Race marshals celebrate golden anniversary (From Wiltshire Times)

Race marshals celebrate golden anniversary

8:00am Sunday 28th January 2007 in General Sport

THE British Motorsport Marshals' Club is celebrating its 50th Anniversary with a gala dinner on March 17 at the Jarvis Ramada hotel in Leicester.

The British Motor Racing Marshals' Club was formed in 1957 by a group of enthusiasts, who saw the need for properly-organised and trained marshals around UK race circuits.

Motor racing was a dangerous pastime then and it is in no small part due to the improved marshalling services that motor sport is so much less dangerous today.

The Marshals' Club innovated a formal training and grading scheme for marshals in the mid-1970s, which transferred almost in its entirety to several countries around the world. At one stage, it had been translated into 16 different languages.

The Marshals' Club Scheme became the National Training and Grading Scheme when adopted by the MSA in 1992/3.

To better reflect the club's participation in rallying and introduction of training and grading schemes into other branches of the sport (karting, speed events, hillclimbs, etc), the name was changed to the British Motorsport Marshals' Club in 2001.

BMMC members make up the great majority of the marshalling effort in the UK and the club continues to innovate. A recently set-up MSA commission on alternative marshalling methods was inspired by an original BMMC report to the MSA.

Behind the public face of volunteers in motorsport, it is the experienced BMMC "professionals" who are driving the various steering groups to better recruit, train and retain marshals in all branches of the sport.

The BMMC hopes to celebrate its golden anniversary in some style on March 17.

Tickets are priced at £30 each, obtainable from Chris Hobson, Ballaugh, 27 Dollicott, Haddenham, Bucks HP17 8JL. telephone 01908 283600.