1998 Question of the Week:

"What are the worst turn marshalling acts you’ve ever seen?"

actually seen a turn marshal kick a car clean off the track! i mean off the track and over a fence!! a fist fight soon followed. is rc racing great or what??!!

Two friends were racing, but in different heats. One was in the B main and the other was in the A main. Well, after the B main, one of the guys went down to marshal. The race started and his friend crashed, snapping off a turnbuckle. Instead of shutting off the car, he tried to put the turnbuckle back on, ignoring his marshalling area. It took him two minutes to twist it back on the ball cup, during which time several cars crashed in his area.

they didn't flip my car

my car came in sliding and rounded almost perfectly except i rammed another buggy in the rear. I was stopped but when i left, he called me for using the "inside lane". I lost my spot at 4:50 with no chance of catching up.

I've got a good one to tell you all. So you better take a seat and listen! It started out as a fine sunny Sunday morning. My local track was holding a off-road race where I had my RC10GT ready to rock-n-roll. My first Novice race of the day went with out a hitch what so ever. Then the main race started out nicely I was running in first place. Second lap into the race one of the corner marshals decided to flip over a car on the track and stepped on my car at the same time. At that instant I had lost all train of thought as I was in last place now. I couldn't catch up to the first place guy do to my smashed lexan truck body rubbing on my front tire. The next few seconds were my most memorable I turned the corner right before the bad guy A.K.A "Corner Marshall" was standing I held the throttle wide open and gave him a direct shot onto the shin area. The Corner Marshall went down on track. I was banned for bad sportsmanship for two weeks. But in my eyes the corner marshal was Public Enemy number 1.

It would have to be when the younger racers jump up and down and cast shadows over the track. It gets really distracting.

Daniel Green

Definitely having my truck stood on.

When I came down a small drop and the marshal ran out in front of my car to get another and was obviously not looking, I hit him in the foot and broke a graphite front arm and a steering block, also when I was in the lead after the first turn, a car came off the table top and slammed into mine as I was taking the double, then I got marshaled but was in last by the time he put my car down And ended up in 5th when I should have easily gotten 1st.

It would have to be, when the marshal did the dance on top of my tricked out T3 in the A main at a big race. Needless to say the rear shock tower snapped like a twig when the 250 lb. guy landed on the truck. I was running in second and got tangled up with a back marker just as the marshal tried to get him up right and WHAM, that's all she wrote.

Well, there are two basic errors. The first, the turn marshal that is busy doing whatever but his job, then "if" he sees you car, he turns it into the pipe and kills mote time. Second, the put the overweight guy with bad knee's in the spot with the most crashes. Why does that happen?

Watching someone turn marshal a Losi car and then stepping on it with the nasty cracking sound of Stiffezell filling the atmosphere

Setting my car down in front of the leader who was two laps ahead of me, but two hundreds of a second in front of second place. krkroupa

My car was stepped on!!!

watched an idiot at so cal pick up cars that were not involved in a crash, then stand there and laugh about how funny it was. 2 hours of driving in the rain for that???

During an offroad race at SoCal r/c raceway a turn marshall was running to flip over a racer. As he was running to help the car that nosed into the pipe, He stepped onto an oncoming losi. The race director said "That car is not a skateboard!"

During one of the nitro touring car races at my local track I hit a bad corner landed upside down. The other racers were too damn lazy to get out on the track and turn marshall, so I lost about a lap. Somebody finally flipped me over. I lost the race and barely qualified for the main.

My answer is that when you have a disabled person they should not even be out there and when they get your car they just throw it and it just flips over or it takes longer for them to your car

When a guy at at local dirt track picked up the leaders car (he thought it was broke) and put his car on his lid and turned it off. The guy who owned the car was very pee-od

someone in such a hurry to marshal a friend they stepped on a car

When you the leader, crash and the turn marshall carries your car around fixing the 2nd and 3rd place cars because he is to lazy to rush the car down.

One got a fractured ankle at a local 1/8 on road race one time. He hit the ground hard, the serpent got hardly a scratch. -EZ

Once, I saw a marshal look at the car that had flipped, looked up at the driver then went to take care of another accident. The driver lost an entire 2 laps to the rest of the pack.

I saw this one person that was marshling 10 feet away from me just leave his post. After the race was over the owner had a good talk with him. That was one of my worst racing nights also because he had a friend who walked out in the track while I was racing. That sure pissed me off because I stripped a gear in my servo for the third time. And they didn't have the gear there so I wasn't able to race in the tournament when I was expecting a trophy that night because I was doing the best I have ever done on that track.

