Michigan Turn Marshals Newsletter
August - September 2001 (page 2)

Home | Become a Member | Bylaws  | Corner Store | Donate | Events | Gear Guide | News | Newsletters | Our Friends | Spotters' Guide | Training | Tracks | Photos | Winter Party | Worker Registration

but those guys on the corners are our eyes out there."

More than 170,000 racing fans are expected to make their way to Exhibition Place this weekend, looking for their annual fix of speed and noise.

No one gets a better dose of the action than the marshals, who have only waist-high concrete barriers and reinforced chain-link fences separating them from the cars everyone has come to see.

"It's very exciting, being that close," Coburn says. "A lot of marshals have a yen to be a driver. In my case it wasn't in the cards, but this is the next best thing."

The positions are entirely voluntary. Marshals pay their own travel expenses and accommodations to fulfill their passion. The Coburns were at race tracks around North America for 112 days last summer. This year they will be trackside for about 80 days, standing for hours in everything from blistering heat to downpours, sometimes even snow.

"We've never added up how much we've spent," Coburn says.

Occasionally, the cost is life itself. This past March, a Formula One marshal at the Australian Grand Prix was killed when he was hit by a stray tire after a collision involving Jacques Villeneuve. He was the third trackside worker to be killed in less than 12 months.

This year's Indy marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Gary Avrin of Calgary, the marshal who was killed at the Molson Indy when struck by a tire in the aftermath of the collision that also killed driver Jeff Krosnoff. Another marshal, Barbara Johnston of Michigan, who was standing beside Avrin, was also injured. In 1990 a marshal was killed at the Championship Auto Racing Teams event in Vancouver.
A group of marshals are trying to raise $3,000 to erect a plaque commemorating their former colleague along the Lake Shore Boulevard straightaway, but that will be for everyone else to remember him by.

"I knew Gary, he worked with us at other corners before that year," says Coburn, whose station this week is just down the straight from the spot where Avrin was killed. "It's always very sad when something happens, but there are extreme risks in this sport, not only for drivers, but for all of us.

right there that I could quit if it was going to upset me too much. Or I could say he was doing something he loved when he died, just the way I love marshalling."

The shape of the Indy didn't stand still after the 1996 incident. There was a coroner's investigation and the people running the event took a hard look at their procedures. The result was more fencing, more barriers, more tire walls and new positions for some stations.

The events in Australia inspired more calls for safety changes. Former F1 great Jackie Stewart suggested track workers should be outfitted in flak jackets and head protection (veteran marshals tell stories about getting knocked down by stray pieces of asphalt or other objects that can be kicked up by tires).

CART officials are looking at ways to supplement the manual flag system with electronic signals, meaning marshals can be moved from the more vulnerable positions on the course.

Until that happens -- and even after -- marshals will protect themselves by watching each other's back and taking cover behind the concrete when they see a car getting sideways, standing up again only after the thump and the shrapnel-like debris has flown over head.

"If I thought I was in danger I wouldn't be here," Coburn says. "You can stand for hours with a yellow flag in your hand and nothing happens.

"But that's a successful day at the track, when nothing happens that shouldn't."

VSCDA has been a strong supporter of MTM

 Let’s support their events by signing up for the events on the calendar or electronic registering on the Michigan Turn Marshal’s website http://www.michiganturnmarshals.org/EventRegistration.asp

 The cars that race are the ones a few of our members remember when they were new and the best in technology. Join the workers at VSCDA and enjoy the envy and love of these cars and their owners.

Ideas Wanted on Worker Recruitment, Renewal and Retention

Page 1   Page 3