Abusing marshalls

[budfish]

There was a bit of marshal abusing yesterday from the rostrum. I know we all get caught in the moment and think we are the only driver on the track that matters when chasing a win.that I can appreciate(not yesterday though)

BUT... I was on the rostrum next to a driver shouting his head off at a Marshall to sit down. I didn't like it and it put me off (not blaming bad result on it)I think it was out of order if your having a bad round your fault or not let's not ruin it for everyone else please!!

ALSO ... While I was marshalling the a final I noticed a driver come off the rostrum with issues with his car about lap 9 he then proceeded to use the track infront of the rostrum to diagnose or just to have a play then as the buzzer went he was trying to get it over the line causing other people still racing problems. I found this a poor practice and totally inconsiderate to put it mildly.

Bury metro is a club that wants to encourage new members and their families to join up and become decent racers who have respect for the club and other drivers.members or not

So please a little more tolerance and consideration abusing marshalls will not be tolerated no matter what.

(ps there is also southport if you don't like bury metro or it's members)

Best intentions

Buds

[burgie]

yeah, thats the idea - if your club members/racers are behaving badly, send 'em to another club! RC nimbyism!

Why not, instead of venting your feelings on a forum after the event, speak to those drivers who are doing wrong and explain the problems your perceive they are causing at or around the time they are doing it?

It may be that they new to the hobby or are just so caught up "in the moment" that they don't realise they are causing problems - speaking to them in calm, measured tones would probably do the world of good.

[BillyB]

Yeah that was a arseholes trick budfish, end of the day there's kids there and its not regional or pro its just a regular meet. I had the same at preston the other week when i was marshalling i just simply said lets take it outside he soon shut up!! ha ha!! (maybe i swore a little back at him), if ya crash it your own fault and deal with calmy, who's with me!!! :thumbsup:

[danDanEFC]

Someone in my heat (Southport) got a bit excited/upset at when their car wasnt instantly marshalled yesterday.

I pointed out that they shouldnt have crashed and after the race the the racer apologised to the marshall and to me.

Which I think is the way to do it. Though not everyone is happy 'telling off' other racers.

If the person is bigger than me I tell Eric to tell them off.

[bodgit]

You need to sort it out at club level. Build a set of trapdoors into the rostrum . Any abuse hit the lever. Sorted

[budfish]

yeah, thats the idea - if your club members/racers are behaving badly, send 'em to another club! RC nimbyism!

Why not, instead of venting your feelings on a forum after the event, speak to those drivers who are doing wrong and explain the problems your perceive they are causing at or around the time they are doing it?

It may be that they new to the hobby or are just so caught up "in the moment" that they don't realise they are causing problems - speaking to them in calm, measured tones would probably do the world of good.

Thanks for the critasisom.one of the offenders is a very experienced driver who I think has sponsorship in one way or another .shouldn't he exersise some self control and not ruin it for others.
I told the Marshall to go and have a word with the driver and sort it but the Marshall is new to racing and felt slightly intimidated.

I'm with Billy on this if it was me I would have had a word with the driver if he was still irate it would be taken to the carpark!!

As with my last post best intentions

Budd

[Chrislong]

Thanks for the critasisom.one of the offenders is a very experienced driver who I think has sponsorship in one way or another .

All the more reason to name and shame, they ought to be setting a good example.

[tisher]

I heard the guy shouting sit down to the marshall in the race must say it was pretty off putting :( He was going on a bit

[Si Coe]

I told you yesterday where I stood on the subject, and that I don't really want to stand for it. In the case it was especially worrying as we had a large number of junior racers present many of who where pitting directly by the rostrum. This was not an appropriate example to them.
My view is that if a marshal isn't either:

A Actively failing to marshal your car or
B Dangerously located

there is no need to yell at them.

A. Means your car is stopped dead and the marshal hasn't spotted or responded. Don't bother yelling marshal if your car hasn't even stopped crashing yet because I'm not turning it till the wheels stop. Likewise, I'm not crossing a solid stream of traffic for you, so except you will have to wait.

B. Means standing somewhere they might get hit, or cause others to get hit (blocking a corner). The marshal in question was not doing either and like Buds I was near the yelling driver but had no issues seeing at all, so fail to see what his problem was.