When some seven year old kid accidentally hit the switch on my speed control turning it off and to make matters worse, the little @$$ ripped off my front wheel while doing his marshalling!

I have seen a multiple car pile up and the turn marshall was trying to undo the mess, while he was holding his drink...............and i really love it when they leave there spots and go to talk to the friend at the other end of the track

A turn marshal jumping across the track and stepping on a car then falling on another which was mine.

i was leading and i stick my shell down with velcro on my t2, on the bit on the side of the chassis, and the stupid marshall couldn't see the velcro and he just pushed it on, adn i ran the race with my shell half falling off. i learned my lesson and used pins from then on

I was watching a race and a car had flipped over right behind one of the turn marshalls while he was helping another car, and when he stepped back he stepped onto the car. When this happened it broke the head off of the engine, disabling it for the rest of the race.

The time I hit another RC10GT head on and my air filter came off. A marshal put the air filter on another guys engine head where the glow plug is. My engine stalled because of the expensive air intake. Not to mention what the dust did to the carb. and the internal engine parts.

A marshal picked my RC10GT up by the front wheel and hurled it onto the wrong section of track. Not only did my engine stall from being upside down, but my body got fairly messed up and I lost the race.

Well, I see marshalls sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette. Also, those drivers who just plain old don't marshall! Instead they will work on their car.

The worst turn marshalling acts I've seen, are the drivers yelling at the marshalls....they are just trying to do their best so let them....

I have seen one of the worst mashalling acts at the old Grand Oval in NJ back in the early 90's. It was during an oval race on their huge indoor carpet oval. A corner marshal just up righted an overturned car when he slipped and fell. As he was laying on the floor, about five cars hit him square in the back. The car were wide open and entering the corner. He didn't get hurt or break any cars, but it sure was funny.

i saw a 230 pound gut step on a motor plate and tweak it so much that the upper part of it touched the motor!!

Worst corner marshalls, I've seen some doosies. One guy went to help a lone T2 driver get back on the track, when he accidentally kicked a Losi, and caused a huge wreck

Once while I was driving at the local track, I had the worst turn marshall ever. My pinion had fallen off in the first race so I only managed to get to the B-Mains. I was nearly a lap in front of everybody, and I hit some debris on the track my car flipped. After all the other guys had gained a half lap, the turn marshall noticed my car. He flipped it all the way over back on the lid. The first two guys behind me jumped over me and passed. He went back out and flipped it all the way back on the lid again. I was pissed because by now I was in last place. Then he slowly walked back out picked it up and set it down. I managed to work myself back into second place in the remaining 2 minutes but that wasn't enough to get to the A-Mains.

While leading the race, by about a half a lap, in our Cystic Fibrosis benefit race, a friend of the racer running in 2nd place ran out in front of me when he wrecked. I was clearing the table top and just landed when his giant foot landed on my B2 breaking it where the front bolts on. The marshal was running all the way across the track to get the car that was in front of a turn marshal 10 feet away, but he was waiting for the traffic to clear. I still was TQ and won the TQ race so the whole week end wasn't a loss.

The guy turned my car over on its top and stepped on it!

this kid is standing there and after about 20 SECONDS he decided to get it. He WALKS over to it and flip it over ,he starts to walk back and I had to yell at him because he didn't flip it over hard enough. It took him two more shots to turn it over.

this kid ran across the track and stepped on two rs4's

I hate it when people run across the track and get nailed by a car then they bitch about how much their ankle hurts. remember third grade, look both ways...

When the marshal watches anther spot or when he or she is talking not watching or not looking before they run for a flipped car then a car hits him or her in the ankle making the car have a slower time or might even make so they cant finish the race i think this a good idea to have all the Questions to help make every one a safer and smarter racer

I was in first and way ahead, I mean AHEAD! the marshall saw my car crash and ran over to get it. When he stopped to turn it, three xxcr's hit him in the shin at once and actually broke his ankle, the race kept going but he was cordoned off. the next day at the mains, he was marshalling with a cast 

Marshalling an pan car race, I saw a guy get spun out and head right for the wall. The corner marshall, not seeing the oncoming traffic, ran out to grab the car and got nailed in the leg. He fell, and the car that hit him was hit by another car that got launched clear over the wall and hit a little kid watching the race, it nearly knocked him out.

I have seen people that don't know what is going on and put the car on the wrong side of the track, then get yelled at. I confess. I have done it too. I can tell you some really bad stuff that racers have said and done, but that isn't what this week's question is.

Doing the Turn Marshall Shuffle on the way to your car.

