give marshal's a chance to...

[loose]

Originally Posted by Jez

got my fingers burnt at bury last year by f1 driver,kept revving while trying to turn car over.my request to back off throttle was returned by a barrage of abuse by his dad.wouldnt mind if i was slow due to me being a fatty n all but it was right in front of me and i was a volunteer marshall!!!! i complained to my regional rep only to be shrugged at.later found out he was good friends with said drivers dad.case closed.

I think I saw this. He was in the A final and he crashed into your legs. His car banging into your legs spinning round as you tried to marshall it. He wouldn't come off the throttle, you shouted and his dad told you to "f**cking marshall it then". He didn't just say it either, everyone heard it. He's lucky you were pretty cool about it. I know what I'd have said/done.

Cos he was an F1 'face' I think he thought he could do what he wants. Dont get me wrong, most F1's are v helpful. Most, not all

[Lee Martin]

i actually enjoy marshalling...........

i dont care if a cars revving or not. i marshall it, as i would like to be marshalled if i revved it ( i dont intend to) but i know cars to get blips when upside down...as the arials covered...and if that was my car i would want it marshalled either way....

just be carefull... i tend to try to get to a car before its even rolled over so cant tell if its revving or not!

everyone gets frustrated....

[mole2k]

Yeah I agree with Lee there, I try not to rev while upside down but I do find I sometimes end up doing it when in the middle of a race and I make a silly mistake.

I was told that last night I was revving the car while it was being marshalled during one of the heats, I hadnt even realised I was doing it. (It was my gf told me too as she was marshalling)

[RogerM]

I agree with the revving issue .... as Nick says a sharp blip to attract attention is ok but reving as the guy puts his hands down is not on. I won't marshal a car that is being held on full power though and thus wouldn't expect anybody else to!

I try to be patient before reving shouting a marshal but sometimes when I've been taken out and the marshal hasn't noticed I'll call out, I do try not to.

If you crash then just be patient.

[Zedman]

Several very simply steps to avoid problems:

1. Even if the car is not "revving" assume it will as soon as u put your hand close, its stationary so pick it up carefully in the middle of the body with your soft pink skin clear of the wheels.

2. If you followed step one you didnt get any friction burns so thats it.......

3. If I havnt spotted an upturned car while marshelling I never mind folks shouting "marshall" it helps me, helps the driver and does no harm at all

I love the previous post where the car got flung into a bush for revving, I have only been caught out once, since then I always stick to step one

[flipside]

To be honest, I always notice that the english drivers do a very good job marshalling! (no I'm not english)

Ok someone asked for tips, here's what I try to do :-)

The biggest mistake when marshalling is that people see a car crash, then wait untill it rolled over ten times, just to make sure it will end up on its roof, and then they will start moving towards it. Usually you even see that a car will crash before it actually does. So just get up already, follow the tumbling car and pick it up, saves a lot of time!

Also when you cross a lane to pick up a car, don't keep standing on it while turning the car over, cause you're probably on the ideal line of the track. Just go stand on the lane next to it (usually outside of a corner).

Don't put a car back on track right in front of oncoming traffic...

Watch marshalls close to you. Sometimes another marshall is picking up a car, while another car crashes close to his marshalling point. It might be quicker for you to fetch that 2nd car, even if it's not in your marshalling area. Just make sure you get back quickly. Which is another common mistake, returning to your marshalling position should be as quick as leaving it. Othewise you block the view for other drivers, or you risk not seeing another car crash.

On steep jumps, put cars back on track behind them (or on top), or it will not be able drive over it without turning back to get some initial speed... Especially true on the "wall of death" type of things used so much now :-)

You probably know which marshalls can block your view while driving, so when you go to marshall yourself, try to make sure you sit low or position yourself in a logical way. Especially true for smaller meetings where not all marshall points are fixed and well thought over.

Not saying that I always follow my own rules though :-) Marshalling can be quite tricky, you almost need to be more concentrated than while your driving :-)