[Music] And welcome to the Trekside podcast, the podcast for motor sports marshals. Jessica Altoff, I'm Jamie Osborne. We talk about all kinds of things related to motor sports marshaling since F1 season has begun. Miami has just taken place a little while ago. But we thought we'd spend the episode and kind of look back on Miami. Met some interesting characters, had some interesting experiences, and we're going to introduce you in this episode to a very interesting marshal. And he's somebody I have the pleasure of bumping into at the airport. His name is Tony Shepherd. But more on him in a little bit, Jessica, how was your Miami experience? It was great. It really exceeded my expectations. I hadn't been to Miami in a couple years. And so when I got the call to come back, I thought, "Okay, we'll try it again." And I really enjoyed it. I did something different this time. I was the backup flag comms communicator on the radio, not the landline. And the first time doing that at the F1 level, done a bunch of comms in, you know, in other things, Dakota, but the first time doing breakfast, that was pretty cool. Cross it off the bucket list. And hopefully I wasn't too much of a jerk on the radio. So if you were listening on the radio at Miami, if you were in a TSP operator, I think they were... Yeah, CPMs and TSP operators. That voice you heard in your head, that was Jessica. Sorry about that. No, I thought you did a great job. I wasn't able to listen to you most of the time for my own circumstances. But yeah, the times I was listening to you were doing a great job. Well, thank you. It was a great team and I worked alongside Mary Du Young, who was the lead comms. She got the landline and she was really great to work with. She just kind of let me do my thing. You know, it wasn't a lot of, you know, "Hey, just go, go for it." And it was a really good experience. So I hope it was all right for everybody. Well, you know, I was just kind of filling in. So, you know, if that was a one and done, great. I was happy to have the experience. So anyway, how about you? You were the chief of start? Yes. Yes, this is a Grand Prix number 16 for me. I was counting them up the other day. I think it's 12 as Chief of Start. Anyways, been all the U.S. Grand Prix since 2021. So I think that's 12. But anyway, so yeah. Because Imsa brings their own starter, tiny corthole of the Imsa starter, who happens to live somewhat near. She's a couple hours away. She always likes to point out to me that she's home after the Sunday Imsa race. She's home in time to watch the F1 race. So, but because Imsa brings their own starter, we don't get to do as much, but you know, that is what it is. And, you know, it was a good weekend. The weather made things interesting. We had a lot of edge cases at start this year. And obviously those people that were paying close attention, the marshals there, people that were following it. We didn't get to run the women's F1 Academy race because of rain. It was a beautiful Miami day right up until grid time. And during the grid, the range just started. And you can hear the marshals in the network. They're, you know, rain. It turned for rain. It turned 11 rain. You know, and sure enough, you look up and here it comes down on the front straight and it was pooling and terrible. And, you know, and I just felt so bad because that series is such a great series. I love watching it. I love what it does, what it means. Miami's great exposure for that series, you know, on the US market in front of all those people that were there because it's right in front of the F1 sprint race. And it rains. And it's the second time that this short F1 season that their race has been canceled due to weather. And I just felt terrible about that. But some very wild stuff happened. So, as you, and the listeners probably know, Jessica, there, there's all of these contingencies for how the FIA will start a race. And if you think back to spa a couple of years ago when it rained and rained and rained and they ended up having to basically run that race behind eight or so laps of the safety car. Fans were upset. You know, it was just a bad experience all because of the rain. And, you know, as, as you have these. Circumstances line up. The F1 has to get ready for all these different scenarios. And as the rain was coming down before it got really, really bad. And they had to cancel it. They were looking at some of the various scenarios. And one of them was a rolling start. And that provisions been in the books as long as I can remember to have a rolling start. But I've never seen them use it at an F1 event. And so I was really chopping it a bit to be able to watch that happen and to be standing next to a Christmas and the FIA starter to watch how they actually affected a rolling start at that level. Because half of the adventure is understanding whether or not the drivers know what's about to happen as well. So it was very interesting. There were there were a lot of edge cases going on that made for a very interesting weekend. And it was it was really interesting. So I learned a lot. I felt like because so I'll tell you why I was limping around all the marshals that saw me at at F1 and Miami saw me limping and and not a lot of OK, a lot of pain. And it was probably pretty ugly. But so the week before F1 I had worked at SRO at Circuit of the Americas. I was on turn one for that weekend to races. And the diamond plate you stand on that metal diamond plate stuff. There's no Matt up there. I can tell you from the past weekend. Yeah, the Matt is well, there's technically a Matt, but it's really little more than a piece of paper. And was this past weekend? Yeah, that's probably because they saw what it did to me. And so anyway, yeah. So that wrecked