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I Wanna Be A CAMS Official

eXc

By eXc,
in Motorsport Discussion & Builds

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eXc Mentor

eXc

Posted
Posted

Who here is a CAMS official?

I want to be one. I have my L2S license, I am a member of MG Car Club Newcastle.

I am wanting to get involved in a few of the events to start with and get a feel for it, then I want to start organising some events such as motorkhanas and maybe practice drift days (by this I mean a small area like the ones we use for motorkhana, but have a few reasonably open corners instead of the tigher motokhana tracks)

I am not able to make a drive to sydney to go drifting, atleast not easily. So I see 2 options. (1) do it on the street, or (2) do it via the club.

I need to know what official should I be...steward etc etc. The CAMS site didn't make sense to me, so if someone could explain what licenses (position?) I should go for and what that position involves.

How many officials do you need at an event, and what 'positions' are they? Obviously I want to get a drive, so I will have to make sure there are others in the club that will take x job so I can drive everynow and then.

Cheers

Chris

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Kel Veteran

Kel

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Posted

The deal basically is that you start out ungraded, as a 'trainee' and you work at an event under direct supervision.

You need to do this for 3 events before you move up to the next grade, and then if you want to move through further grades you need to attend special training run by CAMS. The real difference in grades is that the higher you go, the more responsibility you get and the less supervision you require!

There are heaps of categories for officials: here's a link to the CAMS page which I think gives a pretty good explanation:

http://www.cams.com.au/content.asp?PageID=...ials&ObjectID=2

If you're into khanas, I'd say you'd be best starting out in the 'T' Category- which covers Timekeepers, Results Staff, Scorers, Handicappers and Spotters.

I'd suggest you to talk to your club (which I think is running an event on 27 March?) about helping out. Let them know what you'd like to do and I'm sure they'll jump at the offer of extra help!

The MG guys are very professional when it comes to running events, especially motorkhanas, so I'd also imagine they'd have something already in place for training up officials.

Let us know how you go.

Kel Veteran

Kel

Posted
Posted
one thing though. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to compete at an event you are officiating at. something to think about.

Depends on the type of event really, though I think you need to get permission.

To get your National Circuit Licence you need to do flag marshalling. I had a mate get permission to do this at a State Champs race meet where he was competing.

I have also noticed that some of the admin officials at motorkhanas also compete.

Kel Veteran

Kel

Posted
Posted
ahh. cool. I didn't mean just from a rules point of view, I meant more from time constraints on the day. but I'm sure it could be done if you are keen enough :D

Haha- you'd be surprised how much sitting around, wasting time there is at race meets. You get 15 mins on the track, the 5 hours sitting in the garage waiting for the next race (provided you don't break anything!)

eXc Mentor

eXc

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Kel, you seem to know what you are talking about, are you able to tell me what officials are required for a MotorKhana, and a drift meeting?

yeah I realise I can't compete with certain official positions. I don;t know which they are, but yes I do realise. I plan to go to events which I won't be competing in to get trained, then hopefully organise some drift. But I will be EXTREMLY annoyed if it ends up I never get to drive. I am hoping that I can work something with the MG guys along the lines of "i'll do the dirt motorkhanas and hill climbs, if u do the tar motorkhanas and drift" Failing that, I might try to get some sydney guys to do the same, i'd be willing to go to sydney to official, but not to compete. so maybe i can find sum1 with the same logic for newcastle.

There is a tar motorkhana on the 12th, which I will be participating in, I am unsure what else is on this month. I am pretty sure there is an MG only khana, that could be the 27th?

I have read that page you linked me too, but some of it just doesn't make sense...like timekeeper, scorer, scrutineer...they make sense...but what about stewards? They need to give more detail as to what a steward does.

THe MG car club wanted me to go along to a meeting to find out more, but I have trouble making it. So it proved difficult to get the info I required. I am hoping someone on here can say "this is what u need to do drift and motorkhanas"

Kel Veteran

Kel

Posted
Posted
Kel, you seem to know what you are talking about

:Paranoid: ummmm errrr yeah, that'd be me :Paranoid:

Well, I'm not quite the expert on this, but this is what I know based on what I've seen/experienced in the past couple of years. For a motorkhana, I think you'd need:

Clerk of Course- The grand poobah basically. They're responsible for running the show and making sure everyone follows the event regs. They're also the lucky bastard who puts their house on the line when they take out the the permit for the event

Event Secretary/ Admins- these are the people who have the thankless task of organising entries, CAMS paperwork, and publication of results etc etc etc.

Stewards- these are not organisers, they're CAMS officials who make sure the organisers follow the event regs and also hear and rule on any disputes

Judges / Starters/ Timekeepers- pretty self explanatory I think :) These guys get you on your way, make sure you do the course right/ don't knock anything over/ and finish inside the garage.

Course Checkers – more officials appointed by CAMS. They would come into play usually in something like the Nationals, where they need to make sure the courses comply with the regs.

Scrutineers- these guys make sure cars are safe- they usually check everything is secure, tyres have tread, stuff like that. They get more technical when you get into things like circuit racing, where there is more room to bend the rules!

Technical Officers - again, these officials probably only come into play in the serious comps (like National titles)- they work with scruitneers to make sure cars are in the right category- ask Neil and Duncan what they think of these blokes over a beer sometime!

I am not all that familiar with drift events, but from what I've seen I'd imagine the officials required are pretty similar to khana (or circuit for that matter). You'd also have:

Flag Marshals- the guys who stand in those little posts and watch the action on the track, reporting any incidents and accidents to the stewards, and also waving flags to communicate with drivers. They might also be supported by Spotters, who sit around the track and report anything these guys might have missed.

Special Marshals - e.g. fire marshalls, pit lane marshalls- basically flag marshalls without the flags! They report incidents to the stewards which happen in the areas they look after.

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