Hoorah the race season starts!

For those of you who follow my blogs you will know I'm a marshal for motorbikes and motorcars, mainly at Brands Hatch.  This year I'm going to marshal at Snetterton for the British Motorcycle Racing Club, affectionately known as Bemsee.  Bemsee will be the first bike club to race on the new Snetterton 300 track so more volunteers are needed. 

A couple of weekends ago we had our marshals training day followed by a track day for the rookie riders.  We even had them practicing starts (one of the most dangerous parts) in the most controlled environment that we could give them(unfortunately it rained).  I was fortunate enough to go up to Race Control to learn more about how the club runs. What amazes me is that the entire club is made up of volunteers.  It is mainly down to the generosity of time and petrol money, that the club can run at all.  The majority of the revenue from the riders' entrance fee, goes to paying for the track hire and the large amount of insurance needed.

Each week people spend most of the weekend waving flags, checking bikes for their bhp, checking the riders clothing or running Race Control, just so the club can find the next Casey Stoner (our most recent famous rider).  Some even take a written test to be qualified to carry out their role and just because they have a love of bikes and bike's racing.  Then on a Monday they return to their day jobs, some as rocket engineers, teachers or acupuncturists.  It astonishes me that the club runs at all and infact I believe runs well (although there is the odd moan and groan) with this small army of volunteers. 

Over the years I've worked in a variety of businesses and I've come across a large number of individuals who will never be happy in their job and because of that have caused endless problems that took up more and more management time.  Never happy because unfortunately they do it to pay the mortgage, and not because they have a passion.