MARSHALLING MATTERS
The season is
Startline marshals at work at the Gold Cup coming
The
Club ’ s chief marshal Fay Crook reflects on the approaching season and how marshal training used to operate .
Well , here we are again , once again in lockdown and unable to get out and about to meet friends and relatives , who would have thought we would still be in this situation . Hopefully , we will get racing this year and if we are lucky the Snetterton meeting will happen on 17 / 18 April , although when the historic sporting trials will start remains to be seen . Also , whether we will be able to have a full complement of marshals or must continue with a limited number also remains to be decided .
I have been told that long-standing marshal Martin Bricknell has recently passed away due to COVID . Martin started marshalling at Silverstone in 1984 and after retiring from work joined the Silverstone Safety Team . If Martin was not marshalling or working at the circuit and there was a meeting on , both he and wife Sue could be found watching the meeting from the BRDC grandstand when it was open .
Martin ’ s passing made me think back to when we first started marshalling in 1988 . In those days , the Silverstone Emergency Services Team was a division of the South Midlands Region of BMRMC ( British Motor Racing Marshals Club , now BMMC ). The BMRMC annual training
day used to be held at Silverstone and marshals from all over the country used to attend and it was a good way of catching up with friends who you may see infrequently at various meetings .
We attended our first training day at Silverstone in 1988 and in those days you were given general information and then they ran a ‘ race meeting ’ where different accident scenarios were acted out . Doing off circuit meant that you had a go at different duties , like assembly , pits , startline and even timekeeping .
In the assembly area you were shown how to check scrutineering labels
Marshalling COVID style to ensure the car had the right car number on and was in the right race . Making sure that seatbelts were done up , drivers dressed in appropriate gear , crash helmets done up and so on . You had to make sure the cars were gridded up and released to the grid in order .
On startline you were taught how to grid the cars up in the correct position and answer any questions the driver might have . You held the row board out when the car came back to the grid and took it in turns to press the pit buzzer when the cars entered the pit lane . For pits you were trained on how to talk to drivers , do written reports for any pit stop , ensuring they applied to any regulations . You would then get it signed by the team manager and this would be sent to Race Control . Timekeeping was really interesting , as in those days they were in the bit that sticks out over the pit lane on the National
Circuit ( which has been used as hospitality since they moved out ) and you were allowed to try the equipment at the training day , which was very manual in those days .
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