The National section of Autosport magazine's 7 December issue contained plenty of numbers. These were all related to grid sizes, but they are not the only figures that are important when it comes to assessing the health of club motorsport.
Volunteer numbers are also incredibly significant, too. After all, your series could have the largest entries of any but, unless there are sufficient numbers of marshals, scrutineers, clerks of the course and those filling a multitude of other vital unpaid roles giving their time to assist at your events, then those massive grids are irrelevant as racing cannot take place safely and fairly.
And this has certainly been a factor over the past year. Autosport is aware of at least one Donington Park fixture that had to swap from the Grand Prix circuit to the shorter National layout amid concern over marshal numbers. While that’s a fairly minor change, more concerning was an event that had a slightly delayed start due to officials deciding if the relatively small number of marshals that had signed on was actually enough to allow the meeting to proceed.
Having fewer volunteers than is desirable obviously has very serious safety implications, but the impact stretches beyond this. Take track limits as one example – some events have run with minimal policing due to a lack of people to act as judges of fact and determine who strayed beyond the circuit’s boundaries.
Yet these cases are certainly not reflected across the board. Yes, it may have been held in November when there are fewer events to restrict the pool, but huge numbers of men and women in orange signed on as marshals for the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone, with the organising Historic Sports Car Club reporting there were impressively around 200 each day. Not bad for a cold, and often wet, winter weekend. The British Motorsports Marshals Club also says it has enjoyed another increase in membership this year.
“The BMMC as a club hit 2500 members at the back end of last year, which was a milestone for us because it had dropped quite significantly over the years,” says chair Nadine Lewis. “We’re at 2600 for this year so we’ve gained another 100 marshals over the course of 12 months and that’s before you include any we lost.”
Source: Autosport