Marshal Like a Pro

Marshaling is one of the most awful jobs there is at a race track. Here are some things to help you get through it.

It's Never Good Enough

You'll never marshal someone's car fast enough, or put them where they think they should be. People who just crashed are frustrated already and they'll take it out on you all day long, they'll bitch more about your poor marshal than they will the series of events that lead them up to the crash in the first place. At best they'll holler from the driver stand and belittle you in front of everyone, a worst they'll bitch passive aggressively behind your back in the pit all day. Some guys will climb off the driver stand and snatch their car out of your hands and storm into the pits. That's just how it is. You can follow all the rest of the tips below, but know that marshals are like officials in sports. When they do it right nobody notices, and when they make any mistake at all it's the end of the world.

Watch your Corner

It's hard to marshal and not watch the race, but it's harder to watch the race and marshal. Try to stay focused on your section. Watch the cars enter your section, follow them through, and exit and then shift your gaze back to the entrance of your section for the next pack. If you try to watch the whole race you'll miss stuff that happens right under your nose. Try to keep count, 3 cars in, 3 cars out. If 4 come in and 3 come out there's something wrong! Be aware of the marshals near you, in the event of a crazy pileup they may need help, but more often it is better for you to stay put than to cross lanes of traffic to get one car.

Stay Calm

Just like in racing, when marshaling slow and steady wins the race. You can be quick without being hurried. Make calm assertive decisions about which cars to go after, and in what order. You won't ever do it fast enough anyway, so take your time, be sure footed with your recoveries and sure minded in your spots. Everybody want's a faster spot, but nobody want's to be spotted in the wrong lane, facing the barrier, or be fumbled with 2-3 times be fore finally landing on wheels. It's easy to get flustered and panic, but try your best to be in a calm place.

Watch the Line

As if there's not enough to do already right? But watch the line the fast guys are taking through your section. Is that the line you drive? Where are they slowing down, when do they get back into it? One of the biggest missed opportunities is watching, really watching, how the other drivers drive. Get technical, notice when they're steering and working the throttle and how the car responds.

Hold Your Line

A hot topic on many fora is etiquette as pertains to fast guys getting around slow guys. By and large the fast guys expect the slow guys to move aside and give up their line and bully them to do so. While it may be correct in some cases to cede your position,  I'll argue all day (and trust me, I have) that you should hold your line and make the fast guys find a way around you.

For the Fast Driver

Slow cars are a fact of racing. You'll always encounter a driver slower than you for whatever reason. It's up to you, the faster driver, to find a line around the slow traffic. A good driver can get around a slow car without wrecking him, without sighing heavily and furrowing his brow, and without commenting in the pits about the lack of skill at the track today.

It's important to remember that every section on a track is not a passing section. Some sections are built to deliberately encourage or discourage passing. If you find yourself closing the gap on a slower car, pace your self to reach them in a passing section. That doesn't mean ride their ass through a technical portion and encourage them to overdrive and crash out of the way. It means anticipate the up coming sections of the raceway, will you be able to get around them when you reach them? If not, you need to set your pace so you can pass cleanly sooner or later. This doesn't always mean slow down, challenge yourself. Push yourself harder to get to them before the non passing section.

For the Slow Driver

You're there to race just like anyone else, you paid your entry fee, you marshal when it's your turn, you deserve the track time as much as anyone else there. For this reason you should hold your line when a faster car is closing on you. Make them find a way around you. It makes both of you a better driver. That doesn't mean block them, or hold your position, it means hold your racing line. Don't slow way down and get rear ended, don't swerve out of your lane to let them by, just hold the line you've committed to. And grow thick skin, because you'll be hated by most of the fast guys, but that's their problem, not yours. If enough of the slow guys would start holding their line the fast guys will lighten up. Make it a point to complement a clean pass too, they'll like that.