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Turn-Marshalling Tips
Daytona's TOP 10 suggestions for making racing better while marshall

1.)  If you're new, find a spot where nobody wrecks so you aren't overwhelmed. (sweeper turns, straights, etc.)

2.)  Pay attention to your area and your area only.

3.)  Keep track of your feet at all times. This way you'll avoid stepping on cars, slipping on pipes, etc. Note: One position at my local track has me dead-center looking out over the infield, with only the backstretch behind me. I'll press one shoe up against the side of the pipe, so I can focus on the infield. If someone hits the pipe, I'll feel it through my foot and know there's a wreck on the backstretch.

4.)  Most tracks will have one long straight that everybody knows as "the long straight." We've created a habit at my local track that if somebody crashes on the straight, we become NASCAR spotters and call out "go high" or "go low" to the driver's stand to avoid high-speed impacts.

5.)  Teach good etiquette by refusing to marshal cars who are spinning their tires. If you go to marshal a flipped car and the guy's just holding the throttle, stoop down as if to pick it up, but wave your hands over the car as if to say "I'm not going near it." You shouldn't have to risk getting burnouts on your palms or getting your fingers sent through gears just because some a-hole is getting impatient. Wearing some dirt bike gloves are a good way to keep your fingers protected from getting burned on the hot engines and pipes.

6.)  Watch out before letting a car go. If possible, while your going for a car glance up the track to see if anyone's coming. If not, check just before you set the car going again. Nothing irritates drivers like marshals throwing one car on top of another.

7.)  Always set the car back down. It's the driver's car, he's driving it, it's his. That being said, he decides when it's wrecked. I've lost more than one race from a kid who always thought something was broken, and would pick up my truck and thoroughly examine every inch of it before setting it down. Don't be that kid. If a car breaks and the driver decides it's done, he'll limp over to wherever he can. If it happens to be near you, the marshal, flip the car upside down where you're standing or hand it to someone if you're marshalling near the edge of the track. If you aren't in a busy position and it appears to be a popped ball cup, etc., you can try to fix it, as long as you stop to marshal other cars still racing. Don't try to turn the car off, unless it's glitching and the driver would rather not have to pay for stripped servo gears and blown transmissions.

8.)  Sometimes you'll marshal in a hairpin turn and you'll get stuck. Cars are both approaching the turn and exiting. In this case, priority #1 is to make yourself as small as possible to avoid obstructing the view of the track. Crouch down as low as you can until there's an opening in traffic. It's also a good idea to face the driver's stand when you crouch, because the front of your body is taller than your rear. This way drivers can see over your back.

9.)  Catch cheaters. We all love and support the tracks we race at, and if there's one thing that drives new people away from a venue, it's people who jump corners and get away with it. If you see a driver skip part of the track, whether it's an accident or otherwise, make an effort to hold them in position. Racing electric stadium trucks, the best way I've found is to grab the rear spoiler area of the body and hold the back tires off the ground. If the driver was racing in a pack, let him go as they go by so he can pick up where he left off. No harm, no foul.

10.)  As a side note to #9, if you happen to screw up when you marshal (for example, you have to wait for other cars to go by before crossing the track or the car slips out of your hand as you go to pick it up), do yourself and other drivers a favor and apologize by letting them skip a small part of the track to pick up where they would have been if you hadn't messed up. Nobody's perfect, and we should all understand that.