Expect the unexpected?

[Asp]

As a mere (currently) spectator I've seen some strange things:
eg. The track repairs taking place during the race (Sebring this year)
eg. The V8 Brute with the hot exhaust taking to the dry grass: I'm sure you can figure out what happened!

Now, you guys (and gals) probably have more experience than most of these strange-but-true happenings - anything interesting?

[MagnetON]

Oh oh.... I can feel the "war stories" coming on....

[Flaggie]

15 HQ Holdens trying to "become one" with each other at Phillip Island was pretty strange but true..... But also extremely funny at the time.

My personal strange but true one the whole course being asked to put out a waved White flag cause SOMEWHERE out there a fire service vehicle was fighting a car fire. That was pretty weird.

[micaz43]

Italian Porsche meeting at Donington, and every single car had a map of the circuit with pretty looking arrows to show them which was the way round, and some still managed to muck things up

[wickedwitch]

The first time this happened it was pretty unexpected, but now .... well..., if I had euro for every time a driver has stopped at my flagpost to ask for directions...

[theracegypsy]

so ASp, as you see we ALWAYS expect the unexpected. It's what makes the job interesting, fun, and sometimes dangerous!

If you are currently spectating, come and join us. You will get free tickets to races, spend more per year on coming than you ever did just watching, get serious adgrenaline highs, and learn to run for your life.

You will also make friends for life and have the best view in the house

[EvilPumpkin]

Um if we expect the unexpected then it's not unexpected anymore so how can we expect it......

*boof*

Oh bugger - my brain just imploded.

[Brushpusher]

if the unexpected cannot be expected what can we expect next?

Dohhhhhhh!!

[Stephen Green]

Now I am confused

Come on asp, join the ranks of marshals and be 'tango'd'

[neilwaynesmith]

I know I am not the only one who has experienced this but:
Donington National Circuit. Post 24, fogarty's in (in what?)
The assembly area is at the bottom of the GP loop, the cars go W.D. up to the cage and turn left towards Goddards.

Except this particular field of French and Italian Alfa drivers decided to turn right and accelerate rapidly towards the Dunlop bridge...

[flaggie1]

The best one ive had was being asked to rake a gravel trap so it would look good for TV. Now is this Motor Racing or golf.

"FOUR"

[Grahambangers]

At my first ever meet as a marshall, a Rally Cross at Croft I had two incidents of the unexpected.
1) A modified driver asked me which side the pits was as he lined up on the dummy grid. Now I may have been new but even I gathered it was the same side as the buildings. Just a guess.
2) The mini's had been qualifying etc all day and then one particular experienced driver requested to know how many laps in the mini final. The same as always I suggested. He finished eventually after celebrating a win on laps 2, 3, 5 etc or is he still trying to finish.
Amanda aka Grahambangers care in the community nurse.

[TwoSheds]

Originally posted by Grahambangers

1) A modified driver

Resist, I must resist, no I can't sorry,

In what way was the driver modified...

[theracegypsy]

in an un-expected way , of course

[neilwaynesmith]

I would suggest from the fact that he couldn't find the pits that his vision was modified.

You know, in the same way engines are tuned for top end and lose out on bottom end, perhaps his vision was tuned to tunnel setting, meaning he could see perfectly straight ahead but at the expense of peripheral vision... hang on, wouldn't that explain half the drivers in the BTCC?

[Flagman]

How about
VSCC driver stopping to ask what the yellow flag meant...

VSCC driver asking us if he had to pay for the armco barrier that his 4.5 litre Bentley had comprehensivly demolished.

And one from Mrs Flagman -
VSCC driver visiting Donington Park race control to ask if they could ring round to se if anyone had found a pair of trousers out on the circuit

[scorch]

it's a funny old life...
I have found a pair of blue Y-fronts on the circuit.

As for radio messages, base to cheif t*t's (instead of chief pits)
and base from post 1 we have a glider landing!!

[Peter Scillitoe]

Originally posted by scorch
it's a funny old life...
I have found a pair of blue Y-fronts on the circuit.

I wondered where I had lost them

[Flagman]

One from the Gold Cup meeting at the weekend

XK120 spins onto grass exiting Old Hall - driver restarts engine but then proceeds to sit there looking round inside of car - after a brief conversation with the first marshal to arrive, the said marshal also starts looking round inside of car - eventually marshal find the drivers specs that have flown off in the spin and driver rejoins.

[serverbrainfailure]

Rallycross at blyton this year - I saw a peugeot 205 roll OVER THE TOP of another 205 that was ALREADY rolling...!!!!!!
I nearly had a brown adrenaline moment & I was on the next post up!
(both drivers were fine, in fact one continued to race until the red flag...)

[EvilPumpkin]

That's a definite waved blue and yellow moment!

[Superflid]

I have been lurking a while, contemplating the merits of becoming a marshal. After reading about what has made some of you cut down on your marshalling, I might be contemplating a bit longer!
Anyway, the thing is I am a wheelchair user and realise that I would be less useful than someone with fully-functioning legs! I have read a great deal about Steve Tarrant's accident and recovery (Saw him in the pits at Donington the other day, would have spoken but he was in conversation), and while it is obvious that there are jobs I could do, Steve's previous experience would have been a great advantage that I don't have.
I'll try to stop rambling, does anyone have any advice for a racing-mad, wheelchair-bound nutter with spare time on his hands?

[Maisie]

How about offering your services to the 2CV racing club as the safety car? Seriously, though, I'm sure any event would be happy to have you doing duties, say, in the pitlane, although I'll leave it to our marshalling members to clarify that.

[Piglet]

Superflid, As I understand it there are no regulations that prevent wheelchair users from being in a pitlane. Having said that I'm not sure that it would be particularly easy to act as a pit marshal from a wheelchair. I know of one pit lane marshal who has limited mobility but he has enough movement to get out of a situation if it all goes pearshaped and a car comes towards him. It may depend on what level of mobility you have?

The other problem is that as I'm sure you are already aware, race circuits are on the whole very wheelchair unfriendly. The one circuit that is much more enlightened is Rockingham, certainly both the Race Control building and Race Administration should be accessible. If you are fancied doing an "inside" role you may find that they would be pleased to have an extra pair of hands to do race logs, phones, cameras etc. - you get a great view of the racing from Race Control at Rockingham (and you don't get wet when it rains - suits me fine!). Race meetings at Rockingham are usually run by BARC, it might be worth making contact with them to see what they say.

I'm not sure about the other "outside" marshalling disciplines - I would imagine that access is going to be the biggest problem - perhaps someone else can comment?

[Superflid]

All advice gratefully accepted. The 2CV idea is worth thinking about, my wheelchair is "slightly" modified and has seen 47 mph (so far).
Agree about access probs, I rarely go to Mallory due to pit access. Rockingham is fairly close to me, so worth a try!
Thanks again. Any more, or are all the marshals in tents tonight?