My first two days on track.

Easter Monday April 9th

I was on post in plenty of time to familiarise myself with the section of track that our post was responsible for, under the supervision and guidance of a Marshal of over 40 years experience. We walked along the track and found out how slippery it was with the morning dew on it.

Morning was practice/qualifying time, and boy was it fun. The Formula Fords were putting a wheel on the grass and sliding all over the place, it kept the Marshals pretty busy. I had one pretty scary moment though, I was stood on the bank, (roughly level with the top of the tyre wall) on the outside of the apex of Tower corner, when a Lancer Evo 8 came down the straight and clipped the grass under braking from about 120 mph, he shot sideways, just hit the end of the tyre wall and bounced off, sliding sideways right at me at about 50 mph, I remembered my training and didn't move before I knew where the car was headed, luckily it stopped before it reached me but it certainly got the old heart pounding.
The only other incident on my post was when a formula Ford came rolling to a halt after his engine cut out.
The rest of the day was quite pleasant, there were incidents around the track, one or two were pretty spectacular from what we saw of the wreckage. All in all, a very enjoyable day. It was great to be so close to the action.

Wednesday April 11th.
What can I say? this was a very hard day indeed. This was to be a long and tiring day, we signed on and were allocated our posts, we even got a packed lunch (this should have prepared us for what was to come. We got to our post and everything was set up,as the Observer (post Chief) had arrived earlier. He gave us an outline of the day's proceedings and we were ready. The first test session started at 9:00, I was on the green and blue flags, hold the green flag up for the first lap so all the cars know it's clear. After that I was on the blue flag (warning drivers when they were being passed or about to be).
At the end of that 45 minute session we had a 5 minute break, then I was the yellow flag man, warning drivers of any obstacles ahead (I only waved it once during the whole day). This was another 45 minute session then another 5 minute break, as it was for the whole day, until 5:00 pm.
We saw some well known drivers though, Mark Blundell in a Porche Carerra, as was Michael Caine (not the actor) and Tim Harvey. All in all, a very tiring and long day but the flag experience made it very worth while.
My next foray into Marshaling is the big one. The British Touring car event at Rockingham on Sunday April 22nd. That will be real Marshaling at it's toughest I think, we shall see...................