Does snatching promote poor marshalling?

[Andrew Hornsey]

In the light of the earlier thread, I would like to ask "does snatching promote poor marshalling".

I have been around a bit now (No funny comments from those that know me :-)) and have seen marshalling at many circuits using many different techniques. I have only operated as a snatch crew member twice, but have acted as an IO working with Snatch crews on many occasions.

I seem to find that the use of a snatch vehicle can lead to a team on the corner being less likely to deal with an incident, because the snatch vehicle will do it.

I have always thought that as the entrants pay a lot of money to go racing, our job is to keep them in the race when ever possible.

I know that Donington and Silverstone have unusually large gravel traps (Damn those F1 cars)and that moving cars can be a difficulty, but the number of times that people try seems to be decreasing.

It is not difficult, even on a poorly manned post to move many race vehicles. Just get the driver to pop it into top gear and turn it over on the starter to assist - you will very quickly get to know if it is possible to move it. I know this from experience - 2 marshls on post 4 at Donington, one caterham 20 + metres into the gravel, and one happy driver when he got back into the race.

I know that risk management is part of running a post, but the other side to this coin is what risk is there of a car hitting a snatch vehicle casing serious injury or worse to the driver or the snatch crew.

Long live good old fasioned marshalling

Andrew