Obviously with Bury being your club, you get to decide, but if you want I will police this. If club members aren't happy, action must be taken - however it must be agreed first.

[WHITTLER555]

OK, it was me.

I will own up and say that I was trying to get "captain lip" to crouch down as he was stood upright in the centre of the track and from where I was stood on the far right of the rostrum I could not see the corner before the two jumps in the middle nor the the actual two jumps I was trying to navigate over which was a fairly fundamental part of the track.

I shouted three times for the guy in the blue T shirt to sit down but obviously he could not hear me. Strangley enough the young lad who replaced him in the last two heats crouched down with no problem.

At no time did I swear at him it just seemed obvious to me not to stand up in the middle of the track when marshalling, but maybe I should not have assumed he would realise this.

I was wrong to shout out but before you castigate me on a public forum lets balance the books a little and take a look at what i did at yesterdays meeting.

First round, young lad with the red truck had his wheel fall off, I ran onto the track picked up all the pieces and fixed the truck and off he went again.

One of you guys was quizzing me about set up on a Lazer of which i don't have much knowledge but I hope I gave helpful and constructive tips on how i thought it would handle better, he seemed happy.

Captain Lip asked me for a replacement servo horn so he could keep racing, so I sourced one from my mate and he carried on racing. I then gave him advice on where to get a proper metal horn so he could fit and forget.

Round four, Roger got fed up of trying to get your club members out to marshall and I quote " give me a shout when you want to start racing" and then disappeared out of the room leaving no one running race control.

Who stepped up to get the racing started and then ran most of round four chasing marshalls and talking to kids who didn't know which heat they were in??

The finals - The AMB system went down so I pulled out my soldering iron and 240 volt transformer and with Stu and Roger fixed it so you could have your finals.

So yes, I shouted at someone to sit down in a race, there was more than that going on with talking and banter on the rostrum during the race and finals never mind having dancing Jonny Gibbon stood next to me:thumbsup:

My apologies if I upset anyone at Bury club, it was not my intention but I hope some of my good deeds made up for it.

Damian

[DCM]

Disturbing thread this. It as bad enough the marshal abuse, but the comments that you would shout back and be willing to escalate to violence is just wrong. Yes the driver is in the wrong, but that doesn't allow you to be verbally threatening back.

[woOdy]

Thanks for the critasisom.one of the offenders is a very experienced driver who I think has sponsorship in one way or another .shouldn't he exersise some self control and not ruin it for others.
I told the Marshall to go and have a word with the driver and sort it but the Marshall is new to racing and felt slightly intimidated.

I'm with Billy on this if it was me I would have had a word with the driver if he was still irate it would be taken to the carpark!!

As with my last post best intentions

Budd

I wasnt in your final? LOL

[tisher]

Fair play for owning up it was a bit distracting whilst the race was on but at the end of the day we all get a bit upset when things aren't going well in a race from time to time I think with the way the heats were yesterday there was going to be a few marshalling problems there was a few lesser experienced drivers there marshaling faster heats

[budfish]

Disturbing thread this. It as bad enough the marshal abuse, but the comments that you would shout back and be willing to escalate to violence is just wrong. Yes the driver is in the wrong, but that doesn't allow you to be verbally threatening back.

Just checked through the thread there is no reference to violence what so ever untill you mentioned it please read the thread and let it sink in and register before you put your 2penerth in.

If your read somthing then imagine it to be somthing else that's your twisted mind not anyone elses

Thanks for your input

[DCM]

Yeah that was a arseholes trick budfish, end of the day there's kids there and its not regional or pro its just a regular meet. I had the same at preston the other week when i was marshalling i just simply said lets take it outside he soon shut up!! ha ha!! (maybe i swore a little back at him), if ya crash it your own fault and deal with calmy, who's with me!!! :thumbsup:

Bud, whether tongue in cheek or not, but as it was used WITH swearing. We have had this issue also, and I guess most clubs see it at some point or another.

[Chrislong]

DCM, BillyB is talking about Preston club - your in Bury section. Two different clubs.

[DCM]

I wasn't talking about the 'specific issue' at the start of the thread, more the underlying tone of the conversation, as we have had similar at our club. Just an observation Chris.

[Chrislong]

I read it differently.... soo..... wanna take it outside? :lol:

[Si Coe]

Damian.

