Worker Training

Whether you are seasoned veteran or a newcomer to working a corner at the racetrack, you need to keep your skills and knowledge sharp. One thing to ALWAYS remember, whenever you walk inside the fence at any circuit, you're in possible danger. If you don't think so, ask some the more experienced folks about some of the crazy stuff they've seen happen. So it's very important that you have your priorities straight, are prepared, and are willing to learn before and during the event.

Priorities: Priority #1 of corner working is to keep yourself safe, at all times. Priority 1A is the safety of your fellow workers. There's a very simple reason for that. If you or a fellow corner worker (aka marshall) get hurt, you no longer can help the riders stay safe and suddenly you could be part of a bigger situation rather than the solution to the original one. Priority #2 is the safety of oncoming riders who are not a part of an incident. Our flags are the way the riders know if there is a problem on the track ahead of them. Keeping a small situation from growing - or a big incident from getting bigger - is always the right first step in a response. Priority #3, after 1, 1A and 2 are satisfied, is dealing with the incident presented to you and your crew.

Being Prepared: Be on time and ready to go. This means being early for morning meetings so that you can get signed in, pick up radios, flags and other gear, and chat with friends before the meeting - so that you don't miss what's happening there. This also means getting to your turn as quickly as possible and joining the Turn Marshall's meeting there. This also means being on station early for inspections and sessions on track. This means never having Race Control or anyone else waiting on you.

Make sure that you have the proper equipment. Personal equipment is covered in that link. USARM equipment such as flags and radios are picked up at the morning meeting or is pre-staged at your turn. When you arrive at your turn make sure early that each station is properly equipped, so that missing items can be brought out in a timely manner.

Make sure you learn all that you can: There is a lot. Here's some information that everyone should know well. Whether you're a handler (responder), flagger, communicator or Turn Marshall; you need to know the hand signals and what they mean. It's loud at the track and we can't usually hear each other with a live track. So we must rely on hand signals to communicate. Study the hand signals, know them. Everyone should also take a look at our manual as it has lots of good information in it. There are dedicated sections for the communicators , flaggers, and about responding to motorcycles. There's also an "other positions at the track" section for Turn Marshalls (lead/foreman for the corner), workers in pit lane, or on the DragOn Wagons (aka crash trucks).

The training PowerPoint presentation has been updated this year. Take a look. It's usually reviewed on the Thursday night before the race weekend. It gives the highlights of what you need to remember about various track assignments such as flagging, handling and communicating. You can view or download it as a PDF file:

Motorcycle Corner Worker 2013

We also have a great training video from the MotoGP folks, converted so that you can view it. It's little over 12 minutes long and time well spent. There are two versions, a low quality (352x240) file that's approximately 130 meg and there's a better quality (720x480) file that's approximately 525 meg. Those on dial-up or slower connections should not try and view/download either unless you have LOTS of patience and time. Those with a broadband connection should not have a problem. You'll see what they are looking for during responses on course.

You can also look at the Official GP Regulations. This isn't something we ask everyone to study or know but many folks may find it interesting. There's good information about procedures, track requirements, and what the FIM expects to see during a weekend. If you have wondered why anything including track inspections happens during a GP weekend you'll find the answers here. It's their contractual document.

NEW !!! Here is the Link to World Superbike and Supersport Regulations. For our part of the weekend the rules are much the same as the GP regulations above. Similarities include the flag sections which are the same word-for-word. Differences include track inspections, required for WSBK before each session vs. once per day for the GPs.

NEW !!! The other set of regulations that we work are those for the AMA events. Here is the Link to AMA Rule Book. The AMA Events count towards our National Championships and are as important to work well and correctly as the FIM events.

NEW !!! The biggest differences between FIM and AMA events during a session are the flagging differences. The flagging rules for each are given in this summary of FIM and AMA Flagging Regulations. This is the full discussion of each flag and its use in a flag-by-flag format. For a quick look check out the Flaggers handout.

NEW !!! Handouts: We have a few new ones this year. Please review all that you may need to use.

Communications, (Response) Handling, Turn Marshals, Flaggers, Dragon Wagon, Hand Signals

Being a good corner worker starts with learning on Day One and continues forever. None of us were experts the fist day we came to a track.Every one of us learns something new every weekend there. Take advantage of those with more experience with whom you work. They'll be glad to help you with what needs to be done and why some things might be done one way instead of another. There's no substitute for experience but learning from others experience and knowledge (yes, and mistakes) is the right thing to do.

One of the biggest lessons that needs to be learned is to constantly be attentive to what's going on around you. Some of the more experienced workers seem to sometimes know that something is happening, before it even completely happens. That's because they're acutely aware of what's happening around them. They might have spotted some little but important thing that they've seen before. Don't be shy, ask what it was. When the track is "hot" (bikes on course) you should be paying attention to the track. That's why we are there. Being attentive is not just being able to react to things on track but is paramount in regards to YOUR safety.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Nobody can read minds, so ask. A good thing to do after an incident, when time permits, review what happened with your fellow marshalls. What went right? What went wrong? What can be done to make a similar response happen better, safer, faster? Did everyone act in a safe manner? Did we work as a team? This review is a great thing to do, no matter what the level of experience is. It's always helpful to talk about and reflect on what can be done better. Be sure that you take and give advice, direction, or any corrections as something that's going to keep your crew safer and be able to support the race day better.