“We definitely take it serious”, says Guido Kramer who is managing the team together with Stefan Gerlach. “We can only work together and not against each other. This is why we as a team want to understand the work of the marshals and vice-versa.” In spring 2014, Guido Kramer and Melanie Teige of the Team WikiSpeed had the opportunity to take part in a marshals’ training and acquire the licences to perform the duties of a marshal at the track. The Board of the German Track Safety team, represented by Michael Sadrinna and Wolfgang Meißner, had invited them to the training seminar.
The 24h Race 2014 was the first opportunity for the team to support the marshals in their duties and to learn how difficult the work at the Armco barriers is and how much responsibility they have to assume. “The night made things even more difficult”, said Kramer “it was exciting, impressive and we were exposed to a high pressure. We have never been alone considering that this was our first time and we were thus able to fully rely on the assistance and the support of the experienced marshals.”
At the 6h Race then, there were only two marshals supporting the team and followed the duties and the work in the pits. Nadine Meißner and Stefan Lülsdorf wanted to learn and understand the action around the teams in the pits. “I had the opportunity to drive the truck with the race car to the Ring on Thursday and assist in the set-up and installation procedures. That already was great fun and a big and totally new challenge for me. On Friday, the team encountered a technical problem on the brakes and I was able to get integrated into the team and to contribute to solving the problem. I was pushing hard for the BMW Z4 to compete. All the work done before the start should not have been in vain”, said Lülsdorf.
“I was also slightly nervous as I didn’t want to make a mistake but I was so well received by the whole team and never left alone. That was really cool”, said Stefan with a big smile when the problem was found and removed.
Nadine Meißner in contrast had previously already been a guest at a race as a spectator. This time, however, timekeeping was her duty together with Melanie. “When the cars pass the pit wall at a distance of some centimetres only, you feel a shake extending over the whole pit installations. When on duty, we are mostly behind the Armco barriers and there is the run-off area between the cars and us. But that was a huge experience today”, said Nadine. „The work that such a small team has to do before it is able to contest the event at all is unbelievable. You would never realize that out on the track. Either the car is driving or not, and we hardly ever get an information on the background out at the track“, added Meißner.
A friendship has meanwhile developed from this cooperation between the team and track safety and everybody has all reasons to be really proud of that. It is a matter of give and take on both sides. We wish to further pursue this project and hope that many others will follow this initiative and that we will get some new ideas from other teams and marshals. We are always open to any new ideas as we wish to further promote and exercise our sport as our hobby. And a hobby should always provide fun and no troubles.
Understanding and respect for the work of all parties involved and getting an insight into this work are very important elements which you have to develop. They are not written in any book.
