Many people don’t notice the hi-vis army of motorsport marshalls stationed around the race track — Oliver Brindle speaks to a dying breed of individuals.
On a bright Easter Sunday, a team of men and women line-up ready for their briefing. They have left behind the chocolate eggs and these brave souls are about to stand metres away from cars flying past at over 50 mph. Only a wall — sometimes just a fence — exists to stop 1.5 tonnes of metal flying towards them.
The team at the Curborough Sprint Course in Lichfield, Staffordshire dedicate their unpaid Sunday morning so people can take their cars out on to a live track to perform a series of challenging courses.
We often think of the necessities for racing: drivers and a car. But what happens when it all goes wrong?
On the sidelines for over 50 years
Of Curborough’s team of over 10 marshals, none are below the age of 40.
Rowand Prentice is one of the oldest: his knowledge of the job is based on five decades of experience — but he has no one to pass it onto.
An ex-driver himself, Prentice got into the game through going out with work colleagues, watching night rallies across Britain.
Now he gets to the track for 8:30am for the enjoyment of seeing the cars. But his real reward is enabling others to do what they enjoy: going fast.
“Watching the cars go past is entertaining in itself,” Prentice says. “And making sure when they are knocking all the cones down you go and pick them up quickly, so you don’t stop the rhythm.
“You also have to put the cone back in exactly the same place, so it is the same for everybody. You want to make sure no one gains an unfair advantage by going straight across quicker — they have got to go round it.”
Dealing with life and death
According to data released by Motorsport Memorial there have been 486 deaths at UK race circuits since records began, the fourth highest of any country.
Marshal Liam Clarke died in 2024 after being struck by motorbike in a road race, in a spot deemed not to be high risk.
Could the dangers of motorsport be turning people away from the sport?
Mark Martin has held some of the most senior positions in the sport for over 45 years, marshalling for F1 races and GT car races.
“I have had two fatalities in all the years that I have done this,” says Martin.
“For one I ended up at the Coroners Court [where inquests into deaths take place where the cause is unknown], but when we have an incident, we deal with it and come back to our post.
“If I am a post chief for that day, I will get the team together and say, ‘well done everybody, is there any way we could of sone that better?
“Someone might come up with an idea and you think ‘I haven’t thought of that’. And if there is a nasty incident you ask them you sit them down and ask them if they are ok.”
An earlier version of this story was first published on Brindle News.