my knee. I was kind of was all kind of swollen to what best thing I should have done was stay off of it that weekend. But it's an F1 weekend. So I couldn't do that. So Saturday I was actually feeling poor enough that that had it not been enough one weekend. I would have let Eric take it over and and do the thing. But it's an F1 weekend. So I powered through it. I just kind of stayed and start staying for most of it. You know, letting Eric and Terry was the other starter handle it. Handle most of the heavy lifting. So you know, it was sort of bittersweet for me. I'm happy to do the job. But I did feel like I did it very well. But you know, everything then. You did a great job. I'm sorry. I did not know that anything. I never actually. I did not know. It's all good. It is all good. You're staying with the fruppy people. That's control. So one of the interesting things about that event too is for people who have never been to the Miami event. People who have never marshaled the Miami event. One of the craziest things about it is that the Marshall hotel is something like I'm just going to guess here 15 miles away from Hard Rock Stadium where the race is. So they close down the freeways, the turnpikes. I don't know exactly what roads we take. But they literally shut it down with a fail-anks of share of step-eddies and other motorcycle police people. And it is something I am always amazed how they get the marshals to to the event. But Jessica, you made an appearance on our bus because I wrote with the pit, the start team always rides with pit grid. And Naja made sure we all took a picture of the guitar hotel and sent it to you. Oh, that was that was the funniest thing. So I think it was the day of the train. Was that the Thursday? I think it was Thursday. And you guys all left before. And so Mary was hosting a training and I was up there standing alongside her just kind of there while she led the training because I'm still new here just hanging out in my phone just starts blowing up in front of this room of people. Oh, I have to look at this and I see this just blowing up with pictures of the guitar hotel and I was just like, oh, it warmed my heart. So I was trying to very just really respond and being like, I didn't want to reveal. Oh, I'm actually like in front of a giant group of people during a training right now. But anyway, that's that's the truth. So for anyone that was at that training of in saw me looking at my phone, that's you can blame the TPG people for that. But it was lovely gesture. And yeah, I am a hard rock nerd. And I did how many how many hard rock cafes have been to well, there's more than just cafes, you know, I know I think I'm at 109. I was in yeah, Japan recently I hit 109. So, but I did go to the guitar hotel. I think the night I arrived and I won three in our books. So that was pretty good. I had to do it because it was my grandmother's 93rd birthday and they went to the casino that day. And so I thought, well, I need to go for grams. So I went and she said, okay, win back all the money we lost. That's great. So yeah, that was pretty cool. But yeah, so thank you to the TPG team for sending me those lovely photographs. It was such a cool building. I know I'm very biased, but I can't wait for Vegas to get their version, which is I think a few years away. I just I think it needs the fretboard. I think it's short. Anyway, a little bit. So an interesting story about leaving Miami was when I went to Fort Lauderdale's airport to board my flight to come back. I, you know, wasn't feeling great, but you know, the weekends over I'm ready to get home. And the gentleman sat a few seats away from me as we were at the gate in the gate area. And he and I struck up a conversation and turns out that if you'll think back to our last episode or actually the episode a couple episodes ago where we talked to Jim Robertson, who was the flag chief. For Miami, he kind of alluded to these superstars, if you will, for the folks that he had trained in Vegas. Jim Robertson, the flag chief of Miami, had been asked to do some training in Las Vegas for local marshals so that they could increase the local participation in Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year. And Jim, when he was talking with you in I Jessica, alluded to a few folks that kind of emerged above and beyond. They'd gone on to do other events. They'd gone on to work other pro events like a Long Beach and Miami, indeed. And turns out that this gentleman was one of those and I thought, you know what a perfect person to talk to about the marshalling experience. Somebody relatively new had all that experience with, you know, the introduction at the Las Vegas level, new Jim and kind of had succeeded. Kind of what I feel like our listeners who are looking for a way into the pod into the motor sports world are kind of seeking. And I thought, you know what, here's a guy who's actually walked that walk and actually done it and is now doing those really cool things that some people are still just thinking about. Let's interview him. So we hooked up with the guy named Tony Shepard and he is that gentleman that Tony and I probably talked for 20, 30 minutes that day just as we waited to board what turned out to be a very eventful flight going to Austin. We eventually made it, but we actually had to divert because of weather and fuel and, oh, it was a day. In any case, so we're going to introduce you in this episode to Tony Shepard and he is Las Vegas resident and though not originally and he's going to tell you his story and he's a really interesting guy and I'm really excited for our audience to get to meet Tony Shepard. So we're pleased to welcome to the podcast Tony Shepard, one of the people who let's see if I can do this right