Meals at doington Park WSB

Can anyone name an International event were there is no food available after 6pm in the evening?  Yes it's the WSB at Donington this year. As marshals we were not off circuit until after 5:30pm, by the time we managed to get back and cleaned up the cafe had closed, the Bar was only doing dodgy flat larger at £3.50 a pint and no food. An absolute shambles for an event of this nature.

I have no doubt it will be the same for MotoGP which is a shame because the organisers get us for free, thats 10hrs a day for 3 days and they forget that without us there would be no racing, therefore no income.

Heres an idea, with all the hospitality tents available, mostly empty (at least when we walked round) why does'nt a team adopt a corner and provide some food and drink for the marshals on that corner when the day has finished, after all we give their riders hospitality when they visit us!

well said, it really is a shambles, when you think of the money that donington makes, and the organisers and the teams it really is shocking to think that the most dangerous position within the organisation of a meeting (marshalls) are all there voluntarily (ie not being paid) and that said marshalls then have to walk through the paddock full of hospitality suites to scavenge some grub from where they can find it.

i hear that a couple of letters have been sent to the relevant people about a dedicated burger van or a BBQ sponsored by the teams laid on at night for the marshalls and medics. And also about the terrible state of the toilets and overpriced muck served in the bar at the marshalls campsite.

I know this may be slightly off-subject, but...

The marhsalls that cover trackdays and club meetings; how does their treatment differ (if at all) compared to the larger world events?

Do any of the clubs osrt you out?

My missus and I always made a point of thanking your sort at trackdays. We were due to race this year but the recession etc put a stop to it.

We were planning on telling the orange brigade to come over to our tent and get ea and biccies etc; the least we could do seeing as it's who fish us outta the gravel and talk sense to us when all we anna do is get back on a banged-up bike and keep going.

Surely if two normal (?) people like us can find it in our hearts to say thanks and plan a simple bit of comfort for you, then an organisation like Donington Park Ventures and W/BSBK can sort something out?

its bizzare how club level guys (usually the ones without the £££) make a massive effort to help and be friendly and the top dogs (the guys with £££ coming out of every orifice) cant be bothered with us.

dont get me wrong the organisation with regards to the racing and the running of the event was excellent as usual (big credit to dave stewart and all the ACU crew) it is just silly that donington park cant look after the very people that keep it in business by week in/week out volunteering their weekends to earn donington park more £££

My god this is appalling, I knew you marshalls worked voluntarily, but I always assumed that you were kinda "looked after", in that you have access all areas and hence access to hospitality tents etc. and ok trackdays and club events may be run of the mill, but surely the perk would be working the big events - obviously not

I don't do trackdays or race, I do enjoy spectating though - thank you for making it all possible.

Has anyone asked for one of the Visordown Mag team to ask the question to Donington owners/organisers themselves??  it would be good to see what they have to say on the subject.  i too, as did iMarcus, thought you guys where looked after in kind.  a bit of free grub here, a few beers and a chance to mix with the stars.  It is appalling that you are thought so little of!!!  i hope you get this sorted out asap. 

PS: is it just Donington that is bad or is it the same at most BSB weekends and other high brow forms of Motorsport??

I think the question would be ignored mate.

Donignton Park has a real skill in ignoring people.

Like I said elsewhere.... Simon Gillett is not the problem up there, it's that he is surrounded by assholes.

If he was in a position to be more 'face to face' with people, I think a lot of these issues would have been addressed by now and the likes of our revered track marshalls here would be much better taken care of.

But he can't be everywhere at the same time.

I think sometimes it's easy to assume (for the general public) that the marshalls are part of the track staff, and so (as already said) they are catered for.

The teams and organisers visiting a track would generally be aware of this, but I guess they tend to put it to one side as they have other issues to contend with.

And so the marshalls get forgotten, or deliberately ignored.

If a large enough group (marshalls and NON marshalls-riders,racers etc) all brought the situation to the masses' attention, then perhaps things may slowly start to change.

Rather than rant and rave at the venues, 'shame' them into recognising their neglect over the years?

MCN and TWO would be great avenues to do this perhaps?

I'm not in the know on such subjects, but is there any legislation/safety guidlines/rules etc that govern such basic facilites like this for tracks side workers??

i cant really blame anyone in particular, its perhaps our fault in that we didnt check that redgate bar had stopped serving food and that the pitstop diner was closed.

we dont want anything for free, just somewhere that is open so we can purchase some kind of food. spoke to a guy running a burger van and he explained that they all had to close so early as donington charged massive rates for the pitch on which they operated

 the campsite was selling some form of grub (one night out of the three) but for the other two nights we were a bit stuck, thankfully one of the chinese food stands took pity on us and sold us their left overs and thankfully dave let us use his microwave.

i do think that the teams could spare a corner of their hospitality suites, the food smelled soooo good when we wandered through.

for the moto gp please could donington park inform us in advance if the facilitys are going to be second rate so we can bring food with us. and if the idea of teams sponsoring a corner goes ahead, i got dibs on rossis tent!!!

Pussy are sponsoring my missus next year!!!

Straight up!

She'll have the fastest little pussy in the midlands lol

Seriously.

I AM trying lol

Asked her for similar on another thread here so I'll need to pamper her over the weekend... or get her blind drunk and then put her on the bike on her skimpiest bikini before she starts sobering up lol