Single Seaters

[Bob Pearson]

Replying to another thread has suddenly started me thinking.
When being trained, do you recieve any education regarding the easiest and least costly to the owner method of moving stricken single seaters.

[PaulPerkins]

Bob,

I've not read the other thread you're talking about, so apologies if this has been said elsewhere.

The answer: fortunately, no. The job of a marshal is to clear the circuit as quickly and as safely as possible, not to consider the cost of moving a car.

However, as with most marshalling activities, common-sense prevails so if what you're doing will break something then you will try to do it a different way. However, number one priority is safety.

HTH,

Paul.

[Stephen Green]

I agree with Paul. The other thing to bear in mind is that often it's the wrecker guys who do snatch's etc that damange the cars, rather than marshals. Realistically all we can do is try to push the car to a place of safety.

[mark ch]

I take it we're not on about BTCC or Clio meeting where the drivers don't care about damage especially when driving.

At club level we do try to gather the repairable car parts so the drivers can rebuild their cars.... Ref Classic thunder at rockingham the imfamous mini wheel arch.

[DarrellB]

The problem with providing training for single seaters is the availability of a suitable car to use at training days. You can understand that it is not possible to throw a single seater into the scenery or gravel and then move it as can be done with a saloon. (having witnessed some snatch training at Silverstone where an old sierra was constantly thrown into the Copse gravel by an enthusuastic volunteer) so much of the training is carried out on the job. Most snatch crews are very experienced and will try to minimise the damage but as has been said the locations of towing points on single seaters are limited. The best method for snatch is used at Silverstone which is the JCB forklifts which can lift cars clear of the gravel. other than that strops have to be placed as best as possible around suspension members that unfortunately aren't always designed for that type of loading plus being dragged through gravel can often cause further damage.

[EvilPumpkin]

Where an unfamiliar car type arrives at the circuit, most marshals will wander over to take a look - and maybe ask a few questions. In general, if we have time and it's safe to do so, we will ask the driver during the incident if there's anything we should know about the car.

I don't know any marshal that would deliberately damage a car - or ignore a driver's instruction where it is safe to do so. However, I'm with the guys on this - safety comes first. All it takes to fix a car is parts and money. The same cannot be said for marshals. Or drivers for that matter.

[Mark Mitchell]

On a slightly different note......I've noticed at training days over the years (Can only speak for Oulton & Donny) that "Incident" training always assumes the "Worst Possible" scenario's....eg car completely wrecked/upside down/t-boned etc.
I have never witnessed marshals being show how to deal with a simple "Pull Off" and how to/where to
put the car in the safest place. Nor have I ever seen (In Training) how to assist with recovery.

[EvilPumpkin]

We covered that at ours this year.

[Mark Mitchell]

Originally posted by EvilPumpkin
We covered that at ours this year.

I think this is generally a good practice and should be part of all incident handling sessiions

[EvilPumpkin]

Yeah I think so - I found it useful definitely. the only thing I would say is that although you can cover some general things about single seater cars, it's very unrealistic to expect any marshal to know everything about every kind of car - which for some reason, drivers seem to think we should.

[Logrence]

On the job is the best way to learn stuff - I've learned so much more in one meeting than I could ever learn going to all the training days across the country.

[DarrellB]

Part of the skills required from marshals is the ability to adapt and use their common sense when faced with diverse situations. Unfortunately you can't teach people common sense!!

[EvilPumpkin]

Why is it called "common sense" anyway? It really seems to be rather rare!

Logrence, I wouldn't argue with your comments. Pretty much everyone learns as they do - but a bit of basic training before you're stuck out in a gravel trap can't hurt.

[Logrence]

But common sense and an experienced guy on the post with you is all you really need - I haven't learned anything in training days that I couldn't have read on the internet or in a book.

[EvilPumpkin]

Well everyone is different. I still feel that some practical experience in a less hectic environment is a good thing to have.