when we envision when we created this podcast, Jessica and I were imagining people who were wanting to get involved in marshalling people who were interested in motor sports, but weren't sure how to make their way in. Well, fast forward to the Miami Grand Prix and at the conclusion of it, the day after a bunch of very, very tired worn out marshals invaded the airports of South Florida and as we were sitting at our gate for the flight to Austin. We followed the what I like to call the invisible or hidden code that marshals have is we're wearing our event shirts or we're wearing some other shirt or hat that tells people that we've been a marshal and this guy sits down a couple of chairs away from me. And we start to chat and boy, do we have a chat and we had a lot in common and that guy who sat down a couple of chairs away from me was Tony Shepard and Tony were pleased to welcome me to the podcast. Well, Jamie, thank you so much and Jessica delighted to meet with you here today and Jamie, it's funny you mentioned that it's a little signals right where you can start marshals from about 300 yards. I think that I quite right away was actually the multiple wristings you had on I think it was three and it was like well not only is this guy you know come from Miami, but he's apparently quite official because he's multiple wristbands. So it just amazing and then of course we had such a delightful flight to Austin. Yeah, I'm forget about this flight. First of all, okay, we'll just get it out of the way because this was the flight from hell. It was crazy. So you're connecting to go to Vegas through Austin. I was flying home to Austin and there's all the marshals who were in Miami happened to probably know and Jessica had a little bit different experience, but I know a couple of a coat of marshals were on our plane, but we didn't make it to us. We actually had to divert. We were holding because of the storms in Austin. We diverted to San Antonio. Did you ever I mean, obviously you did make it home, but. How terrible was the rest of your day home? It was about 14 hours. It was quite quite a and I won't bore the listener, but basically besides the feeling delay. Then of course it was musical flights because any time you know a couple of connections, then then it's chaos. I finally got back, but I'll share this with you in a matter of fact, they even posted the photograph because I was laughing hysterically, but I got off after the 14 hours. I grabbed my bag and almost made it to over when my wheel off my bag decided to the part. And I thought, yep, that's the perfect way to finish this trip. Wow. And Jessica, you had a bad weekend too getting back from Miami. Mine was not as bad as yours. So I had a later flight that Monday because I was working my real job during the day. And so we left on time, but when I landed in Austin, we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half because all the gates were full from all the delayed flights. So yeah, that was that was kind of a bummer, but I don't I'm so very grateful because when I did get off the plane and was walking through I happened to pass by a gate that was just boarding for DFW, which for Austin, that's like one of those up down 30 minute flights. That was just a parting at like 11 45 PM, it was supposed to have left at like 5 30 PM, you could have driven to Dallas back in that amount of time. So I felt so bad, especially considering that DFW is like such a common hub for international flights. I mean, how many people miss their international flight? So I cannot complain in the grand scheme. So goodness. Well, let's start with sort of the theme of the episode, Tony, we're recapping the Miami Grand Prix. How was your Miami Grand Prix experience? Well, I have to share with you once again, and he's done this to be twice now. You all know Jim Robbins and bless his heart. And he's such an incredible person when it comes to managing people, marshals, the program, what an ambassador for the sport. And he did it to me again in Miami. He gave me the perfect corner with the perfect team. And I can't thank him enough. So they put me at 16.0, which is the end of the S's. And the left turn drivers right as they go up on that straight and a busy corner, we had quite a bit of action, especially with the Porsche's sharing the corner with us was of course the intervention team, which are phenomenal. But we also had the safety team there. We had the rollback and we also had the high left. So it was James. I mean, you know, we were ready for action more or less. I have to tell you, you know, we on Friday, we started as five individuals. And on Sunday night, when the last flag dropped, who the left is a family. And I think that's probably the most significant thing with me for marshaling is the camaraderie, the connections. It's incredible. I don't want to get ahead of the headlights here. It's that share that with you that this is twice now at both F1 events, the same experience in Las Vegas. And I left there with a family at the last day as well. That's really cool. What was your job? What role everybody has a role on the corner and where's the tabard says the role? What was yours at Miami? Absolutely. So Blue Flag, which was a little bit busier. I was yellow flag in Vegas, which of course is a critical element because it's a Dominican flag. Sure. But Blue Flag. And of course, that means I had access to all the other flags and as necessary. And of course, I get involved with the safety car board and so forth. Our quarter was also unique because the DSP operator was immediately behind me. So we thought had a very tight connection of all the activity that was going on. And I'll share this story with you. I'll be I'll just share a little bit of it, but not all of