United States Grand Prix 10/31 - 11/02
Terry A. and Jim S recently spent some time in Texas to help out at the United States Grand Prix held at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) near Austin. We arrived a bit late because of mechanical problems with our plane in Indianapolis. Registration for marshals closed just a few minutes after we arrived but we made it.
We weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into. We had flagged for several races at IMS but the information coming from the Flag Chief made us wonder. We learned about lift points on the various cars, how to tell if the chassis was electrified (electrician's glove recommended), and a variety of hand signals.
It was all made clear in our first meetings. At COTA the flag marshals are the intervention team. There are drivers for the recovery vehicles but the marshals are expected to be first on the scene with a fire extinguisher.
Our post was in the middle of a long straight. FIA regulations require a flag station every 500 meters and we were assigned the middle of the straight. Our station was at the beginning of the DRS zone. We were able to see the rear wing open as the cars entered the zone. We were surprised to see one of the DRS signs broken and outside the wall when we arrived Sunday morning. As fussy is FIA is about everything, we were sure that the sign would be fixed and replaced before the race, but it did not happen.
The station was pretty quiet for most of the three days. During one of the Porsche races two cars got together side to side and looked like they were coming right at us but they continued. Terry got into the action when a Sahara Force India car came to a stop about 50 meters from our station. He and our station chief were dispatched to assist in removing the car from the track. He had on his electrical gloves (safe up to 1000 volts) but was relieved to see the green light on the car indicating that it was safe to touch. They hooked up the car to the recovery vehicle and then helped guide it to a safe location outside the wall.
We weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into. We had flagged for several races at IMS but the information coming from the Flag Chief made us wonder. We learned about lift points on the various cars, how to tell if the chassis was electrified (electrician's glove recommended), and a variety of hand signals.
It was all made clear in our first meetings. At COTA the flag marshals are the intervention team. There are drivers for the recovery vehicles but the marshals are expected to be first on the scene with a fire extinguisher.
Our post was in the middle of a long straight. FIA regulations require a flag station every 500 meters and we were assigned the middle of the straight. Our station was at the beginning of the DRS zone. We were able to see the rear wing open as the cars entered the zone. We were surprised to see one of the DRS signs broken and outside the wall when we arrived Sunday morning. As fussy is FIA is about everything, we were sure that the sign would be fixed and replaced before the race, but it did not happen.
The station was pretty quiet for most of the three days. During one of the Porsche races two cars got together side to side and looked like they were coming right at us but they continued. Terry got into the action when a Sahara Force India car came to a stop about 50 meters from our station. He and our station chief were dispatched to assist in removing the car from the track. He had on his electrical gloves (safe up to 1000 volts) but was relieved to see the green light on the car indicating that it was safe to touch. They hooked up the car to the recovery vehicle and then helped guide it to a safe location outside the wall.