I have seen people just run across the track without looking, they usually get nailed, then complain about how much their ankle hurts. I've even seen a guy step on three cars in a matter of about three second's. that's the stuff that makes people really mad.

Randy p.s. the rc10b3 rules

the marshall was arrested at his corner for robbing the hobby store down the road, all of the cars were piled up in that corner on the next lap.

The turn marshal that watches the race and not his spot

I have seen several, but the worst would have to be those that sit on their duff for 10 seconds, then go to get you. yet the best one I ever saw was when a marshall was on his way to get a car, he stepped on the leader luckily the leader and a big enough lead that he was able to continue, with a smashed body

The worst type of turn marshals are the ones who take their time getting your car and step on other cars in the process of it.

My friend and I race at a local track here in Cincinnati, and two weeks ago my friend marshalled for a 4wd race. He did fine until the race was over. About 5 seconds after the race director had called time, a pileup was caused by the launch ramp. Being a good little marshall, my friend went over to clean it up. While he was doing so, a XX4 came flying off of the launch ramp and hit my friend square in the ankle, breaking the car's $50.00 graphite chassis and the rear suspension arm, causing a total of $85.00 in damage.

SD

When you wreck in front of a marshall who is trying to illustrate a point to another racer and he picks up your car and uses it as an example in the discussion. Yes, it really happened, but I won't say where.

the big fat guy in the corner under the tree trying to get out of the sun.

I have been racing since the early 80's. My best advice stay out of trouble so you do not need a turn marshal. Just do your best and pay attention when you are out there think as if it were your car upside-down.

You wreaked your car not the turn Marshal think how long it would take if he was not there.

If we all think of it that way no problems.

A turn Marshal not seeing your car is the worst thing.

why does the track director put his six year old son that doesn't even know what the motor is at a corner where the kid can pick one up and tear it apart trying to figure out where the person sits in the car.

I would say after 10 yrs. of racing, most do a good job. Some are overzealous when they should look for oncoming traffic. It seems that the general consensus is the worst turn marshall is the one who is at the corner that you just turtled at.

I saw a marshall flip a nitro car over by the front bumper of the car and it ended up on its lid again. He then had to turn it over the right way.

The worst one I've seen was when I was behind the leader of an Expert Stock Buggy race and he wrecked. He had a comfortable enough lead to stay in front but the marshall didn't see the car that crashed. It took a moment for the driver to, you know, swear and yell marshall but by that time I had already passed him for the lead. In the end it costs him the race because he couldn't catch me after that. The funny part is that the guys son was the one that marshalled the car. Man, was that guy ******. I thought that he was gonna hit his son right there. He was very mad because it was the first race of a series and I am now leading in points. hehehe. The guy later told me that he chewed out his kid all the way home. He probably made him cry.

[Associated responds: Don't you just love family sports?]

I would have to say when the marshall has a pile up in his corner, and he puts' the last car in the pile the first one out! That one probably gets every ones goat!

I would have to say any time a expert driver has to marshall! Haven't you noticed that it's the end of the world when they need help. But when they are out there they take their sweet old time! The ones at the Ranch and M&M are really bad about it!!!!

I was racing in the main and one of my buddies crashed. A turn marshall picked up his car and looked at it for 30 seconds just to see what he had in it (motor, ESC, etc...). Everyone was yelling at him and finally he snapped back into reality and set the car down.

I was racing at one of my friends tracks with my RC10T3. I came around a corner and rolled. The turn marshall on that side walked over and picked it up but then threw it into the straight away barrier. I then had to go get it put it back on the track and run back over to the driver's stand. I ended up finishing 2nd out of eight people.

The worst acts i have ever seen in New Zealand are you crash and the marshels are watching the race instead of watching their corners or you crash then someone else crashes after you and they put the second car on the track before you

One kid at ON-Trax tore off my buggy wing!

me, tripping over track barriers to turn my brother's car back over in the final turn/lap of the race and wrecking the ten other cars behind him in the process

Big 2-day race in Illinois. Owner makes a big deal about paying attention while cornering right. He's cornering my main (A-main). I'm in the lead and I flip right in front of him but he's watching a friend. I didn't say a word. Finally someone behind him yelled. 8 seconds later I'm back in the race and finish 4th. 7 seconds behind first. He was real apologetic.

A turn marshall was flipping my car over and when he did he put right in front of a car that was going at full speed, the car hit mine and broke the front GRAPHITE suspension arm, disabling my car for the rest of the race which was the a-mains

really big 500 pound guys with emphysema, and someone breaking there ankle running to get a car

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