Blog | A Life In Orange

Marshalling and the Internet

Sep 24, 2019
4 min

Marshalling and the Internet

Do you remember a time before the internet, Facebook, Twitter and the entire social platform? I may have been privileged enough to have lived in a world in which I’ve always had the internet, although dial-up (ask your parents if you are too young for this) in the very early days but, I do recall the days before Facebook. Where you actually had to phone someone to speak to them! So, what about this: Do you remember a time in marshalling before the internet? I certainly do. Th

9 views0 comments

Life over the edge

Jun 5, 2019
5 min

Life over the edge

You’ve probably heard many drivers in motorsport talk about ‘Life on the Edge’ the perfect balance of exploring the limits of what is possible in a race car versus the outer limit before everything ends in wreckage and ruin. Racing teams explore that extra tenth of a second of pace and drivers go beyond it to find the measurable limits of any car they are in. What about when it goes beyond the edge though, when those fine margins are strained and that line between perfection

1 view0 comments

British GT feat. Snetterton Circuit

May 24, 2019
3 min

British GT feat. Snetterton Circuit

Normally I stick to one big meeting a year at one circuit, for example if I do Touring Cars at Oulton Park I won’t do them again elsewhere however, last year I did the British Touring Cars at both Oulton Park and Silverstone and the Formula One at both Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. Quick, nimble and race winning Lambo in the GT3 class. [Tom Stalker] Now I can add to the list is the British GT and F3 weekend. You may be wondering the significance of this is, but because I

1 view0 comments

Super Sebring – Part Two – Don’t take me home

Apr 11, 2019
3 min

Super Sebring – Part Two – Don’t take me home

As the first cars rolled out of the pit garages and went on their installation laps I was still trying to come to terms with the fact I was actually here, I was at Sebring International Raceway for the 12 hours of IMSA and 1000 miles of World Endurance Championship (WEC). Two heavy weight series going toe to toe over one weekend. The circuit was buzzing with a party atmosphere and there was hype about the two huge egos of racing and who would take centre stage over the coming

1 view0 comments

Five tracks to marshal this year

Feb 22, 2019
4 min

Five tracks to marshal this year

As I said in my blog ‘Five ways to make 2019 the marshalling year for you’, the season is very much approaching and your calendars are probably starting to look a bit full. Before you do fill them to the brim, here are a few tracks to look into for the upcoming season and a stand out race that you may want to venture for. Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England Flagging at last year’s Blancpain was certainly a good challenge. [Paul Williams] We’ll start with the big one, the h

1 view0 comments

A Day in the life – Motorsport Marshal – Part Two

Feb 16, 2019
5 min

A Day in the life – Motorsport Marshal – Part Two

Last year I wrote part one to a day in the life of a motorsport marshal and it was rather successful, so I decided to follow it up with the rest of the action which sometimes follows from 12 noon to the end of the day. So let’s get straight into it. 12:10pm – It’s been almost seven hours since I woke up and lunch is nowhere in sight. There is also another two races before the ‘L’ word can be mentioned. 12:15pm – Race three starts and this could produce some fireworks, they we

4 views0 comments

Five ways to make 2019 your marshalling year

Feb 8, 2019
4 min

Five ways to make 2019 your marshalling year

As we draw closer to the start of a new season we all start filling out our calendars with the desirable races that we would like to do. Circling the big meetings and making sure we have enough holidays at work to make sure we can make it. Instead of looking back on last year and saying what I enjoyed and what I thought I did well, I’ve decided to look forward to the 2019 season and use what I did to come up with five ideas you may want to try to make this year of marshalling

0 views0 comments

Five stars out of five – Race of Remembrance 2018

Nov 19, 2018
3 min

Five stars out of five – Race of Remembrance 2018

Only the sound of waves breaking and the seagulls call can be heard at Anglesey Circuit. As Remembrance Day service is called, on the centenary of Armistice Day, it seems fitting that the race cars fall silent just like the guns did in 1918 to mark the end of the Great War. Whilst it is a time to pay respect and remember all those who have fallen in battle, the charity Mission Motorsport have created an event to help retrain and rehabilitate injured armed forces personnel who

1 view0 comments

70 days away from home

Oct 5, 2018
3 min

70 days away from home

Saturday 21 July, Mini-Fest, Oulton Park. A particularly warm day if I remember correctly from what I wrote about in a previous blog. A day with very few incidents but a large amount of oil dressing! Some 70 days have passed since my last time at Oulton Park, I have been a holiday to the Stelvio Pass, marshalled the Belgian F1, attended CarFest North, taken a trip to Anglesey circuit, a trip to Croft circuit, rocked out to a Liam Gallagher concert and witnessed a Red Bull Dri

0 views0 comments

F1 – Sun, Sound and the sublime

Jul 13, 2018
3 min

F1 – Sun, Sound and the sublime

It’s an eight-month journey that takes you through different levels of emotion. The 2017 marshalling season hadn’t even finished, yet I was scrambling around counting the number of days marshalling I had completed and filling out forms to get my nomination submitted. Job one was completed in November and my nomination accepted was in December. Now I had an agonising two month wait till February to see if I was given an invitation. By the end of January all kind of thoughts ar

