Endurance Racing at it’s Best

The next stop on my marshalling career was a little one day meeting at
Brands Hatch to marshal for the Aston Martin Owners Club, it was a
great day not too many entrants though but to see Pre-war cars giving
it the beans round Paddock Hill bend was something to behold. There
were some good battles on the little Indy track and mainly they kept the
cars on the “ black stuff” so nothing too tricky to deal with as far as
marshalling was concerned. I did get to do some more “flagging” and got
some good comments about the way I approached it so I think I’m going
the right way. Your always watching the more experienced marshals and
chatting to get tips, to gain that all important experienced in order to get
up-graded.

Le Mans series 1000kms at Silverstone, I’d been waiting for this meeting
for ages, my passion is F1 but a very very close 2nd is Endurance racing.
The entrants list for this weekend was fantastic. The big boys were there
with the Peugeot’s and Audi’s but also Aston's ,Osellas, Ferrari 430’s
458’sNissans 911’s the lot, a right who’s who’s of Endurance cars.

I arrived on the Thursday evening and got my tent set up, then off
to “the White Horse” in Silverstone village to see who’s about, it’s a great
little pub that supports any kind of racing and its always full of marshals,
teams crew etc on race weekend.
Friday morning up bright and early for sign-on then breakfast then off
to my post. I’d been assigned to Becketts which I was happy with, we
thought there maybe a good chance we’d be busy as this is a tricky piece
of track, quite easy to get wrong if you mess up the exit of “maggots” to
previous bend, but most if not all the drivers on Friday seemed to have
it sorted and we didn't have to much to do, but the treat of the day was
watching the Le Mans Audi’s take Becketts flat, that’s certainly gotta
take some bottle.
After racing Friday night I had a wander down to the Paddock and a close
up look at the machinery, I also managed to meet Allan McNish and grab
an autograph and had my picture taken with the racing legend that is
Dave Richards.

Saturday morning, up early sign-on, I’ve been assigned to the Pit Lane.
Which will be a 1st for me. When I get their there is a certain amount of
waiting about then we get dropped off for a briefing in the new “Wing” at
Silverstone. The briefing is by a Frenchman, who speaks very little
English!! Well it is the Le Mans series so I suppose it was only to be
expected, anyway I happen to understand quite a lot of French so we got
through that ok really.

Then to our posts, I was basically to watch the
cars as they come in for their “pit stops” and ensure that only 2 pit crew
worked on the cars at any one time and that the re-fuelling rig was being
used correctly and that the crew were recording “fuel used” to Race
Control and a myriad of other little bits n pieces. But what a fantastic
place to be, in the pit lane for an endurance race, its noisy its frantic and
the smell of fuel and rubber that every petrol head craves is in
abundance. Truly as one of the CRS Racing pit crew said “living the
dream” It was a great days racing, F3 Euro series, Classic Endurance
racing and to finish off an hour of the current Le Mans cars going
through their paces in practice for the main event on Sunday.
I was not marshalling on Sunday, as out of 3 days off I’m more than happy
to give 2 days up but I NEED 1 day to myself just to spectator and in my
own way “live the dream” Racing doesn't get much better than this, great
track, great cars, fantastic crowd, and decent weather for the most part.

Next stop the Bricar24hr. Wish me luck, endurance racing here I come
…Again.