it. So obviously knew my assignment coming into Miami. So I was preparing every time you get an assignment, you want to really thoroughly check everything the roles, you know, and all the things that are going to be expected for you. So I kind of psyched myself in for the weekend and I get all settled in and I think it was probably Friday, middle of the day, Jim calls. And he said, well, I've had a situation with a CPM. He's not able to get in the country, you know, thinking, Oh, okay, because that's got a ripple effect, right? He said, how do you feel about DSP? I thought, ooh, I'm already prepped my head around Blue Flag and now he's thinking he wants to stick me out on the DSP, right, which is not new. I've done it a couple of times with SCCA with other gear and so forth. And I hesitated for a minute and I said, Jim, I mean, you're such a confidence builder. If you're confident, I'm confident, let's make it happen. And I came really close, but he was able to shuffle the deck and I stayed where I was at, but I thought, well, that was, that was good. You know, at least it's a confidence to give me a ring and I give that a shot. But anyway, Blue Flag in Miami and it was just a great event. That's really cool. So let's rewind all the way back. When we talk about this podcast and when Jessica and I put it together, we were our golden audience, the people we were really trying to get to with this podcast were those people who were interested in motor sports, but didn't know how to get in and didn't, you know, they might have known what a Marshall was, just didn't know how to get started. You've kind of walked that walk and that's what your whole point of being here on this episode is, but walk us through a little bit about yourself, how you got started, what's your history and background with motor sports, how do you find out about the Vegas call and then how did it go from there? Absolutely, Jamie. So I actually go back to 1974 is when I first got involved with motor sports. It was in the country of Australia and that location, I think you guys are familiar with, which is bad first. There's an annual race there. In 1974, I started volunteering with a race car driver that actually in Australia is pretty famous. He was racing until his early 80s, a guy by the name of Murray Carter. So Murray Carter was a privateer, but basically was a semi-funded Ford driver for the Ford Falcon, which was a popular race car down there. And I spent about three years with him between 74 and 77. That kind of lit a fire to be around and involved in racing, but of course, like everything else business took off. I immigrated to this country, so I'm actually an immigrant, if you will, although that happened in 1981, so it's quite a few years back. And during that period, the left for racing didn't go away. So in 1995, I joined SCCA and I spent about 12 years autocrossing. The autocrossing was everything I was looking forward. Had that camaraderie, it had that involvement with SCCA. We would periodically be involved with road racing, but I never road waste myself. My location, not location, my club of choice at that time was Chicago. So one of the locations that were just incredible is road America. I'm not sure if everybody would call that the best track out there, but it's pretty going good. You know, and spent a lot of time up there, especially with the Trans-Am Tommy Kendall, if you remember in the mid 90s, so a lot of fun. So much so with SCCA, I think it was 2005 when I became a life member. They hit those options out there I chose to go ahead and do that. And then really after my last year of racing was 2008, so actually it was 13 years. I had to just finish up on the business side. It was one of those things I was getting to a point where I wanted to create an opportunity to retire, but to have choices that I had to keep working. It's so much so that I actually retired in 19 and of course everybody remembers COVID. So for those couple of years, they wasn't much going on. During that period that gave me an opportunity to start thinking about how could I re-involve myself back in the sport? How can I actually get back to the sporting community? Because I had enjoyed a couple of decades of fun around racing. And immediately there was volunteer opportunities with my local club in Las Vegas, but not Marshall. Marshalling actually came about with F1. Now Formula One returned to Las Vegas in 2003. And during that first year, I didn't see at least I didn't catch the social media and the other opportunities where they advertise and looking for volunteers and marshalling. I think that really came about in 2004 and especially now in 2005, there's been a massive amount of public notification, even the local news had advertising to come and volunteer, etc. I believe that program is now going very, very well in capturing new people coming in. So I picked up 2024. Yes, I picked up in 2024 is when I actually put my application in fairly early. I'm going to say here it was probably around July, I believe. And at that time, there's a waiting process. You put in your name, you provide the things that they request and then there's a pause period. During that period, I thought I better get with our local flag chief at that time with Stale Schumaker. And in August, he put on a local class that come to his house. So it was about 10 of us and you go through the basics. And Jamie, this one is before SCCA actually had the certified program that I believe appeared sometime around that October on their website, which obviously I took and everybody else took after that. Dale, however, was exceptional in teaching and actually providing you the information of really what a day looks like, how to hold a flag, all the things that you would expect. And