MARSHAL SHORTAGE LEADS TO C1 24-HOUR BEING AXED
Anglesey event cancelled by BARC after a severe lack of volunteers
The Citroen C1 24-hour race due to take place at Anglesey next weekend has been cancelled after a severe lack of marshals signed up.
The Citroen C1 Racing Club’s second 24-hour race of the season was due to form part of the British Automobile Racing Club’s September 6-8 event at the Welsh venue. But with a severe lack of interest from marshals, the BARC was forced into cancelling the endurance race.
The club did offer the chance for a shorter C1 contest to run on the Saturday of the event, but insufficient interest means this won’t take place either. Instead just the support races – for the Caterham Graduate and Hyundai Coupe Cup categories – will take place on the Saturday.
“We were very short of marshals – using a shift system, we didn’t even have enough for one marshal per post during the 24-hour race,” explained BARC general manager Ian Watson. “There was no option but to cancel it, not only for the marshals’s safety but for the competitors’ safety. It’s not a decision taken lightly but it had to be taken now to give them advance warning.”
When asked why there was such a severe shortage of marshals for this event, Watson added: “If I knew the reason for it, we wouldn’t have a shortage. It’s been a long year and we’ve had a lot of race meetings going on. The whole thing with marshals across the country is very difficult – a lot of meetings are running very short.”
The C1 Challenge is the most popular racing category in the country with 99 cars taking part in the 24-hour race at Silverstone earlier this year. In the past, it ran both 24-hour contests at Rockingham but had to look for alternative venues for this season following the circuit’s closure.
Chairman of the C1 Racing Club, Meyrick Cox, said: “It’s disappointing for us and our competitors. A huge amount of work goes into organising a 24-hour race, people have spent a lot of money testing, on accommodation and, in some cases, booking flights.
“It does raise the question of do we go for a 24-hour race at Anglesey next year. People talk about the depth of issues with motorsport and this is just another one.
“Even when you have a successful series you end up with problems and as a sport we need to have a look at this. There are too many events run with too few cars. As a sport we have got to consolidate quite a bit and need to be thinking how the sport works as a whole.”
Cox said he would be open to the idea of making it mandatory for each C1 team to supply a marshal if BARC and Motorsport UK provided the training, but stated that it would take more than the three-week notice they were given.
“Of course we would consider something like that, personally I do a day’s marshalling each year because I want to give something back to the sport,” he added. Additional reporting by
Stefan Mackley