The one percent

Jack Benyon’s article (in Motorsport News, January 25) hits the nail squarely on the head. However the people who he aims it at are, unfortunately, unlikely to be readers of MN and so will never read it and take heed because these are the people who are making life increasingly difficult for the knowledgeable spectator, marshal and media personnel alike.

Ever since rallying started to get ‘column inches’ in the national dailies in the late 1970s, when Lombard sponsored the RAC Rally, the task of spectating by the true ‘anorak’ spectator has steadily become more and more difficult.

Time and time again when I’m at a stage start to sign on, marshals are asking for a location where there will be no spectators because of the aggravation they receive when trying to do their job.

These days I split my rallying attendances between spectating and marshalling, I am an Msa-registered marshal and over the years have officiated up to and including clerk of the course/chief marshal on forest events.

The MSA marshalling scheme is a good scheme but falls some way short. I talk to marshals who never attend the motor club they joined the scheme through or do not rejoin the club once they’ve registered on the scheme, because the registration card is reissued when you’ve done the online training.

The MSA needs to find a way to prevent the card from being reissued until confirmation is received from the respective club that an individual is a member. Also in an ideal world individuals should be active within their club. Gordon Waddington Via email