Cause I’m a Wanderer

Sometimes as a marshal it is great to have a change of scenery and mix up what race tracks we are at in the same weekend. It helps to keep us on our toes but, more importantly, it adds another string to our bows and develops our abilities.

This Bank Holiday weekend was no different and it became a busy one both on and off the track. It is necessary to put in the leg work whilst marshalling, and I’m not just talking about getting to an incident! We have to take it upon ourselves to drive from circuit to circuit and be ready for a different day than the one we have just had.

So with two meetings on over the weekend, one at Oulton Park and one at Anglesey, it was always going to be a bit difficult to split ourselves in two and cover both events. This meant a bit of time management and our love for the sport needed to come into play and shine through to get the most out of the weekend.

There were two options when it came to marshalling over the weekend; the first was to do both days of the British GT’s at Oulton Park, Saturday and Monday, and head over to Anglesey for the BARC meeting on Sunday. Or marshal both days of the BARC meeting at Anglesey on the Saturday and Sunday, then make the trip to Oulton Park to lend a hand on Monday.

Either way, the marshals that did their best Dion (as googled by Jilly McNeil) impression and wandered from race track to race track turned a good weekend into a great weekend. This variety also provides a variety of experience that every marshal needs to develop their skills and keep themselves on their toes.

So, whilst we all sang along to Dion’s greatest hit, thanks to me putting the tune in everyone’s head, I noticed that not many weekends throw up the opportunity to do some flagging in a multi-class event such as the CNC heads, to then dealing with a car that has rolled, such as the VW Sirocco that crashed at Knickerbrook on the Monday of the GT’s.

A weekend that started over in Anglesey for me, provided me with a good weekend of marshalling; flagging at Post 15 allowed me to enjoy the racing and follow the close battles that were going on in every race. A change of post for the Sunday; this time I was flagging at School, a corner that I had never been posted on before which gave me a different view of the same racing and another style of flagging because of the differences in the corners.

After the racing on Sunday, a quick pack up and a road trip to Oulton Park got me ready for a completely different day that lay ahead on Monday. A day as an incident marshal turned my already great weekend into a brilliant one. A busy day at Knickerbrook, including a VW Sirocco that took a tumble, made me realise I had made the right decision to marshal at two different circuits in one weekend and I would highly recommend it to everyone.