Turn Marshals

I need to give credit to the Turn Marshals. These unsung heroes are volunteers and with out their help the sport would be a lot more dangerous. Before I started racing a friend invited me to work the Champ Car races in Portland Ore. Wow, what a deal! Get to see the race up close and personal. We arrived at PIR on Friday morning and were directed to the inner field area. There was a spot reserved just for the turn workers to camp out. Up went the tent. The rest of the time was spent wandering the pits and paddock. Saturday morning out came the Colman stove and breakfast was cooked. I would rather be late for work (in this case the race) than miss breakfast. Most of the people in our area had donut and coffee in hand. After the workers meeting, we deployed to out to our stations. Basically the rest of the day was spent watching the cars fly by. After qualifications the workers had a huge party, complete with a beer truck that had built in taps on the side. The food was fantastic! The whole atmosphere was one of friends and family. I did not have any trouble going to sleep that night. Everyone was up early on Sunday and I cooked my usual breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns. This day promised to be a scorcher, not a cloud in the sky. Lucky for us we had an Easy-Up canopy to keep out of the sun. Once again, the race was uneventful. Late that afternoon we packed up gave good-bys and headed home.