“Cancelling its most popular series is an embarrassment”

It was just two weeks ago, in a feature about marshals in Motorsport News, that Nadine Lewis – the national chair of the British Motorsports Marshals Club – said these words: “I think marshals are being more choosy about which events they go to.” The cancellation of next weekend’s Anglesey C1 24-hour race is the perfect example of this.

Considering marshals give up their weekends for free to volunteer at motorsport events, they’re perfectly entitled to be a bit picky about which meetings they help at. And, it’s understandable that the C1 24-hour race at Anglesey is fairly near to the bottom of the list of the most desirable meetings to attend.

Let’s put it frankly, this is Citroen C1s we are talking about – hardly the most dramatic or exciting car to watch. Yes, there may be a large grid and some close racing between them, but it’s still far from the most appealing series to view. The second factor is it’s a 24-hour race. Endurance races, where cars are on multiple different laps and are difficult to follow, again don’t always make for great spectacles and can be unpopular with marshals. And the third factor is the Anglesey circuit.

Now, this is a stunning venue that can provide good racing in some fantastic scenery (see page 31 where it features in MN’S best track awards as part of our national heroes special) but its out-of-the-way location means it’s a long way for many to travel to. The number of marshals who are within even two hours travelling time of Anglesey is small, so again this limits the pool, particularly when it’s not the most popular event to attend.

At this point it’s worth pointing out this isn’t a column criticising C1s. The series has been nothing short of a revelation and has attracted scores of new competitors into the sport with its cheap running costs and huge amounts of track time. Achieving a grid of 99 cars at Silverstone earlier this year was incredibly impressive. But at the same time, how its events can be fully stocked with marshals is perhaps a consideration that has fallen by the wayside amid the category’s on-track success.

It’s also worth remembering, the British Automobile Racing Club wasn’t just slightly short of marshals for Anglesey. It didn’t have enough signed up for even one marshal per post during the 24 hours. Questions have to be raised about how this was handled by the club. A post appeared on the BARC’S Facebook page calling for marshals to help at the C1 event on August 14, but surely the huge shortage should’ve been spotted before then giving a longer period of time to address the shortfall.

Make no mistake about it, the BARC having to cancel an event for its most popular series in terms of competitor numbers is a huge embarrassment. Especially at a stage where a significant number of drivers had already made arrangements to attend. Unless new ways to attract marshals to these meetings are found – the drivers themselves assisting is one possible solution – then don’t expect this to be the last event to be cancelled for this reason.