The show must go on ... When motor sport
resumes, as it surely will, things will be different. The trouble is, we don't
know how different. The resumption of rallying may well require a bit more
mental ingenuity than racing. It's one thing to run a motor race behind 'closed doors' at a
circuit, but stage rallying is likely to tax imaginative agility more than 'arena'
based sporting activities.
One thing won't change though, the need
for volunteers and trained marshals. Perhaps this Covid19 business has done us
a wee bit of a favour. We've all got a bit more time on our hands to undertake some
on-line training. If you haven't registered with Motorsport UK as a Marshal
and/or want to get trained up there are a number of options opening up amongst
clubs themselves and the governing body.
Perhaps the easiest way to get involved
is through the Scottish Association of Motor Sport Clubs (SAMSC) who are
running a series of on-line Saturday morning training seminars. You've missed
last month's first lesson, but the next one is this Saturday (9th May) with a
another six or so planned. And if demand exceeds capacity, they will likely
introduce more.
We're awfy lucky up here in that one of
the UK's top motor sports trainers, Rupert Hine, lives and works in Scotland
and is a member of SAMSC, and he's a nice bloke too! Rupert has been
instrumental in designing and delivering a variety of courses across many
varied disciplines.
For more information check it out here:
And for the auld codgers who say they've
been marshalling for umpteen years and don't need training and won't sign up to
the Motorsport UK scheme, well you've got nothing else to do meantime, so why
not give it a try?
Who knows where a career in marshalling
can take you? The pictures were taken at a Marshal's Training Day way back in
2003 somewhere near Inverness and if you look very carefully you may well see
some weel kent faces, including a couple of blokes behind two of the North's
favourite rallies and another who went on to greater things as a 'High Heid
Yin' at Wales Rally GB.