I'm well aware of the benefits of your being there! Actually I really couldn't hear Roger from where I was otherwise I'd have taken over race control myself.
Just stay a bit calmer on the rostrum please! The hearing in my right ear only came back this morning :thumbsup:

Anyway - just so as you know it wasn't you. Well ok it was you, but thats not really what Bud's is on about. This was your first 'offense' but not the first time this has happened at Bury and its why people reacted as they have. Its a rather concerning trend.
Bury prides itself on being a close and friendly club, I mean we even let Scousers race there, but some recent visitors have been a little bullish.

As it happens Damian you are more than welcome back, especially since we've found that voice of yours is rather useful behind race control!



BUT....
If club members want a proper 'no shouting' rule you can have one. However I've considered this and I'd rather not be the one to enforce it after all. I spend my week telling off kids, I'd rather not spend Sundays doing the same to adults.

[DCM]

Peace and love man.... peace and love!! lol

[Si Coe]

BTW - I'm waiting for Shanks to stumble by this thread thinking its about something a whole lot more kinky.......

[Dudders]

Recent round at Taplow drivers were told they would be docked a lap if they shouted out - rather pleasent meeting.

We all try our best at marshalling and sometimes we all get it wrong.

Wholly agree that a marshall mid track is pretty pants and always an issue.

Neil

[Stu]

I was wrong to shout out but before you castigate me on a public forum.............

Disturbing thread this.......

Not half as disturbing as the thought of seeing Damo get 'castigated' in public. I'm not actually sure what it is, but it sounds like something I don't wanna clap eyes on too quickly.

:cry:

[Si Coe]

Truth is the problem wasn't really the marshal or the driver here - the problem was the rostrum.

It was too small for the 10 of us (some of us are rather 'large') so we kept elbowing each other all race, which frayed tempers, and positioned badly for viewing some parts of the track.
And I have to take the blame for positioning the rostrum where it was as I helped assemble it- I was trying to avoid the basketball hoop we normally have to duck under to get to the rostrum!

[Si Coe]

Not half as disturbing as the though of seeing Damo get 'castigated' in public. I'm not actually sure what it is, but it sounds like something I don't wanna clap eyes on too quickly.

:cry:

WOW Stu, you beat Shanks to it!

Nothing that exciting.

I'd have just had him write out 200 times 'I must not shout on the rostrum' and make him lose his breaktime.

[Stu]

It's a bit of a daft thread IMO. Since the dawn of time we have all been a bit shouty at racing, we all do it.

'Let him he is without sin cast the first stone'? Something like that - I think it's a quote from some book or other...

You should go 8th racing - them guys live to go to racing just to have a fight!

[Si Coe]

Of course its a daft thread. Buds is just trying to deflect attention away from how badly beaten he got yesterday. Its all Damian's fault for 'distracting him'.

[shanks]

BTW - I'm waiting for Shanks to stumble by this thread thinking its about something a whole lot more kinky.......


Wo wo wo.....ive missed this

abusing marshalls? are there any fit one's then? i know rob looks allright in lip-stick........7 or 8 pinter maybe?

Gotta love Bury forum though.....it the only one that has much going on halve the time :thumbsup:

Missed racing and the lads over the past couple of months but ive been working away all week so weekends i cant justify leaving my 5yr old boy for a full day out of the 2 i have :(

[The Bod]

I do think that marshalling all round yesterday could have had some improvements. As Roger said, there did seem to be some laziness towards marshalling. The concerns/improvements I have from yesterday are;-

1) Maybe we should use the numbered cones again so that we know which marshall should be at what location. These cones should be positioned at locations to assist in marshalling but not to avoid racers line of vision in technical areas.

2) All racers should be reminded that if they have a broken car, that does not give them an excuse to sit at their pits and start on the rebuild rather than marshalling the following. This seemed to be quite a common practice yesterday in the 4wd heats.

3) Only racers should marshall. I know we are a nice family club, but I worry when I see young children helping at marshalling. Often they do not have the track 'presence' that is required when entering the racing line and simply stand in the way or run back into the track after retrieving a car. How would we stand for insurance if one of the youngsters was to be hit on the leg/ankle by a car at full speed? Maybe we should have an age restriction for marshalling or restrict them to the areas of the track where incidents should be at their least? I do not want to discourage children from racing/marshalling but I feel as the club we need to be responsible for their welfare.

