BMMC Marshalling Taster Day

Hey all!

Hope this post finds you well and enjoying this lovely sunshine we've been having. Last weekend (13th/14th Aug), I attended a marshalling taster day ran by the BMMC at Donington Park. It's not technically bike related but it is motorsport so I'm hoping you'll forgive me.

The event that weekend was the MSVR GT & Formula Car races with 16 races over the course of the two days, all of which I was on post marshalling for. There were about 20 people on the day and I was one of 5 girls but a surprising number of the marshals were actually female which was good to see.

On the Saturday morning we went through a cars journey visiting the scrutineering bay, pits, paddock and garages. We also had a look around a couple of the race cars whilst the two people running the day showed us where the kill switches could be and where the fire extinguisher could be (every car has them in a different place, so not as simple as a bike!) and how to move a car should the driver happen to crash out.

Some of the cars in assembly

I also got to go up to race control and see how they work and what they do. I'd never been to a race control room before and I was really surprised by how big the room was and how many people actually worked in there, I thought it was going to 3 or 4 people! I hadn't realised either that the entire track was covered by cameras to help race control determine whether incidents are racing incidents and things like that, there's basically nowhere that is a blind spot and the cameras have got impressive zooms on them as well. After a quick walk through the media room full of laptops, phones, cameras, leads and coffee, we headed to the medical centre at Donington.
The medical centre is apparently one of the best in the country and the only thing they can't do on site is open heart surgery as they don't have a bypass machine. Pretty impressive for a race track I think. They even have a little mini ward if anybody (racer, marshal, team member or member of the public alike) can rest in if they need to. Luckily, there were no major incidents over the weekend and the highly qualified trauma consultants from Queen's Med in Nottingham and Derby City hospitals weren't needed.

In the afternoon, I went out on post between McLeans and Coppice for anyone who knows the track and I had a go at some flagging of the 8 races that were running. Luckily, nobody had any incidents opposite our post and anybody who did wasn't injured so I didn't have to go out on the track whilst it was live for any reason.

On Sunday, I was on post at the Melbourne Loop all day for the qualifying, warm-up and race sessions. I practiced my flagging skills during the majority of the races, and due to several occasions of the safety car going out, the yellow flag spent a fair amount of time in my hand! This also meant that we actually only got about 15-20 minutes for lunch (we were originally allocated 40 mins) which just happens at some meets apparently.
When all marshals have to be standing and concentrating when the track is live and with sessions only 5 minutes apart and running from 9am until about 6 or 7pm, it's a long time to be stood on your feet for and trying to eat and keep hydrated during those times can be quite tricky. My lunch was spread out through the day and I know many of the other marshals' lunches were the same.

Despite this, you can tell the marshals love what they do, they seem a bit like a family with everyone laughing and joking. Yes, they have a serious job to do but if you're with only 2 other people for an entire day and you can't have a chat and a laugh, it's going to be a tough day. The main advantages are pretty obvious; marshals are super close to the action, as they are volunteering and working the event, it's free entry for them and it's probably one of the best ways to be involved in motorsport - I think I'll definitely go back and marshal again when I get the chance!

Ride safe all,
TFB