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Rick's Story - A typical day flagging at an event

Mac Park - Pirelli Road Race Series

I travelled to Mt Gambier on the Friday and stayed at a hotel that has been arranged for the Race Marshals.

The next morning we all travelled to Mac Park which is not too far from the hotel, arriving at 08:00 am. I normally work on a Saturday morning so I actually get a bit of a sleep-in when I am marshalling.

I haven't flagged at Mac Park since the new track layout has been done so we all do a lap of the track to determine where all the flag points should be.  It is a tight and narrow track that should be a challenge for the riders and hopefully we don't have too many incidents. After checking out the track we have a quick breakfast and a coffee.

At 8.30am we have a Officials Briefing where we are allocated flag points and are informed about safety and our role as marshals. I have been allocated turn two for this particular day. After the briefing a quick toilet stop then all the marshals move out to their allocated points.

Upon arriving at my flag point we get ourselves set up, arrange flags, get radios on and tested, make sure we have incident report forms and basically get comfortable for the morning session.

After a track clearance the first practice session comes out on track, all flag points display a green flag for the first lap so the riders can see which flag points are being manned and that the track is clear to proceed. The green is displayed for the first lap.

Once you put the green flag down, you pick up the yellow flags so you are ready for any incidents that may occur in your sector of responsibility. The green flag is never far away and you are ready to swap flags in an instant if needed.

As Flaggies we really like to only have to hold the green flag out for the first lap of practice and the warm up lap of a race, the rest of the time we would be happy to just watch and enjoy the racing whilst keeping an eye on our designated area of responsibility.

Unfortunately there was an incident in the first race requiring a red flag. This is the flag we least like to use. The incident stopped racing for about 30 minutes. The red flag stops the race, or practice session as there has been an incident that makes it unsafe for the session to continue.

So we then do a track clearance at the end of every session.

So the day progressed, green flag, turn two hold , turn two clear, green flag, turn two hold, turn two clear, until the 40 minute lunch break.

The first race after lunch had a crash at turn one but the race was able to continue, and a couple of competitors were trying to ride on the same piece of track a few times, so there was some '"argy-bargy" going on. We have to keep our eyes peeled for all sorts of incidents on the track even if the riders don't fall off.

The afternoon's racing had a few hiccups but basically followed the green flag, turn two hold, turn two clear scenario.

All in all a great days racing with some great on track action and a quiet ale afterwards.