0 views0 comments

Marshalling Away Weekend: Silverstone Blancpain

May 25, 2018
3 min

Marshalling Away Weekend: Silverstone Blancpain

As I was in between jobs I had an opportunity to tick another race meeting off my never-ending list of races to marshal. The Blancpain GT is a collection of roughly 50 GTs ranging from Ferraris to Aston Martins to Lamborghinis and most other super cars mixed in for good measure. Round Four of the series was held at the Silverstone Circuit and from the previous year’s report it had been a fantastic meeting. So, using my day off on the Friday I was able to get to the circuit to

0 views0 comments

Finding My Feet

May 17, 2018
3 min

Finding My Feet

After just six race meetings of being an Incident Officer I find myself writing about it? Before it goes against me that I’m either too big for my boots or trying to tell more experienced I/Os what to do, I can inform you that this isn’t that. Instead it is about the struggles and changes I’ve found in the progression from being an incident marshal to someone who has to lead a team and helps give direction and guidance to those who have to get out on track and deal with incid

0 views0 comments

Sun, Sea, Sand and the Occasional Crash!

May 4, 2018
3 min

Sun, Sea, Sand and the Occasional Crash!

So why, when I get up for work at half seven, was my alarm ringing at 4:30 on Saturday morning? Why do I get up at these times when I could be having a lie in? I’m sure I have a screw loose. Racing and scenery like this! What’s not to love! [Mark Noble] This weekend, however, answered these questions for me. It was an amazing two days at Anglesey perched on the rescue unit, flirting with the coast of the Irish Sea in the sunshine and watching what was, at times, some excellen

2 views0 comments

Boring, Slow and Nothing to do…. Yeah right!

May 3, 2018
3 min

Boring, Slow and Nothing to do…. Yeah right!

Cars circulating as though they were on rails and little drama occurring made the first hour and a half of marshalling on Saturday very dull and dreary. As soon as the first Fun Cup race of the weekend started that summary of the day completely changed. It was on lap three of the race when this turned as three cars went nose to tail and crashed out the race. A sunny and peaceful day, until the racing started. A slow-moving car on the exit of Banking hairpin mixed with the bun

0 views0 comments

That colour doesn’t suit me!

Apr 26, 2018
3 min

That colour doesn’t suit me!

Over the years that I have been marshalling I’ve heard many people, many non-marshals, have a dig at our overalls. Some have called them jump suits, others boiler suits and on one occasion we have had people mistake us for astronauts and ask if we were on a stag do, although it was pointed out by a good friend that as we were in orange we’d be cosmonauts. I found myself getting a bit annoyed by the names that people called our overalls, whilst I am not questioning their fashi

0 views0 comments

From Oulton Park in the snow to Albert Park in the Sun!

Apr 12, 2018
6 min

From Oulton Park in the snow to Albert Park in the Sun!

A big trip deserves a big blog, so sit back and enjoy this one! They say a week is a long time in politics, but it can also be true for motorsport marshals! After braving the snow and -2 temperatures of Oulton Park for the season opener, Sarah and I were heading down under for the start of the F1 season and Melbourne Grand Prix. The Australian Grand Prix had been on our bucket list for many a year but now we had the bug for watching in orange this was going to be the trip of

0 views0 comments

An Easter Weekend with the British GTs

Apr 6, 2018
3 min

An Easter Weekend with the British GTs

Easter Weekend, Oulton Park and the British GT and F3 Championship rolled in and promised to be a huge event. It didn’t disappoint; Flick Haigh became the first female driver to take and outright pole position and race win in the British GT Championship and the #33 Lamborghini Hurican of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen provided some good chase down racing in the first half of the race, but sadly they had to settle for fourth after the pit stop. 📝 RACE 1 REPORT – OULTON@OptimumMSpo

0 views0 comments

Mud, Marshals and Mission Motorsport

Nov 16, 2017
3 min

Mud, Marshals and Mission Motorsport

Mission Motorsport returned to Anglesey Circuit for it’s fourth edition of the Race of Remembrance, and in the traditional style of the race, there was always something that cropped up that made it a little bit more challenging! A sense of achievement as we crossed the line after 231 miles. Last year you may have remembered the six marshals and their two support crew who took on a 231 mile bike ride over three days to raise money for Mission Motorsport? If not thankfully, I w

0 views0 comments

Marshal Journey: Track to Experienced

Nov 2, 2017
4 min

Marshal Journey: Track to Experienced

Following last year’s blog by Andrew Garrett on what it takes for a marshal to get from the Trainee grade to the Track grade, or White to Green as it is more commonly known, and since having recently upgraded myself in the marshalling world, I have decided to focus on what it takes to get from Green to Red Badge and achieve the Experienced Marshal grade. Study in Concentration: Green to red is as much about your knowledge as it is about the practical side of marshalling. [Pho

1 view0 comments

When it’s not Motorsport, It’s Motorsport!

Oct 27, 2017
3 min

When it’s not Motorsport, It’s Motorsport!

The title may be a confusing one, but you’ll have to bear with me, as every marshal knows that when they aren’t at the track they sometimes struggle for things to do to keep them occupied. It’s hard to really think that there was once a time before marshalling and that we used to occupy our weekends with other activities. Non-marshals think of us as a little bit crazy that we spend our days stood inches away from a controlled explosion on wheels, but to us it is now a way of

0 views0 comments

This site was designed with the

website builder. Create your website today.Start Now