Work Assignments
To keep autocross an affordable weekend sport for all, everyone who races will be given Work Assignments on race day. Every session has two run groups - you will be racing in one group and working when the other group is racing. Here are some examples of the various kinds of work assignments you may be given:
Course Worker
Commonly known as "scrubbing cones", most people will be asked to perform this critical work assignment. You will be standing in a safe position next to the track and be in charge of watching a section of the course. If you should see that a cone has been hit or moved, you will go quickly onto the course to reset it. As this job provides a great up-close view of the action, it's the recommended work assignment for novices.
Note: If you have health problems that prevent you from being able to run or stand for a long period of time, alternative work assignments can be arranged during registration on race day.
Waivers
As a worker in charge of waivers, you will be positioned near the entrance to the grounds of the race track property. You will be requesting everybody - including visitors - who comes onto the grounds to sign an insurance waiver, with additional documents for minors if necessary.
Please Help! We are especially in need of volunteers for this work assignment. If you are willing to perform this job, please bring it up to the Chief of Waivers before race day.
Corner Captain
More experienced racers may be asked to perform the role of a Corner Captain. As a Corner Captain, you will be standing next to the course along with Course Workers and reporting penalties to Course Control. For example, should a car hit a cone, you will make a report, via radio, like "Station Three, Red Subaru, One Cone." You will also be required to wave a red flag at cars should any emergency stoppage be necessary.
Course Control
As Course Control, you will be positioned near the timing shed with a view of the whole course, and you will be receiving penalty calls from the various Corner Captains. As each car finishes a run, you will report its cumulative penalties to the Timing Crew.
Timing Crew
The crew within the timing shed have arguably the most chaotic and stressful work assignments, which is why we frequently stress that they must never be interrupted in any way while they're on the job.
The two primary timing crew positions are Data Entry and Recorder. Both will be in charge of applying all measured times and penalties to the correct racer and car, based on the timing equipment and the verbal reports from Course Control. The Recorder does that with pen and paper and writes on Timing Cards, while Data Entry works with a laptop.
They both provide auditable verification at the end of the race, and the redundancy helps to identify and correct errors. In addition, Data Entry is in charge of entering every competitor's race information, in the correct order, into the score keeper software. The faster this is done, the earlier the racing gets to start. Any errors detected would likely stop the race and require immediate correction before resuming. Good teamwork from Data Entry and Recorder are critical whenever things get disorganized out on the track!
We are always looking to form 'teams' of people who work well together to become our timing crews. This is a great way to become intimately involved with the inner workings of running an autocross event. If you are interested in becoming a member of an elite, core team, we're more than happy to start training you! Just let the Chief of Timing know.
Announcer
The third person in the timing shed is the announcer. For some, that is easily the most fun job around. As the announcer, you get to channel your inner sports car commentator, and help make everybody's day just so much more special! Behind the scenes, however, the announcer is also ready to help the timing crew should things get a little chaotic, as it frequently does.