Working the "Service" area

[bobylax]

Last year at the Prescott Rally we were working road blocks along the course, this year we're assigned to the "Service" area. Can anyone shed some light on what to expect and what might be expected of us? Thanks.

[Bruce]

You'll doubtless be helping the service crews find their spaces and get set up. When cars start competing - and retiring - you'll help get information to the crews so they can recover their cars. When cars are in service, you may be called on to observe things like jackstand and fire extinguisher use. If you're a ham, you'll be doing the communications for the service area...answering questions like, "My car's not here. Any news on car xyz?"

Bruce

[bobylax]

You'll doubtless be helping the service crews find their spaces and get set up. When cars start competing - and retiring - you'll help get information to the crews so they can recover their cars. When cars are in service, you may be called on to observe things like jackstand and fire extinguisher use. If you're a ham, you'll be doing the communications for the service area...answering questions like, "My car's not here. Any news on car xyz?"

Bruce

Cool! Thanks for the info. We do a bunch of off-road events, and are usually really involved with the race, but last year we just did road blocks at the Prescott Rally, and were really just spectators. Since this rally is in our back yard, we're looking forward to being more involved.

[Xman]

The real job is to keep my service crew sober....

[Audi UrQ]

There's also an MTC In and MTC Out at the Prescott service, so you may be asked to collect time cards and declared times at MTC In, distribute new time cards to the teams during service, and write down times and hold cars until their release minute at MTC Out.

Also, I believe the service area at Prescott is at the gas station again, so there shoud be ready access to food, drink and restrooms.

[hoche]

I'll be CRO for the event and will likely be hanging out at service for a good chunk of the day, so I can show you the ropes.

And don't worry about Kevin's service crew. I can handle that pack o' ruffians...

[seagull]

Also, I believe the service area at Prescott is at the gas station again, so there shoud be ready access to food, drink and restrooms.

This is the biggest advantage of working service. You don't get to watch cars go fast, but you do usually get ready access to hot food and flush toilets. ;)

[Bruce Beauvais]

We worked STPR's Morris service few years ago as the "Angels of Death" AKA Service radio. We had two people which worked well. Upon arrival, I walked around the service area and made a rough map of where each crew was located and what their car number was. Some were pretty suspicious of why we were asking the car number. We just said we were the radio operators and if they saw us again it's not likey to be good news- thus the "Angels of Death". We also had a small white board.
When information came in about a car, we'd write a brief note on the board, "Car #xx off in SS2- OK" or some thing similar. Or we'd just note a car number so that someone would know we had info for that crew. The person not working the radio would consult the map
and go over to the crew to pass whatever message we had.
If you're not the actual radio op, you could still do the map and the white board to assist service radio. As Bruce said, you may be assigned other duties.

[Bruce]

For the last two years, we've assigned an FRS channel to the service area in the Supps. When a car goes out, we attempt to inform the crew via FRS before wandering around looking for them. Almost everybody can scare up an FRS...and it's starting to catch on.

[bobylax]

Thanks for all the advice and tips. We ended up helping at the "fueling station", making sure fire extiguishers were in hand, motors off, etc... as the service area was over staffed.

[seagull]

That's a good idea. When I did service at Wild West this time I wished I'd brought an FRS radio for talking to the service coordinator, who was doing most of the running for me.