he was excellent when it came to that. Dale also is still a race car driver. He does all of his driving in the cow club area. And he coordinated my involvement with cow club because Las Vegas basically has two to three road races a year, generally early in the season and late in the season. And those races are time trials, but I will tell you, they're full days. You're going to run probably 100 cars, which means that you've got six sessions and not a lot of downtime. So if you want to kind of, you know, either chip off some roster, start to work on those flag skills. This is the local regional support volunteering is perfect for that. Give you an opportunity to make mistakes and still recover, right? It's not like the professional side events. So it's a good way to put it. Yeah, exactly. With all that said, it really was my first event was with cow club at Willow Springs. I'm not sure if you familiar with Willow, but Willow is where they did four versus Ferrari. It's really a unique track with a lot of topography. So you can love this experience. So my first corner was two way with Jeff White. So Jeff White just recently has become the flag chief for California. And Jeff to put it in simple terms is a pretty stoic guy, he doesn't say or do a lot. So on my first turn, first event, Jeff gave me the yellow flag and the headset and he said, well, why don't you just get busy and let me know if you got any questions and that was it. That doesn't my fire. And every time I see him today, Jessica, I thank him. I say, Jeff, that was the best thing you could ever have done because you instantly corrected any mistakes and you took care of whatever was necessary. But there's no substitute. I mean, you could go through every course, read every book. You just got to get at me and do it. Now, on the same event, I actually got moved to turn six, which is very interesting. I'm not sure if you familiar, but from turn four to five through the six and then on down to nine is all down hill. So after lunch, they put me with a follow by the name of Tom Jones and I don't know if you know Tom, Tom is a is an infamous starter. He's actually I think he's done in the and actually his true name is Jay Tom Jones. So it doesn't get mixed up with the singer. But Tom actually taught me Blue Flag. So how about that? So I get to turn six. I apparently mastered yellow flag with Jeff. Tom took over and explained to me what I needed the notebook and pen for. And then of course, you know, everything was good from there. So what an experience on my first event. And I think the takeaway for me was to have the senior mentors actually willing and wanting to take somebody under their wing and provide that knowledge and education. And as I say, you can't get that in the book. You got to get out to your clubs and you've got to soak that up, which is really, really important. So I did a couple of events after that. We did an outside road course in Vegas. And then I did another Cal club event and button will look before Vegas. And then of course, November came and I got my assignment through Jim and he put me at 13 by eight drivers left on yellow. So if you familiar in Vegas, that's literally the beginning breaking point before 14. So again, pretty speedy spot. I actually, and you might know these guys. I had the Texas militia on my corner. So I had Doug and Steve Howsley. I don't know if you know the house. And Louis Samura, we probably know Louis. Louis seems to have done quite a lot of events around the area. So Louis was on blue. Steve was on comms and Doug was the CPM. So I mean, I couldn't have been paired up with a better team and just such a happy corner to be able to operate from. So I was in my first time working through a window, right? We were very fortunate in Vegas. It was two windows. So actually yellow got a free window and then blue of course got their window. So that worked out really, really nice. So I just experienced in experiencing wasn't a collision. So the for our inswork out and one of the for our reason I believe had a left higher blow out and hit the K rail. But they didn't hit it head on. It was kind of a glancing blow and then they sleep quite a while. So it was getting underway. You know, you go through the routine of a CPM meeting and you talk about, you know, what's what's the magic word to get everybody off the K rail and it was we didn't use any words because it wasn't a mindful words. But it was income. That was the word we decided, you know, let's use incoming everybody goes left in my instance. I didn't have to, you know, when I, it's all I'll explain this even though I shouldn't have to but there's probably maybe novices that don't understand what face the face is. But any time you're doing face to face its purposeful right? You've got one looking upstream. You got one looking downstream and you have to rely on your blue flagger in our instances to at least indicate get off the wall or move or do something. And the least was incredible. I mean, the size of his eyes were enough for me just to get off the wall as the brain was coming in. So it was our first experience when pieces of Ferrari came into our spot, but it was, it was just exciting. So let me, I'm not going to leave, leave the Vegas piece without at least touching on a couple of things that happened there that were phenomenal. Well, the first thing I have to share so is maybe the listeners might realize I'm in my eighth decade, right? I know necessarily no spring chicken. And here I am on a bus with 45 people right heading into the turn and I'm looking around the bus and I'm thinking, well, I seem to be the old guy in the bus. Is this good or not good? And hopefully I'm encouraging people in my decade to please sign up, but I had a fellow