4) On Si's note, maybe we should look at having a maximum number of people on the rostrum, maybe 8 per heat?

I think that everyone reading this thread has got the message about shouting at marshalls, but with some better driving and basic rules/instructions to the marshalls we should all come away from another great day at Bury Metro.


On another note, I did wonder why my thighs were aching today, must have been all the crouching down I was doing whilst marshalling by the ramps in the middle of the track. I got so hot from all the work that I had to take off my fleece down to my blue T-shirt :p

[Stu]

All racers should be reminded that if they have a broken car, that does not give them an excuse to sit at their pits and start on the rebuild rather than marshalling the following.


Sorry, that was me.
I think I was actually asleep though, rather than rebuilding.
I woke up to being licked, read into that whatever you wish.

[Fast Eddie]

Random interuption.....
I once got a lap removed as I went for a tom tit before marshalling and missed the first couple of laps...... lucky I went, as i was due to marshall one of those daft crouching positions in full view of everyone, could have been the second most embarrassing moment of my life!!
( I am currently barred from Ann Summers)

[Si Coe]

Sorry, that was me.
I think I was actually asleep though, rather than rebuilding.
I woke up to being licked, read into that whatever you wish.

Missing marshalling? Thats disgraceful! I should report you to our BRCA rep.....



Oh!

[Stu]

I once got a lap removed as I went for a tom tit before marshalling and missed the first couple of laps......



To squeeze one out and get back before race end is good going, never mind two laps in.

I thought I did well falling asleep.

[Si Coe]

Bury Metro - We don't just do great threads! Sometimes we run races too!

[johnnygibbon]

occaisionally a shout of " marshal l" is needed not repeatedly or aggresivly and when the adrenalines going mid race its hard not to be excited or dance around
i had to shout " mark " as he was dreaming at end of straight and i was cuaght up in the carpet 2 foot away from him but thats always needed now and then cos when your marshalling you cant watch all cars and can get distracted by a good battle or some carnage on track
but when it gets a bit aggresive its not needed especially at a club meet-.. regionals or nationals i can kinda understand and of course fast guys like whittler are used to racing these more and a poor marshall or obstructed veiw can cost you the race.
but im afraid the gypsy jig is staying it makes me faster
rock stars dont stand still when when they playing the axe
i dont stand still when im racing
the adrenaline makes me jumpy but i like it


reckon its generally hard to marshall at this indoor spot we are at any way its pretty much constant carnage on track-very amusing though

[The Bod]

Blimey, have you seen the number of views to this thread? 474 in 5 hours. That must be a world record!!! Just goes to show the number of people on Oople that is reading all this publicity about Bury Metro.

[shanks]

Blimey, have you seen the number of views to this thread? 474 in 5 hours. That must be a world record!!! Just goes to show the number of people on Oople that is reading all this publicity about Bury Metro.


Exactly my thoughts....Bury forum gets the views cause there's all this kinda stuff on it :thumbsup:

I reckon its achieveing just what Roger wants...a club

We need to up the anti, keep it rolling, get some pictures involved (specially of these fit marshalls i keep hearing about!) - none of buda's crackthough please...

[BillyB]

Good advertising campaign hey bod ha ha good idea! buds! next week we will come up with another plan like an alien ship landed whilst racing ha ha!!!

[tisher]

I do think that marshalling all round yesterday could have had some improvements. As Roger said, there did seem to be some laziness towards marshalling. The concerns/improvements I have from yesterday are;-

1) Maybe we should use the numbered cones again so that we know which marshall should be at what location. These cones should be positioned at locations to assist in marshalling but not to avoid racers line of vision in technical areas.

2) All racers should be reminded that if they have a broken car, that does not give them an excuse to sit at their pits and start on the rebuild rather than marshalling the following. This seemed to be quite a common practice yesterday in the 4wd heats.

3) Only racers should marshall. I know we are a nice family club, but I worry when I see young children helping at marshalling. Often they do not have the track 'presence' that is required when entering the racing line and simply stand in the way or run back into the track after retrieving a car. How would we stand for insurance if one of the youngsters was to be hit on the leg/ankle by a car at full speed? Maybe we should have an age restriction for marshalling or restrict them to the areas of the track where incidents should be at their least? I do not want to discourage children from racing/marshalling but I feel as the club we need to be responsible for their welfare.

