MARSHALS’ GRADES PROTECTED DURING 2020 RACE DISRUPTION
Volunteers will maintain their status even if they don’t hit 2020 minimum attendance
Motorsport UK has confirmed that marshals will not have their grades removed or downgraded from not attending their minimum number of days in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Marshals ordinarily have to attend a minimum number of days in a year to maintain their qualification grade, something that would be harder to achieve this year due to the extended motorsport suspension as well as potential knock-on effects from the virus disruption such as people working longer hours in their jobs after the lockdown ends or having to self-isolate.
James Betchley, Motorsport UK’S officials pathway manager, told MN: “There are mitigating circumstances at play here, so we won’t be removing anyone’s grades should they not be able to meet the [dates] criteria for 2020.
“With regards to what happens later on in the year and what happens with those registrations going forward a lot of that will depend on when the sport can get back up and running; once we know the severity of how many events are being cancelled then obviously we can take steps from there. But at the moment there’s no plans to downgrade or remove anyone’s registrations.”
Nadine Lewis, chair of the British Motorsport Marshals Club, supported this stance. “If there’s no motor racing at all then everybody’s in the same boat, we can’t possibly say to all marshals you’ve lost your grade,” she told MN. “We can say to people look if you can’t get the days in don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’ll stop being a marshal, or stop your grade, extenuating circumstances are allowed and a lot of people will have those this year.”