Pocono Day Two - Learning to be a Corner Worker

It takes a lot of people to put on a race. There are the registration people, the chief steward (who works the schedule with the other club sharing the track with us, settles disputes, etc.) the Tech Inspector who makes sure all the cars get an inspection to make sure they’re legal and safe, a pit steward who makes sure racers are lined up and that the track is clear before sending us out, race control who gets info from and to everyone who has a walkie-talkie; emergency staff – paramedics and tow vehicles, corner workers – one for each series of turns at the track, and I’ve probably forgotten a few. It is a requirement in our club that every rookie spend one full race day being a corner worker. Since I’m racing in the southern series, the Pocono race does not score points for me so I thought this would be a great time to serve my time as a corner worker.
They paired me up with Dani Jackson. Dani is one of the few girls who race in the club. She is a high-school chemistry teacher and as I learned during the day, has been racing for quite a few years and has worked closely with my car’s builder, AJ. As a teacher Dani is also a great coach. When we went out to corner number one she began telling me what the duties of a corner worker consist of. Our primary job is to watch the cars go through our turn and the one after where we are stationed and to let the racers know of anything unusual on the track, by displaying the appropriate flag. Unusual includes what you would expect, any kind of accident or spin, any car either slow or stopped on track, any kind of debris that might damage a car or cause it to go off. But it also includes noting oil on the track, wildlife on the track, any emergency equipment on track, or anything else we think needs to be communicated to the racers so that they can stay safe. We also have a walkie-talkie so that we can hear from race control what is going on, when the race will start, how many laps are left, and, of course, so that we can report anything happening in the corners for which we’re responsible. Fortunately we didn’t have to do any emergency things, but corner workers are also the first ones to a wreck and will be responsible for making sure drivers are OK, ignition is turned off (there’s a master kill switch on the back of every car), and generally being a first responder.
I was prepared for a fairly boring day, but as it turned out, with Dani’s coaching, it was anything but. She not only coached about the flagger/corner worker responsibilities, but as we watched racers go by – from rookies to very experienced drivers, she helped me see differences in the line they were taking through the turns, when they hit the brakes, when they accelerated, where they were looking, how they managed passing and being passed – it was really instructive.
Turn one was also a great place to see the vintage cars as they streamed past. There were old Porsches, a couple of old Alfas, a Sunbeam, an original Mini, several MG-As, one MG-TD (the first sports car I ever rode in when I was about six), several Lotuses, a few Triumph TR-3s, and a number of cars I couldn’t identify. It was fun.
So – I can now see why this is a requirement – it gives a driver much greater respect for the corner workers’ job and what they do to help make the whole race day possible.