{"id":28928,"date":"2014-07-07T19:11:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T18:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/marshal-training\/"},"modified":"2019-07-21T02:06:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T01:06:09","slug":"marshal-training","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/may-2010\/110\/marshal-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Rigorous training days mean british marshals are the best around<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no secret how highly regarded British marshals are around the world. A group was flown out to Abu Dhabi to oversee the inaugural Formula 1 race last year; others have attended GP2 and V8 Supercar events. This is no surprise when you consider the tale of one local marshal assigned to a group of Brits at a foreign race, who disappeared to the loo during the first lap\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>On a wintry Sunday I went to a marshal training day at Oulton Park and, despite the fact that two inches of snow had fallen overnight, more than 220 people were there, ready to volunteer for a job that is unpaid and involves giving up your weekends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s part of the British way of life,\u201d says Andy Holley, a training co-ordinator for the British Motorsport Marshals\u2019 Club Northern Region. \u201cIt\u2019s all voluntary and I\u2019m slightly taken aback by the numbers we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I must admit that before attending the training day, I thought becoming a marshal was simply a case of being given some flags, a slightly stale lunch and a fetching orange jumpsuit. This couldn\u2019t be further from the truth \u2013 apart from the jumpsuit, which isn\u2019t very fetching at all\u2026 To become an entry-level track marshal you need to do at least 10 days of marshalling, have an assessment and attend a training day. The studies then continue whether you want to be an incident officer, post chief or an examining post chief. <\/p>\n<p>In the UK we tend to take our marshals for granted, but we shouldn\u2019t. Type \u2018Tetsuya Ota\u2019s crash at Fuji\u2019 into YouTube for an example of bad marshalling \u2013 but beware, it\u2019s not easy viewing. However, the driver did survive \u2013 and successfully sued the circuit for a reported $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>The marshals at the Oulton training day ranged from helicopter pilot instructors to dustbin men. Ian Lewis, a rescue unit marshal, explained the attraction of the job: \u201cWe\u2019re all frustrated racing drivers. We either haven\u2019t got the money, the opportunity or the expertise to actually race, or we love the sport so much that we want to do something to help. It\u2019s one or the other. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve never been short of marshals here at Oulton, but other circuits around the country have struggled and in the not-too-distant past they\u2019ve had to cancel meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I promised I wouldn\u2019t say this, but\u2026 we really wouldn\u2019t be able to hold any race meetings if it weren\u2019t for our marshals. And what great marshals we have. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":749,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,195,115462,364,581],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121601],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/28928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/28928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248805,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/28928\/revisions\/248805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28928"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=28928"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=28928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}