. Usually we do it in the club house, but although we gathered there no one turned up with the sheets. After hanging around for a while I decided to venture in to the drivers signon hut and ask there. Lo and behold, that's where the sheets were - nice to be told :S They had already pre-allocated posts, but that got screwed up as they had no idea how many people were needed where. It took some help from one of our guys to help them sort that out, and I got posted to the Hairpin - a fantastic place to marshal and always lots to do.

As the rain was still coming down, I went back to the club house. Too much water was on the track and they delayed the start several times, until we finally got going at 12:05. Due to the delay we had no lunch, but that was understandable and we got "fed up" (words of the chief marshal!!) before we went on circuit. That was when we found out the biggest problem of the weekend would be communication. The Irish guys brought their own radios, which are unlicensed in the UK and use a different frequency to the normal MSA sanctioned ones. No one knew what frequency they used, so our scanners were useless and the only people who knew what was going on were the observers on each post. Scanners are not necessary, but they are handy especially when flagging as I was. On the Saturday, our obs wasn't all that forthcoming with info such as "the cars have left the paddock" and "chequered flag", so it made the task a little harder than normal. Nothing serious, just another niggle.

The Saturday actually went OK once we got going. The rain stopped, everyone got their sessions in and we saw some great driving and a few races. The Legends were up to their usual tricks including a spectacular roll for one on Douglas. Car was broken, but fixable (although not in one night) and the driver was fine. A few sore limbs but raring to go the next day. Enjoyed the day and was hoping for more dry weather the next day...

...Shame the forecast was right then! Sunday was the opposite to Saturday where the weather was concerned. It started to rain lightly at about 6am and go t steadily worse as the day wore on. Again, no one knew what time signon was and this time the sheets were fucked up, so I wasn't down and had to add my name as an extra. How something like that can go so wrong I'll never know (lots of us were missed out, nit just me). Anyway, got on circuit and away the cars went. Today we had far more problems with communication - our obs radio just didn't work. It seemed to transmit OK, but receiving from control was impossible as it was constantly breaking up. Despite complaints, there was no working spares and we had to put up with it. They tried to blame it on the weather, but other radios at the same point were working fine, so we simply had a shit radio and had to hope we didn't have any serious incident that was made worse by our issues.

Our worst fears were realised when about 5 laps in to the formula ford practice, in heavy rain, one car aquaplaned on the standing water as it braked for the hairpin and slammed in to the tyre wall. I throw the yellow, and our obs takes a look at the situation. It's only just off the track, in a very dangerous position and the driver isn't moving. Due to the way that part of the track is laid out, we can't get to him without crossing the track, and in these conditions there is no way we'd risk our lives doing that. There was no option but to ask for a red flag. That's where we get in to difficulty - we can't hear if control have received our call and have no idea what's going on. 3 laps later, I see the red go out on the back straight and we know it's been received. Our obs is rightfully pissed off, and the incident marshals go to sort the car out. The driver was fine, I'm guessing he stayed in the car in case anymore cars came off as it's the safest place to be, a shrewd move on his part considering the conditions.

At this point there is so much standing water on the track, it'd be too dangerous to continue with the meeting. The stewards agree, and the rest of the day is cancelled. A disappointing end, but completely understandable & by this point (dinner had already been cancelled with no warning) most people just wanted to dry off, get warm and go home. It was by no means anyone's fault that the overall feeling was "unhappy" with the way the weekend went, but motorsport is like that and you have to take the great days with the not so great.

I've now got a few weekends off, until the big one - F1 @ Silverstone. 100,000+ fans and I'm starting to get nervous. Lots of people watching you, but once the action starts I'm sure I'll forget all about 'em and enjoy the experience.

Oulton Park 30th July 2005

2005-08-01T22:16:00.000+01:00

It's been a while, but nevermind. BRSCC put on a great day's racing, with Formula Jedi, Formula Ford (66 of them - a formula record!), the XR Challenge and a mix of TVRs, Caterhams and a Porsche. The day started off badly - 1st practice was the Jedi's and one of the 3 lady drivers had an accident at Bailey Bridge, a fast bit of the circuit, and was taken to hospital for precautionary xrays after complaining of neck pains. That was the first of 4 red flags of the day...

Next was our turn. Posted at Deer Leap for the first time, and i wasn't too sure what the racing would be like but i ended up enjoying it loads. The 2nd session was the first group of F-Fords and it didn't take long to warm up. On the first flying lap several drivers were running wide thru Lodge and no sooner than the comment "one of those is going to come our way" was uttered, No61 did indeed come our way. Running wide and on to the grass, the back end came around and the car hit broadside in to the tyre wall right at our feet. Driver got out and over the wall OK, but not before we asked him to turn the electrics off. The session was then stopped so we could sort the wreck out, which is when i noticed the LCD dash display was still on. We then asked the driver again about the electrics, to which he sheepishly said "they're over there..." and we had to kill them ourselves. We were lucky that nothign flamable was leaking, otherwise we might have had an unexpected BBQ to deal with.

No sooner than we had cleared the car and started the session again, another red flag came out. This time i think it was for a car in a dangerous position at Hill Top, a blind creast taken flat out and not somewhere you'd want a stricken car in the middle of the road. They eventually got about 3 fast laps in, but it lead to a mixed up grid which was going to make the race interesting.

The rest of the qualifying went OK until the Tuscans came out. One car, who's driver was on his first outing with it, hit the wall at Old Hall hard and then exploded in to flames. As ever the marshals on post were there in a flash and the fire was put out before any really serious damage was done,