what would be the next role you'd like to try out? and whats the worst?

[NewYankee01]

id like to reach flaggie grade, thing id most like to try is passenger in safety car and the worst job would be answering the phones from the post chiefs. it would be a busy job, probably is good but out of all the officials youd catch the least of all the action and be in some room maybe race control too busy reporting to people to do anything

[The Fat Clerk]

According to those that have sat there, you wouldn't want to be the person in the passenger seat sitting next to me when I'm driving

[ascarracinguk]

well after doing incident for all these years im mixing it up and doing some flagging this year....have to say I LOVE IT!!!!...freshened marshalling up for me to be honest, not that i didnt like doing incident, but variety is the spice of life as they say...so im flagging at oulton and doing incident at donington.....its a nice balance!...

....what would i want to do next? i dont know really...i suppose IO would make sense in some ways, but then im perfectly happy doing flagging and incident for the next few year.....i have enough responsibility over people during the week...last thing i want is that at the weekend too!

worst thing??? fire car or rescue unit for me....never tried them and never want to LOL!!!...full admiration to the guys that do those roles, but i want to be trackside watching racing cars, not stuck in the back of a meat wagon with 4 other blokes!

[mattt]

Well I've done pits/startline with the occasional meeting doing assembly for four years, got upgraded up to experienced specialist.

And then on Sunday, i went out on the back doing incident and i plan to do some more of that over the next couple of seasons along side my pits/startline.

And i don't know what would be the worst duty for me, i have to say i never particularly enjoyed assembly though.

[Kathy Standing]

Think I'd like to try scrutineering, looks like it could be really interesting. The worst, probably race control - not that I wouldn't like the work, I just never answer my phone, would have to get all the posts to text their incidents in!

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

worst thing??? fire car or rescue unit for me....never tried them and never want to LOL!!!...full admiration to the guys that do those roles, but i want to be trackside watching racing cars, not stuck in the back of a meat wagon with 4 other blokes!

Rescue isn't that bad, chase the starts is a good laugh if you're the driver and you get a great view of the first corner action Then there's usually a good view when you're parked up and can get out the van. We usually only load up and sit in the van when a priority radio message comes through, so as long as you're close to the vehicle you can get out and have a good view. Of course when there's "business" then it does get intense and very serious.

[Justin Moran]

I have reached my goal of I/O but still enjoy the other aspects such as pitlane on occasion and flagging too, I have been lucky in the fact that I was asked to be the ACO Stewards runner a few years back at the 1000kms of Silverstone, a real eye-opener to the workings of a race meeting! I do Post Chief on occasion too, although I have absolutely NO plans to pursue it as a grade for quite a while yet!

[chezza]

The phones is an important job, it can be busy it can be quite quiet (depends on whats on track), the positions of the phones vary circuit to circuit - at Brands your at one end of race control, but are in the thick of it, at Silverstone (in the current race control...who knows with the new one) you are in a separate room, but it has a big sliding window which opens on to race control. Having done race phones a couple of times it was very enjoyable.

Flagging is one thing that I don't enjoy and sitting in a rescue unit doesn't really grab me either.

[pauln]

A Race Control alternative, at least at Silverstone, is running the computer log. As things happen/called in on the radios they get recorded on a database which can be referred to later. This works in parallel with the written record the race phones operators keep as the Post Chiefs call into them so that pretty much everything gets caught by at least one system.

It's an interesting way of experiencing a race meeting and I'd certainly recommend that everybody tries to spend at least one day in RC at some point so that you get to know what the pressures are there, what the clerks are looking for and how everything comes together.

To answer the original question, I've done my flagging (for upgrade) and a day on start line. Not done Pits yet, or Assembly, so they're next to check out. Don't think I'm cut out for Rescue or Scrutineering.

[Woolley]

I don't think there's anything left that I want to do that I haven't tried (marshalling-wise, that is!) I'm not a very good observer, , sat with rescue or KED teams on occasions which is OK but not really an ambition, and not bothered about pit lane and no wish to go to race control or clerks side. Quite content to be flag or incident, happy to do I/O but no wish to permanently be one and (mostly) enjoy being Chief at one venue without any ambition to do a similar role elsewhere.

Worst job for me would be assembly. I've been in the safety car on Rockingham oval and I wouldn't mind doing that again.

[chezza]

Ooh yes Paul that looked quite an interesting system. I'd almost forgotten my day in RC on ES2 that was good and interesting too.

[MagnetON]

Driving one of the medical cars for British SuperBikes was great fun.

[numbersix]

Originally Posted by NewYankee01

id like to reach flaggie grade, thing id most like to try is passenger in safety car and the worst job would be answering the phones from the post chiefs. it would be a busy job, probably is good but out of all the officials youd catch the least of all the action and be in some room maybe race control too busy reporting to people to do anything

Good on yer mate, for wanting to try new things! I recommend everyone to consider going beyond their 'normal' duty and try new things.

Every new duty I've tried in marshaling, I initially didn't want to do. In one case I was virtually dragged into doing it because the thought of it was bad enough. I was wrong on all counts. I've loved it all.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'm any good at anything. But it's fun just the same.