I'm not going to use his last name because I don't have permission, but I say that is Bob on the bus. Bob was my seatmate for the three days going into our turn. And I asked Bob one day, I said, well, Bob, you know, I thought he was kind of a similar age. I wasn't certain, but you look pretty fit actually. And I said, well, Bob, when you're not marshalling, what are you doing? He says, well, I run half marathon. I said, have marathon. And I'm thinking, wow, I must really be. And I had to ask you before we left on the last night, I said, Bob, I got to ask you how old are you? He says, oh, I'm 84. And I said, kiddin' and he said, nah, he said, I just love the marshall and I just loved him run. And I said, okay, that's my inspiration is say 15 more years. So there you go. And I'll just share this one other snippet before we move off of Vegas in this could probably only happen to a couple of people that if anybody, I guess, they always say you never forget your first event when boy are they right, right? And all the pomp and all the ceremony, but I have to tell you guys that I can't explain the feeling after the entire weekend was done. Our deal was to leave our turn and then walk back up to collect the bus. So the bus happened to be right by the Bellagio Fountains and you probably gonna know where I'm going here. That's exactly where the world champion was interviewed. And there was 45 marshals and nobody else. So as a TV crew, the world champion, the three world's voices. And I was two feet away from the world champion. You walk past me, we got a high house everybody in the car and then off he went, he, that's priceless. I mean, you can't get that anywhere in, as I say, you don't forget your first event and I'll never forget that. It's very special. So it's very cool. Yeah, it's one of those things you couldn't like the biggest VIP there could not have bought that. Nope. You guys got it for free. We got it for crazy. And it was almost like, well, thank you guys for showing up. Let's just give you this. That's awesome. Very, very cool. I'm gonna ask you, you know, you mentioned, you know, applying for in 2024, how did you find out about it? Because we were, Jamie and I were kind of talking about that. I know that they did a casting call for locals this year. I guess how did you find out about it? It was a three year local people. Yeah, actually, a great question that Jessica was social media. I got it on Facebook. And I think the algorithms anytime you're in social media. If you trend towards racing and interested in like in because things like that, it's definitely going to show up in your, in your, what do you call it? I'm not too, but it showed up there. And I talked to my partner Sherry and I said, you know, this looks really interesting. And it's local. So not traveling to us. That was famous last words. And then, you know, I thought, well, let's just apply and see what happens. And that's exactly where it began. And I went through the application process like anybody else at the time I had zero marshaling experience. And I think that's the uniqueness of the program. And what I would encourage, encourage others to look for is to try and find the opportunity to get into the program through one of these outlets. In other words, as you said, the casting call, I think that's perfect because there's turnover. It's not like they're going to retain everybody every year. You're always going to have a need and intervention or, you know, in flagging or possibly other. You know, departments that need staffing and so forth. And I think, you know, the, at least for my opinion, and I'm not tech savvy, but the entire process of going through the application process was very easy, very easy, easy to fill out, even when they needed a photograph or they needed a copy of a credential. And I also followed process the entire thing was so streamlined and just great for a new person getting in. I did make the personal decision, even though I threw the application process to go and spend the time to get properly trained, even before the certification was required. I also felt I needed to attend at least a couple of events before I got involved just to start to work on the hand skills, recognition skills and some of the things you need to do subconsciously, you've got to make a decision in a split second. It just takes practice. How did you find those kinds of events, those those supplemental things that you could do before the event? So that a measure. So that's a great question. So I will share that an F1 event does not compare to a regional or a local event. There's no comparison. But for an interesting reason. So I mentioned earlier that a local event will fill the day significantly because it's revenue, right. So that means that you're going to start typically at 7 a.m. maybe even a little bit earlier. First car off could be as early as 7 30 to 8 o'clock and you run. So this is right up until noon and then you'll be back running again at around 12 30 to about 6 o'clock at night compared to obviously a pro event like F1 where you're going to have a couple of different classes that there is a lot of gaps in between, you know, time to sit down and. Yeah, exactly which I will admit is fantastic. I mean, I'm spent after a local event or regional event. I'll talk about here in a minute in 25. I actually flagged at the 50th long beach Indy car. And that was a fabulous event, but that also was very busy. You know, a lot of classes, a lot of activity going on that I can't stress enough and let me go back originally. Remember I wanted to get back to the community. And I think that's at the very local level. So to try and volunteer and spend my time as much as I can with my club here. But at the same time, the adjacent