SIXTY members of the volunteer force that keeps Jamaican motorsports running received Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) certification after an intense three-day training session at the Spanish Court Hotel, St Andrew, recently.

The session ran from September 14 to 16.

“Twenty-eight marshalls and 32 senior officials were trained and certified,” said Marcia Dawes, project manger and national coordinator of Women in Motor Sport Commission (WMC).

This was 15 over the original target.

Steven Weston and Adrian Fawdington of Motor Sports Association (MSA), the FIA-appointed Regional Training Providers out of the United Kingdom, ran the workshops. With over sixty years of marshalling experience between them, they were happy with the quality of the training candidates.

“Marshalling is a story of two halves. Without marshals no racing can take place. Competitors need them and vice-versa,” said Fawdington.

The three-day workshops were part of the FIA- International Officials Safety Training programme, a worldwide effort on behalf of the FIA, the governing world Motorsports body, which began in 2008. Local training was facilitated by a US$42,000 grant to the Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club (JMMC), the local representative for the FIA, announced in June of this year and supported by Spanish Court Hotel, Xsomo, Bell Communications, Peak Bottling, Tru-Juice and Tragedy Entertainment.

“The workshops were designed to create a better, more enlightened and empowered marshal to advance motorsports safety in Jamaica,” added Fawdington.

Both were satisfied that Jamaica has a high standard of marshalling in view of the enthusiasm and leadership they encountered over the three days. Some of the topics covered were the roles and responsibilities of the scrutineers, communication and leadership in motorsports, and proper incident/report writing procedures.

“This has confirmed that there are some things that we’re getting right,” commented Donald Fuller, one of the participants and a member of the Jamaica Marshalling Club.