Great attitude, NewYankee, well done.

[Ubique]

As I've reached my initial goal of becoming an I/O and didn't fancy going for PC just yet (I'm still way too young lol!) I decided to try something a bit different and so I am now training to be a Pits/Startline Specialist and should hopefully get my upgrade soon.

It's a pretty great situation to be honest as I regularly I/O at Donington and so get my fix of Incidents and for when I want a break from running an incident team or if I'm visiting another circuit I can do the Specialist thing. I always think the more strings you have to your bow the better as it always means that you have choices and by alternating duties my marshalling never gets stale.

For me the absolute worst thing would be any job in Race Control! Being stuck in an office away from the cars would just drive me crazy.

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by NewYankee01

thing id most like to try is passenger in safety car and the worst job would be answering the phones from the post chiefs.

Having done pretty much everything covered by track and specialist (except chief flag), I'd actually quite like to have a go at phones, or something else in R/C, if nothing else just to try it. I'd quite like a go at S/C observer, at some point, too. I've only done assembly for a full day once, on my very first day, and helped out with the odd bit twice since (see for e.g. the current Britcar thread), so maybe a bit more of that too.

[Pete Howarth]

Safety car observer can be boring, depending on the circuit you don't get much of a view of the racing. Can be fun if called. Race phones is usually busy, and when something big happens it's very busy, you also probably know more about whats happening around the circuit than anyone else. I've done just about every non licensed duty at race meetings. I'd like to do Rescue and one day train as a CoC, I don't want to be a scrutineer, that's to close to the day job.

[HairyDJ]

And when you've done all those jobs, try switching to a new event altogether. Bikes, Karts, Speed, Hill Climbs, RallyCross, Rally (airfield or forest) can all use your current skills and probably enhance them a bit along the way.

Always worth trying a different duty - either to confirm that you prefer what you currently do, or just to appreciate what it involves for others.

[CombeMarshal]

What about starter? you get a great sense of power turning those red lights off!!
S/C observer can be boring, but at combe it now leads the green flag lap round (halves the time they take if you leave them to it!)
what about Snatch, if you can drive a JCB? or driver sign on?
And I enjoy answering the phones/ being chief IO.
And then there is always the Chief Marshal role, where I let eager Marshals play with my balls!

[M Greenslade]

Worst job, Post Chief, best job Post Chief, you just can't please some people........

Bladders.

[Alan Green]

Good thread, positivity about marshalling duties, like it

I started off doing just the pitlane <some> years ago, mostly following the BTCC, and it wasn't until I went to a 'new' circuit a few meetings in and they put me on post that I tried incident (think it was Snetterton that did that, so thanks!). That led to moving quickly along to becoming a flaggie.

I'm at a stage now where I care little for the grading process, but do what I know I can do, and concentrate on flagging to the best of my abilities. I especially enjoy endurance races where I can try to read and follow the flow of the race, and the battles in the classes, etc. Much more absorbing to me than a crash-fest sprint race (ahem, btcc). I have no intention of moving up a grade to post chief, but don't mind doing the reports and the calling when I get asked to.

I'll do incident occasionally to keep my hand in, especially useful for when I go on foreign trips where you are rotated between flag / comms / response jobs, and will need to know the difference between a fire bottle and a yellow flag, and what to do with each.

Then occasionally I'll do pit lane (Don & Silv) and fire car (Mallory). Again, good variation, keeps things interesting. Loved doing chief pits at the HSCC at Donington a couple of weeks ago, but was bored senseless in the pits at VSCC Silverstone earlier in the year!

The only area I would like to get involved with which I haven't managed yet is training. I hate seeing bad flagging, but with more multitasking it's inevitable that people will be flagging with very little experience.

Otherwise, race control and assembly don't appeal to me much, and my technical knowledge isn't really satisfactory enough for scrutineering!

Whatever job you do in the marshalling team, enjoy it

[Peter Harding]

Thanks for the info - I now have one list of people who I can assign to Phones when I'm short and another list of those who will hate phones who I can assign when they **** me off.

Hey - I didn't put those asterisks in - ****** sensors!

[gravel_monkey]

i would love to do safety car either as passenger or driver, judgin by comments from people who have been in my car though on trackdays i may not be allowed incase i bin it

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by Peter Harding

Thanks for the info - I now have one list of people who I can assign to Phones when I'm short

Damn, can I withdraw my comment - lol.

Seriously tho, in case I never made it clear in the past, I'm always happy to help where I'm most needed. Seeya in a couple of weeks

[chezza]

Safety and pace car drivers need to have a race licence, usually equivalent to the minimum requirement for the race they are leading.

[Peter Harding]

Originally Posted by chezza

Safety and pace car drivers need to have a race licence, usually equivalent to the minimum requirement for the race they are leading.

Used to be the case but I think they have now "dumbed" that down to "someone with experience of circuit driving". That opens it up to those who "used" to have a licence or even Rescue/Firetruck people etc.

Someone will, I'm sure, confirm or contest that.