club, Cal club, even though it's not by club registration, give them that same level of participation. And they give it back to me with education and opportunity, which has been terrific. So that's like you're such a poster boy for what we're trying to like we've said the same thing like all these local clubs are in such a desperate need of people. And I think what happened when I'm the recruiter for our local region and for S.U.C.A. and you know, people ask, oh, how do I get a license because they want to apply for the F1 events. Okay, here's how you do it. But are you going to come back? Because I'm going to be honest with you a lot of those names I never see again. It just kind of breaks my heart a little bit. It's like, okay, we got you there. We got you to fulfill your dreams of doing F1. Like why don't you give back and come back and I think, you know, it's a like you said, they do not compare like a club erase an F1 do not compare. But I think they are equally rewarding in different ways. Oh, they really are. Oh, yeah, incredibly so in I don't want to downplay local original events that just different. Yes. Yeah. It's more like the family like you were saying. It's a lot of people. Terrific. Well, so let me share one other element which so I'm because I don't have a time constraint. I don't work anymore. So kind as not the concern. The first event I went to at Bullock Springs. I thought, let me go in a day early and then I go home at daylight. Okay. So coming in a day early, they actually put me to work at the tech garage of all things. I thought that was hilarious, but here's what it provided. It actually introduced me to the drivers of the cars. I was able to see the cars as able to see the color, the number, all the critical elements. And then when they finally got out on the track, it meant something. In other words, when I had the blue flag, I really had to understand who was the lead car, who was the last car, who was going to overtake all the things that you need to understand the blue flag. And it made all the difference. And then I, you know, I got four or five new friends in tech. So it's just it's that and in that type of engagement is not going to happen at a per race because all those other disciplines have different folks that are going to be a part of that. So yes, it's not a different culture per se, but it's just a different experience that it's still a rewarding experience. And I think it's very valuable. Absolutely. Yep. So you did after Vegas, then you really, you continued. You got into do a whole lot of really cool stuff after kind of the supercharged launch you got into the marshalling world via Vegas. I got the bug is what they say, I guess, and there was two more events before 2024 was concluded. And let me share one little little thing here, which is important because Las Vegas had a flag cheap change towards the end of 24. Now new flag chief is Eric Novakoff and Eric is very, very, very underlying involved in actually a talk a little bit about what he's going to do with me in 2025 that actually will be not impacting but will be benefiting all the new trainees that are coming through this year. I think that's a great thing to do to that in a second, but the last two events to wrap the year up, I actually ended up being an assistant starter on a speed ventures weekend that basically was a contract group that came in. And then I got the controls and Eric actually won him the up and do a couple of starts to get the hang of things and that's almost going back to and of course I'm preaching to the choir here. Remembering where every car is at, you know, and trying to count, you should count down clock for the event time and working directly with race control. I mean, just very busy, very busy, but very exciting. Yes, I did okay because then he made me the permanent starter for the last event for the year. So Vegas put on a time trial. We had about another 85 cars and he said, I'll be at the bottom of the start stand, but you need to get up the top and get busy. I said, OK boss, that worked out pretty good. That was exciting. That's great. I had a couple of events in 25, but that obviously the two standout events early in the year was SCCA put on the Kuzha National at the New Cal Club event over button well. So I work turning 14 down there back on blue flag again. So that was really good to actually see a lot of talent out there and that was kind of the kickoff for the year for SCCA. Right after that first time for me with Indy cars. So, and you're going to know this name, my CPM was Joe Gurch. Yeah, yeah, you got to know you got to know Joe, right? Yeah, that's awesome. He's my hero in I actually had the die cast and so Rod was on comms and Connie was on TSP. So now you're talking some pretty season folks on that turn and Long Beach actually gets more marshals than necessary, which in a scheme of things turned out pretty good. So I was back on blue flag and you might know Hillary. Now you might not because she's made coast California, but Hillary, the lambie was on yellow. So we were for the pro races, we were assigned to those positions. We weren't rotating those, but we actually had Marissa Coleman and Marissa is a graduate with me from the original Vegas 100 and her friend Carly, who was there and they rotated through yellow. So everybody kind of got a chance that we had some beautiful vintage for no of 5,000 in other cars that were out there. So it was just a terrific day and turn 10 is always exciting. You know, it's a pretty sweeping hard left back to the right down straight again. So that was a great experience and that was the last event before of course my anning and that's here we are. We finally got to Miami and and I can certainly go through I want to