MMP Marshal Rewards Day

Marshals are the unsung volunteers in motorsport. Come rain, hail or shine, they stand in the middle of forests, at the side of closed roads, at race circuits and other venues in all conditions, helping to ensure the safe running of motorsport events across the country.

There are literally thousands of these unpaid volunteers across the world and without them, motorsport events would simply fail to run.

It’s rare that they receive a ‘thank you’ for their sterling efforts but in Northern Ireland, an organisation called the Motorsport Marshalling Partnership (MMP) helps ensure that marshals are rewarded for the time that they dedicate to motorsport.

As well as training marshals for their roles, the MMP also organises an annual ‘Rewards Day’, where marshals have the opportunity to get passenger runs in rally cars.

This year’s MMP Rewards Day took place last weekend at Kirkistown Race Circuit and was hailed as the most successful rewards event in the MMP’s history. More than 30 competitors gave up their day to say ‘thank you’ to the marshals, with each bringing their rally cars to the County Down venue to take the marshals for a spin.

More than 70 marshals attended the horsepower fuelled day, with a variety of rally cars giving them the ride of their lives around the race circuit. And after a day of sliding round the track, there were more than 70 beaming faces when it was time to go home.

“It was great to see so many happy faces,” said Northern Ireland’s Go Motorsport Regional Development Officer Jonathan MacDonald, who also took his Evo 1 rally car to the track. “It’s nice to have an opportunity to give something back to the marshals, who put in so much effort during the course of the year.”

“We’re so lucky to have an organisation such as the MMP in Northern Ireland,” he continued. “It was set up 12 years ago with the aim of recruiting more marshals, encouraging them to help at more events, training them to ensure high safety standards, and rewarding them for their efforts.”

“If anyone would like to find out how they can become involved in motorsport, perhaps as a marshal, spectator or competitor, they can log on to GoMotorsport.net or TheMMP.com to find out more,” he added.