For many coming out to these competitions, marshalling is a new thing. At the StratoCross events, drivers take turns doing marshalling. Why? Because Autocross events like these require a bunch of people out watching & resetting the pylons. To keep event registration fees down and to make these events possible to run, we take turns with those duties!
It can be a little intimidating if it's your first time doing it. Luckly, each station has a group of people to help you out, with at least one that has previous experience doing it.
In the drivers orientations there is lots of info about marshaling, however here are 4 important things to remember to ensure things go smoothly!
1. Get out to your assigned station as quickly as possible! These events have a sharp cutoff at 9pm for on track time, due to the County's noise restrictions put on Stratotech. There is a big fine for going past. The longer it takes for marshals to get out to their stations the less runs everyone gets at these short evening events. This season we will be pre-assigning stations to speed up change overs & shorten the drivers meeting. An email sent out before the event will list which station you're at. Marshal station locations are marked out by orange numbered signs & are listed on the course map. You can drive out to your station, but make sure your car is parked far away from the track edge (40 feet or more). Cars do spin out & you don't want your car in its way!
2. Always check down the track for oncoming cars before resetting a pylon. Pylons can take a hit from a car, you can't. If you have any doubt if you can reset it before the next car gets there, DON’T! Always hustle off the track once you reset it, cars come up faster than you think! If a car runs over a whole bunch of pylons, ask for a course hold before you go to reset them.
3. Pay Attention! A common issue is cones getting hit & not noticed. If you didn't see who hit it, don't sweat it! These are amateur racing events that are more for fun than strict competition. All that means is someone got lucky that time. Reset the cone when safe to do so and carry on. If a cone is already knocked over & the next car hits it again that is not a penalty on that car. Drivers can request reruns only if they slowed down & signaled to a Marshal that the cone is out of place. If you see someone slowing down randomly & pointing at something, more than likely it's a downed cone & they want a rerun.
4. Radio Delay - Whenever radioing in info, press the button & wait one second before talking. Anything you say before that will not get transmitted.
Keep those in mind for your first time out and marshalling will go smoothly.
And remember to hustle out to your station when it's your turn to Marshall!
-Dan
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