Top Ten Things a Trackworker Won't tell You by: Jeremy Bell

Top 10 things a Turnworker will never tell you:

10.	We'd rather not put a Flag out. 
	So, if we do, its important.
	And if we wave it, it's *really* important. 
	And if we wave it dramatically, it's *really really* important.
  
9. 	The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. 
	If you breakdown on the track, we'll try to get you back to the pits.
	But we can't holdup 50 riders in the next group while the crash truck
	makes a lap.

8. 	We don't know squat about racing lines. 
	If a worker tries to tell you the best line thru a corner, smile, nod
	politely and ignore them.
	If a worker asks you to move out of an impact-zone, do it...

7. 	We're Fans too.
	We have the second-best seats in the house, and enjoy good, close but
	most of all safe, racing.


6. 	We look after ourselves first.
	It seems counter-intuitive, but if incidents happen, our priorities
	are: Ourselves - if we get hurt we can't help, and it makes it worse
	for everyone else Riders still on track - everyone would like to keep
	a 1-bike incident from escalating Downed Rider. 

5. 	We didn't see it.
	We try to scan the whole turn all the time. We almost never see the
	start of an incident, only when that scraping sound happens.
	So don't be surprised if a worker can't support your crash appeal... 

4. 	To a Handler. theres only two real classes of bikes.
	Light bikes and Heavy bikes.

3. 	Turnworking is 50% boredom, 45% excitement and 5% sheer terror..

2. 	We talk about you.
	There's 40 bored pair of eyes watching the track, and a constant
	stream of information on the land-line about riders and bikes. We
	notice erratic riding, great riding, loose components, bikes in wrong
	class, even unzipped leathers....

1. 	We won't recognize you without your clothes.
	That is, without your leathers, helmet and most of all, AFM number.