Marshaling Paeroa “Battles of the Streets�

[Xan]

#1922

AMCC was looking for volunteers of marshaling for Paeroa Battle of The Street (http://www.battleofthestreets.co.nz/) and the president Dick, my partner and myself volunteered from BMWOR.We arrived in Paeroa before 4 for a brief meeting but the meeting was not held in the end.  😕I walked around the "back stage" of the race before the dinner.It was interesting to see that people were preparing for the race.Everybody was very friendly and most of them thought that I was a tourist, as an Asian female was walking alone and taking pictures.  😆I was allocated to the point 9, which was inside the hairpin corner.It was a very good location to watch the races  😀 but it was very hot, as we didn't have any sunshade for the whole day and the sky was clear for all day.I took some photos and videos during practice riding but most of them didn't turn out well, as it was too close to the race course...  😀Marshall task:Many volunteers came from Auckland Motorcycle Club.They were nice people and I thought that it may be interesting to ride with them.We got up 5:30 am ( 😮 shock a horror to me, as I am not an early bird...) and had cooked breakfast at 6 while it was still dark.We gathered at the starting grid at 7 but we didn't get to the allocated position until 8.I didn't need to memorise all the flags, as we had only three flags (a red & yellow flag to indicate oil spill on the track, a yellow flag to indicate an incident and a red flag to stop the race).There were 9 points and each point had 5 to 7 marshals.One head marshal in each point gets a radio headset for communication and he instructed us which flag we should wave.One racer crashed in the second lap of practice, as he cut the hairpin corner too much.  🙁He could walk but he was taken away by ambulance, as he hit the right shoulder hard and couldn't move his arm.We collected fiber glasses that came from his damaged motorcycle.One racer managed to stop in front of the outside corner hay before crashing but the engine was stalled. Marshals pushed his bike but he couldn't start it.One racer couldn't stop and crashed to the hay. He was OK but his bike was towed away.One side car stacked at the inside the hairpin corner. That is the side car with Tui Cans (see the photo) and they retired.One racer came off on the corner but he slid and he was OK.Two side cars almost crashed into each other, as one side car tried to cut inside of the other one.  👿 One side car had a panel damaged and the swinger had stuck his finger out to the other side car.These were the incidents at the point 9.A main task of the marshals was cleaning the track.We needed to pick up any objects on the tracks, including small stones.We needed to clean oil spill on the track. It was a quite long distance and my hand got grazed from a bloom (I know, I have soft hands, as I usually use a mouse and a keyboard only...  :oops:)There were always some stupid young crowd that gets out of hand from drinking.It could be an "alcohol baned" event if it was in Auckland.One group, about 7 or 8 people, didn't behave well for sometime.Basically, they weren't watching the race at all, as they were sitting with their back to the race. I wanted to say, go somewhere else if they just want to drink. They threw bottle tops at me. I completely ignore them but I was annoyed, as it was dangerous to riders if the bottle tops got onto the track.  😡Our head marshal tried to call security several times as their behavior escalated but they didn't respond.Eventually, one guy came out from the fence and stole one of fire extinguishers.He set the fire extinguisher off and spread the powder everywhere. With this fire extinguisher incident, police and race control finally came and settled the group. Police didn't arrest anybody but it was enough to make the group calm down.The last race finished around 5.We decided to eat something before go back to Auckland, as the road looked still busy.It was so quick to demolish the race setting and the road was open before 6:30.It is KIWI power that such a big event is held every year by volunteers.I take my hat of to all volunteers who organise this popular event every year and keep it going. If it sounds interesting, you can volunteer for flag marshal next year.Anyone can do it, as I did it.  🙂

[Xan]

#7045

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