It was a warm summer's day at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and I was marshalling on Hangar Straight. The race thus far has been quite uneventful, that is until I received a radio message from Race Control asking me to remove someone who had managed to get onto the track. I looked behind me to see an Irish priest running up Hangar Straight carrying several hand made signs which I assume were of a religious nature. Cars were coming through Chapel Corner at full race speed as he ran directly towards them, cars swerved to miss the idiot and as soon as they had passed me, I ran onto the track, caught up with the priest, tackled him to the ground and dragged him clear of the circuit.
Like so many things in motor sport, it seemed to last for ages when in fact it was all over in a matter of seconds and the safety car was recalled and the race resumed.
I have often wondered what possessed the man, Neil Horan, to do such a foolhardy thing and put his life and mine in so much danger and can only assume he was not of sound mind and body at the time.
I am sure David Coulthard will remember that race as I believe it was the one where a part of his cockpit came free which also caused a safety car to be deployed?
The best thing to come from the whole episode was the ability to use the occasion to help recruit new people to the marshalling community, which at the time, was seeing numbers gradually decrease. Thankfully, since then due to the efforts of so many people our numbers have grown and there is no fear of race meetings being called off due to a lack of volunteer marshals.
If you would like to know a bit more about marshalling and how you can become involved, why not drop me an e-mail and I will put you in touch with someone at a circuit near you?
Stephen Green
National Public Relations Officer
British Motorsport Marshals Club.
Memory added on June 19, 2014
Comments (Add your voice)
No comments have yet been added to this memory.
