Still a rumour???

[theracegypsy]

Originally posted by racerkeke
Yeek, that's the week after Long Beach! Arghh. How am I supposed to come up with a single integrated collection of clothes that I can take direct from one to the other? I see a packing nightmare coming on...

keke

I do have a washing machine you know

[Cynic]

I saw one claim that they will be supported by the BTCC, who ar emeant to be at Thruxton that weekend. Presumably that means Barc will be involved with the marshalling if they're going to move the fixture.

[Stephen Green]

BARC have known all along that the BTCC calendar would be moved about if the CART race came off, so no real surprise really.

[Stoowert]

Tippikal! I spend 3 weeks in the land of the taling bush trying to get some hot scoop about CART and Brands, and 3 days after I get back...Oh well!
Rumour has it that the BRSCC could be involved in running the event, hence ASCAR off & BTCC on. No CART volenteer forms are out yet , but I'll be going that route as Irene scans the list of marshals and transfers all the names she recognises to the CART list anyway. There's no difference in the lists, just a comfort thing on her part! Long Beach is April 13th, so don't turn up on the 27th, you'll get run over!
By the way, you only get an invite if you know all the words to "The Star Spangled Banner"!

[pinki]

"Oh hey can you see, by the strawberry lights" or something like that

Will have to check with Don Basins on this one

[Stoowert]

I've just read that it's on the Indy circuit. Wot a bumma! Still, could be worse, it could be on the Mallory oval! (Not that there's anything wrong with Mallory, just in case I've upset some MMMM, Mad Midland Mallory Marshals!)

[Stephen Green]

I believe it's still being handled by BARC Stoowert. Can I get my name on the list please?

[racerkeke]

Mea culpa, Stoo, you're right about there being a week between LB and Brands. I've got the list up on my wall, and in my usual bleary-eyed state I got the wrong line of the list.

Racegypsy, I know you have a washing machine. It's not the washing, it's the fact that Long Beach is usually WARM and England is, ahem, probably NOT in early May. Hey, you're the traveler -- how do you cope with that? One corner of the bag for long johns and another for a swimsuit?

keke

[Dan Friel]

Pretty certain that BARC will be organising - that means Trevor Jackson is likely to be the Chief Marshal. Form an orderly queue (behind me that is)!!

Or will all proper marshallling duties get covered by the pros from the US??

[Stoowert]

They don't have any Pro's on the corners, it takes our attention away from the cars!
They will bring the absolute minimum of officials from the US, but they WILL be laying a land line , so all observers will have to break the habit of a lifetime and act as communicators as well! The corner worker's main functions are:
1) Communicator. He or she is on an open line from race control and is the conduit of information both ways.
2) Turn Marshal/Corner Captain He is as close to an IO as makes no odds. He radiates information from/the communicator to/from the rest of the marshals.
3) Yellow Flagger. Same as us but for a pace car, they use two yellow flags together.
4) The other flagger. Same as us but they wave the white flag for a service vehicle on track, even if it is at the incident. Why? God knows! They also use a waving black as we use a red. The red means STOP! like a hillclimb.
5) Response. These are course/fire marshals but the CART safety team is the only personnel allowed on track during a CART sanctioned race. The other name for this marshal is therefore "Spectator".
They may bring their own pit marshals with them. This is a very specialised job as they all seem to be rather overwieght middle-aged gentlemen in nomex suits, at least 2 sizes too small. They are headed by a poison dwarf who is the son of Satan, I'll say no more!
I'm going to try to get some more information by training day, as they do work slightly differently to us and I think it's up to us to learn their rules rather than they change to suit us.
One things for certain, it'll beat poxy Radicals!

[racerkeke]

Pros, Dan???? Yeah, right. CART observers are about as pro as any other worker but that's it. What we do have is knowledge of how CART does things, and the job our observer crew will have is to get you guys up to speed, so to speak. It's more of a coaching/rulebook kinda thing -- helping people remember to use the right flags in cases where CART SOP differs from what you're used to, etc.

BTW, Stoo, I seem to remember that CART has changed the black flag rule. I think it's now waving red -- where did I hear that? Denver? Nahhh, too early. Mexico City? Yeah, that was it. You may have seen waving reds on the tv coverage of qualifying. But who knows if they'll keep it for '03?

keke

[racerkeke]

Oh, re white flags: used in two ways, to clarify what Stoo said.
1) standing white while slow car is in your corner unless car is less than 1/4-1/2 general pack speed at that location (depends on location, how blind is corner, etc.) in which case it's waving yellow.* New rule '02 from Laguna Seca on. Very useful on street courses.