4) On Si's note, maybe we should look at having a maximum number of people on the rostrum, maybe 8 per heat?

I think that everyone reading this thread has got the message about shouting at marshalls, but with some better driving and basic rules/instructions to the marshalls we should all come away from another great day at Bury Metro.


On another note, I did wonder why my thighs were aching today, must have been all the crouching down I was doing whilst marshalling by the ramps in the middle of the track. I got so hot from all the work that I had to take off my fleece down to my blue T-shirt :p




I agree with most of the above at the short time I have been at bury have noticed the marshalling seems to be a bit all over the place so cones might be good. The only problem might be if the young ones would have to marshall the centre of the track personally Vaughn being only six might struggle I always make him marshall after his race and to be fair he enjoys it but I make sure he marshalls somewhere cars dont crash so much so maybe a marshalling point for the younger ones might work. I deffo agree with point 4 I think 10 cars in a heat on that tight a track caused a few issues but still loving the racing and so is my son its a Great club and a good laugh we look forward to racing all the time:thumbsup:

[Si Coe]

I think the other thing we all need to do is accept that in some heats marshalling will be a bit pants. I'm really pleased we've got so many new young racers - its great news for the club and the sport as a whole, but its unfair to expect them to be good marshals.
This will be even more of an issue outdoors, especially if the two Johnny's bring their mentalist trucks along. One of them hitting a small child at speed would be messy, and for that reason we will have carefully consider where they marshal.

Anyway - we have the numbered cones, and if a key holder fetches them I believe we also have those lovely fluoro marshalling vests to make it really obvious who is or isn't marshalling. Of course they won't help Damian because if he starts yelling 'Oi! Marshal in the yellow jacket - get down!' we won't know which of us he is talking to :thumbsup:

[captainlip]

Well interesting reading this, just had a scan through all this and here are my comments.....

First of all yes i was marshalling in a dumb ass place but as i was concetrating on turning cars over i was blind to see i was obstructing the final corner, so apologies to all for that! :-s

As for preventing this a couple of well placed chairs in that location would have sorted this!

As for being intimidated nah i wasnt it doesnt bother me seriously takes alot to offend me! Only when i was virbally abused in front of thousands did i realise i was obstructing the track, and unfortunatly did not hear the first calm calls to sit down.

My second comment on this was this is club racing, and meant to be fun for all not taking things to seriously, as a few mentioned to me it was a tad rude, i can understand why it happened.

And buds your clearly blind im the best dressed guy there, if you cant live with thus then its time to hang up your tranny :p

[captainlip]

Oh and forgot to add thanks damien for sourcing a servo horn! Was a great help!

And again apologies for also being the guy trying to limp their car home, but i was ditermined to finish my 1st a-final

Now ive popped my cherry it wont happen again if it breaks ill remove it off the track!

[Si Coe]

Its like a group therapy session in here:

Damian has confessed to suffering from rostrum rage
Phil has confessed being an obstruction
I've confessed to putting the rostrum in a crap place
Dave has confessed to being a total loser
Johnny has confessed to being the dancing gypsy
Stu Evans has confessed to napping when he should be marshalling

I'm just waiting for Little Chris to come out and admit he is in fact a garden gnome.....

[johnnygibbon]

hey shanks why dont ya bring ya lad with his traxxas he cant be any worse than the kids with trucks now.
and you can beat buds to
its all the rage at the min

outdoor is gonna be mayhem

[The race controller]

I'd better stick my bit in.
It's the acoustics. I've tried to get rid of them but they wont leave the hall. Too much echo echo echo echo echo.
The PA and just shouting both cause a problem.

Ten cars on the rostrum enabled us to run 5 heats so next time you book in, book in in multiples of eight. It'll make sorting heats out easier.

I've always said that if you get to know your fellow racers you would be able to call them by name in-stead of shouting "marshal".
Better still do a bit yourselves and instruct the younger ones as to how you would like it done.
Don't forget also to stay at your post until the race is declared over.
Cones and high vis vests will be the way in future.

New drivers would like the advise of experience. Standing with them at the rostrum telling them when to slow down etc. would surely be a better way to go. We did it in the past.