October Club News

September has been a busy and productive month across the Club with 20 members upgrading, important progress made on member engagement, Motorsport UK liaison, sponsorship activity, and planning for our 2026 AGM.

Sponsor engagement with Clapham North

We held a very positive set of meetings with George Grant (Clapham North), one of our key sponsors. The BMMC logo was proudly displayed on race cars at Anglesey and Silverstone, and further discussions are underway on how we can work together to raise our joint profiles together.

Membership satisfaction survey

Our 2026 Membership Satisfaction Survey closed on 18 September, with 432 responses received. Thank you to every member who took the time to share their views. We are now reviewing your feedback and will share headline results shortly.

Meeting with Motorsport UK

We met with Motorsport UK on 10 September to discuss several important topics affecting marshalling, including:

• Marshal retention and recruitment
• Advanced Flag module
• Cadet programme
• Kart marshal training
• Grading Pathway, with current focus on Rescue
• First on Scene guidance, now under review

Hugh Chambers and Clare Kirkpatrick thanked BMMC for our continued support and confirmed they look forward to working closely with us.

Motorsport UK marshal registration 2027

Marshal registration for 2027 is now open via Sport80. Motorsport UK has issued emails to all registered marshals explaining the process, so please check your inboxes.

If you experience any issues, please contact Mike Mulder at nat.members@marshals.co.uk

2026 National AGM is going online

Following feedback from the 2025 AGM regarding:

• travel costs
• difficulties of attending in Bicester
• clashes with the final Grand Prix of the year

In line with wider organisational trends our 2026 national AGM will be fully virtual and will take place on 6 December 2026 at 11:00am via Zoom.

Formal notices will be sent soon.

If you would like an item added to the agenda, please email bmmc.chair@marshals.co.uk

News from around the club

Ian Bowles in the South East region has been interviewed for the Team Brit Autumn magazine, It’s a great feature where Ian shares his marshalling journey and discusses his passion for breaking down barriers in motorsport.

The South East region also shared a great video created in partnership with Mahindra Racing showing the marshal perspective from the Formula E weekend.

Did you spot yourself in this recent MSUK video or in the latest edition of MSUKs Revolution magazine which has a huge feature on motorsport volunteers?

Regional spotlight on the Midlands

Each region is going to provide an update for the National BMMC Newsletter on a rotating basis. National aimed and hit the bullseye, so are starting in the middle with the Midlands region.

We will keep this short and snappy and update you on a few things that are happening in the Midlands which are different to some of the other regions.

Let’s start at the beginning of the marshal journey with recruitment, taster days and on-boarding. In the Midlands we have thanks to the Donington Park circuit our own permanent recruitment area. This is known as MP40, as on the old numbering system the last Marshal post was post 39 (12.1) and it also fits with garage numbering which has 38 garages and then Garage 39 is the MSV restaurant and bar area where we mainly sign on at Donington (and for most meetings have our breakfast roll/breakfast – The Orange Army Marches on its Belly!).

MP40 has a rolled Focus Cup car (Rolled at Croft by a driver named Croft!) and is staffed by Marshals on the larger meetings to recruit new marshals and increase awareness of what we do.

We have a program of taster days, which sometimes will run out of MP40 and if larger, and one is available will use a hospitality suite.

On joining the Midlands region, our new members are offered the chance to have a mentor. We have a small team of marshals who have agreed to be mentors for other marshals and new marshals who would like one are allocated a mentor.

The mentors provide a person to have a chat with, a port of call for those questions that they are not sure who to ask. Many of our mentors will arrange to meet over breakfast at sign on if at the same meeting to introduce our new members to other marshals and officials, and some even arrange to be on the same post for a new marshals first day. We hope this will add to the marshal experience and especially help on those nervous first days where we are not sure what we are doing or where we are going.

Then we are racing, which has included this year a very successful BMMC sprint at Curborough organised by our Region Chair, Steve Hill.

After all of this Marshaling it seems like time for a celebration, so that is what we are having. We are organising a marshals dinner on Saturday 27th February 2027, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kegworth DE74 2DF (a couple miles from Donington Park). There will a mystery motorsport guest speaker and much fun and celebration. If you want to come and join in then email Steve Allison (m.training@marshals.co.uk). We are all going to dress to impress and have realised that without our embroidered name badges no one knows who anyone is so name badges will be provided and for the purposes of this we will all be graded as social 3!

Training update

The recently announced Motorsport UK 2027 Growth Grant Scheme has been introduced to replace the previous BMT Grant Aid Award and is now the route by which your Regional Trainers can apply for funding for next years training.

The new scheme offers greater flexibility in the application process, allowing clubs to bid throughout the year rather than once. Your Regional Training Coordinators are responsible for the content of the training event so If you have any ideas or suggestions as to what you would like to see delivered, please get in touch with them.

A list of all training events will be available on the BMMC and BRMC’s website at the start of November, and updated regularly throughout the coming year.

Are you an existing Motorsport UK Trainer who qualified some time ago and would like a refresher in training delivery etc?  If so, please let Alan Page, our National Training Coordinator know as he is looking to organise a one-day session in the Birmingham area on 29 November. Please contact nat.training@marshals.co.uk for further details.