2) waving white at station with service vehicle(s) like safety crew, tows etc. Backed up with standing whites at the two prior corners. This does not usually get confused with use of white in #1 above as used only during a shutdown (non-race sessions) or full course yellow. As service vehicles move, waving/standing white moves with them. Especially useful in full course yellows when stragglers come out of the pits and go gangbusters trying to catch up with the pack. Wouldn't do to have a straggler blast thru an incident site -- the whites warn them.

keke

[Bryan Degerlund]

At the previous Rockingham races the CART pitlane officials looked after the active side of the pitlane, and took no prisoners -- I witnessed one photographer have his tabard forcibly removed for crossing the pitlane without permission in a quiet period in qualifying! The UK marshals acted as fire marshals, one per car, with 3/4 experienced pit marshals with radios, providing backup, communications, etc. I guess it will be similar at Brands, but with a lot less space!!

[Stephen Green]

Hi Bryan, welcome to Ten-Tenths. See you at training days in a few weeks time!

[ss_collins]

I'm finally training so I can do some fun events, Actually Sevenoaks and dsistrict motor club is doing a marshals training night in a few weeks, I'm sure the club will be able to send a posts worth of marshals. who should we contact as we are Brands local motor club after all.

[theracegypsy]

Welcome Brian, good to see you've joined us. Must be something to do with the Korean air in the system.

Originally posted by racerkeke
Mea culpa, Stoo, you're right about there being a week between LB and Brands. I've got the list up on my wall, and in my usual bleary-eyed state I got the wrong line of the list.

I recon 3 weeks on my list, still waiting for an official one from Irene.

[Quote}
Racegypsy, I know you have a washing machine. It's not the washing, it's the fact that Long Beach is usually WARM and England is, ahem, probably NOT in early May. Hey, you're the traveler -- how do you cope with that? One corner of the bag for long johns and another for a swimsuit?

keke

It's easier as you do more, I now have wardrobes stashed in Toronto, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities! That's a lot of wardrobes

There are some clothes in them too!

Seriously It can be nice in May, warm and wet - there again it can be not so nice, cold and wet.

Can help you with rain gear, white or green, and any amount of pullovers and sweat shirts for most conditions. We don't usually get snow in May, but have a spare pair of snow shoes in UK as well.

[Stuart Hill]

For those of you that haven't heard yet........
just received this from Irene........


"Hello All.......

Well I finally heard the news from the CART office, they have done a complete re-structuring and as it works out....

Out with the Old...........In with the New........

Please contact the CART office for further information. Mr. Chris Kniefel.

Thank you so very much for your years of dedication and support of me in my tenure as Chief Observer. I have been blessed with having each of you in my life and consider you my dear friends.

I wish all of you much success and safe racing......

Please keep in touch,



Irene Chambers"

As another poster on this site has just said to me..........

"Just as you think CART have got it together........................BANG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

(ouch, my foot !!!!!)

Watch this space !!

[theracegypsy]

So where do we go from here?
With both Gary and Irene gone will we be using a CART marshalling structure or something else?

[Stuart Hill]

Bob, all i can say is that I have emailed CART direct plus my contacts in the US. Any info I get will be posted.

[Cynic]

Given that BTCC have now been confirmed in ther support slot, I would imagine they will need Brit marshals for that. I can't see the drivers wanting to rely purely on fast response vehicles and flaggies.

[ss_collins]

I'm sure my club will have loads of willing marshals seeing as we all live locally to brands (sevenoaks and DMC) but who the hell do we volunteer to? Octagon?

[Stephen Green]

BARC will be handling the meeting generally as it's a BTCC meeting as well. I would imagine you would have to volunteer through them assuming you hold a current MSA Marshals Licence. Like all major meetings, be prepared for it to be oversubscribed by volunteer marshals.

[DarrellB]

Stephen

I think that an MSA marshals licence is not a requirement to be allowed to marshal at any meeting.

I would imagine getting in the availability as early as possible would help but since many clubs are still deciding on dates that could prove difficult.

If BARC are the organising club for the event then look on the BARC website (www.barc.net) for contact details of the Marshal's secretary Karen Coddington.

[fastbob]

I think it should be offered to regular Brands marshalls 1st, this may prove unpopular with some but last year thats what happaned at the rock.

[EvilPumpkin]

Well as the holder of a brand spanking new MSA licence which arrived in the post yesterday, count me, the big fella, alien marshal and marshal monkey in - if we can GET in of course - anyone with details on how to volunteer, let me know please!