Silverstone May 3rd cancelled?

[Stephen Green]

The BRSCC and BARC give a discount on membership depending on the number of days you marshal over a year. Rod is right, most clubs have a marshals raffle at the end of the day and others give a donation topwards breakfast etc.

In general marshals pay for their own expenses, petrol, overals, gloves, boots etc and do so quite willingly to support the sport.

As Rod says, it depends on the circuit as to the number of marshals required to fully man each post, the paddock, assembly etc etc.

[johnw]

Originally posted by goforit500
It could be that car racers...... feel that getting grubby, sweaty and wet is beneath them :-)

Goforit, this sounds like an experience people would pay for
Well done on trying to stir things up. I'll try to help out.

We've had this drivers to marshal debate in other threads, and there will never be agreement.

The one thing that has become blindingly obvious is that we (drivers) need to put on something entertaining to keep attracting the orange folk, let alone spectators, who we need if we are to have any chance of making the whole thing less expensive.

This means full grids, close racing through well developed and policed regs and effective (draconian) policing of driving standards.

As had been said elsewhere, 164 championships are a nonsense, and serve only to diminish the show with small grids.

If we still want to compete, we drivers, should take tome responsibility to organise ourselves into sensible local or regional series and then get the clubs to run them for us.

The 750mc and MGcc appear to have cracked this. Some championships and series also have done a great job. But a single good grid on a days program will not encourage the marshals any longer.

Our last meeting at Silverstone contained three races with less than 9 nine cars. One of these was the flagship race!

I wouldn't have gone there if I hadn't been racing, so I can understand the marshals point of view re their attendance or not.

I think that the ball is in our court.

[bluebeard]

Lets not miss the point there that you only get membership discount if you join to start with!

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by bluebeard
Lets not miss the point there that you only get membership discount if you join to start with!

All those balloons are worth a quid or two!

[Garry Holmes]

It might not be Silverstone, but a quick bit of mental arithmatic for Oulton Fosters, gives an absolute bear minimum manning level of something like 12 obserevers (1 per post) 17 flag (@ 1 per flag point), 30 incident @ 2 per corner (incl places like inside Old Hall) & 1 on someplaces, plus 2 rescue units, , fire tenders, startline, pits, assembly/paddock,recovery & race control. The numbers soon add up. As I said this is the bear minimum for people on the ground at corners. This assumes everyone is experienced & knows what they are doing, doesn't mind standing on their own all day & most importantly the INSURANCE companies allow it. Most incidents would result in a red flag as there would not be enough people on the ground to move anything. This may be acceptable for a test day when the circuits operate with much fewer people on the ground, and no ones watching. But if paying punters come to see racing, they want to see racing, not a tow truck comming out everytime some thing falls off. As we saw in rallying after the Carlos & Cambrian incidents, the MSA will do nothing until the s**t hits the fan in a big way. As for Silverstone on May 3rd, just look at the calender, there are plenty of events on, not just circuits but in the forests too, as has been said many times before & will be many times again theres is only so much we can do. Rant over!!

[Tracey]

I am really confused by all this. My rescue unit was asked to provide cover for Uniroyal Beetles at Rockingham on 3rd May two weeks ago! I also received two e-mails from someone in BRSCC East Anglia with the same details around the same time.

All I can say is with that little notice, you've got more chance of becoming a lottery millionaire without buying tickets than get enough marshals to run a meeting!

[Rod Birley]

According to MNs national racing calender, the only Rockingham meeting next week is on May 2nd on the oval. The Uniroyal VWs were listed to be at Silverstone along with BRDC F.Fords, Euro saloons, and JCC challenge (???).

[Sheila M]

Originally posted by DaveStyles
Do marshals do it TOTALLY unpaid then ? Do you not even get expenses ? or a token 'thankyou' ?

If so I think thats amazing.... I reckon they should at least add a bit onto the entry fee and call it "Marshall fund"... it wouldn't bother me paying an extra tenner on every entry fee for martials expenses..

btw... How many martials does it take to run a normal club meeting at say Silverstone ?

Ah bless, what planet are you from?

Marshals are all volunteers and therefore don't get paid. We do it for the love of the sport. The three major clubs BARC, 750 and BRSCC always run raffles at their meetings and BARC and BRSCC members earn "stamps" to offset against their membership payment at the end of the year. 750 always send us a letter of thanks after every meeting, which is appreciated. Apart from that, we buy all our own kit (which is not cheap), and pay fuel costs and sometimes hotel bills all out of our hard earned cash.

I believe some clubs have talked about adding a bit extra onto the driver's entry fees for marshal's expenses, but entry fees are high enough as it is for some drivers. Nice of you to offer though