recognize one person on my turn, but Asha was the CPM so Asha is also a Cal Club member. She's an engineer from Mercedes, so she's obviously very very smart and certainly smart enough to be a CPM. So that was pretty impressive. Then I had Stephanie Alexander on yellow and she's actually from the UK. Now what a story with her. So I got an opportunity to sit with her over lunch and I'm always a bit more inquisitive and I asked Stephanie I said how long you've been flabbing and she kind of looked at me and I think she thought I was trying to find out how she was right. Obviously I wasn't that she said she started at 14 not flagging but her interest in formula one was at 14. She's from North London. Okay, from the UK and of course we know who her favorite driver is pretty good and she said she just fell in love with it and then found the opportunity to start Marshalling and she marshals itself or some obviously she marshaled at Miami and I just found it incredible that you've got somebody that would leave another country and have an opportunity to come to a place like Miami or someplace else for the weekend. And obviously enjoy you know the time that's down there and I don't know it was just a terrific experience. The other two to round us out with the sale. So Mike's daily was on TSP and Amy. It both Houston I think if I'm not mistaken and super suit. I mean the town the town would just blows me away. I mean when I work with folks at F1 I mean you're talking their their current pilots. That level of skill or the resurgence or they're in engineering. I mean you're talking the highest of quality of folks and I'm always in Chris. So one thing I'll share. Hillary that I mentioned remember Hillary was the yellow flag at Long Beach. She was opposite us at 16.1 and she was the I L. Okay. So she decided to do a skip you know how the skits go with the L. Okay. So she found an alligator. Okay. A toy alligator of course. And she decided to put the alligator on this massive orange chain that you wouldn't miss getting drug across the track when the director would pull through. Then we had a couple of folks with garbage bags and brooms and other stuff and I guess it was a hit because they both pulled up. They both looked and applauded out the window and left. So we were pretty happy with that. That's great. So what's fantastic. Yes. What do you have to pay Jim Robertson to give you such good posts both times. What's the going rate with him. I'm kidding. No, that's that secret handshake. We're never supposed to the gust. Okay. No, but that's that's really great to hear because you know not everyone has a positive experience. That's the reason why some people don't come back. And so it's always nice to hear that you know you got you got good people and maybe want to come back. Well, let me spend a minute on that because I think that's that that's very important in and I think as a person you can create your own experience. Right. The thing that I found and that's why I think when we start as a team of five people on day one hour one and we end up as a family at the end of it all. It's what you put in in between right to some of the things I do. As soon as I get there the first thing I'm looking at is what does that space look like. So I'll get a broom sweep it up. I'll pull the cables. I'll zip tie them. You know I'm going to show up with the spotters card that's laminated so everybody can use it. I'm going to have the schedule that's laminated and done. And the reason I bring that up is start to you know if you're if you're a new marshal coming in start to think ahead start to plan. What can I do for others how can I make our experience a little bit better you know how can I can I help the cpm and see dealing with an issue and somebody else can step in I don't mean overstep your mark. But contribute and I think if you contribute everybody else is immediately going to feel that sense of they need to contribute and all of a sudden things are starting to really go very well. So I think sometimes that a poor experience can be you know self induced maybe I guess not necessarily I mean sometimes things happen right you know but I'm not experienced it and I I didn't count up the the the amount of days I've marshaled in the last 12 months it's been a few I guess probably maybe 25 to 30 zero days of any concern every days being absolutely terrific and the people I've met along the way I've been phenomenal. Yeah. But you really want to be there I'd be honest you know I think we'd be remiss to not mention you know sometimes you don't have good experiences because you get paired with people that are clearly there as a business. They're just like I just want the free ticket track side and I'll never come back again I just want to say I did it you know it happens I've worked with people like that before and it's like you could tell they they had their big photo telegram you know their cameras you know it's like no you're not supposed to do on that you could tell they were just. Look at this and we were never going to see him again and are they'll do it until they got busted kind of and you know it's a bummer when that happens because ultimately we want people that are dedicated and are going to. Keep coming back and be a team player and make it special for everybody else so it's nice to hear that sounds like you've been paired with some awesome people that are clearly in it for the long haul so. Yeah clearly in it for the long haul and you're absolutely right there has to be a percentage of folks that are just there for the day or for the couple of days to get or do whatever they can do and that must be impossible to try and filter out I can't imagine what the recruiting team has to deal with when they do that I mean it's quite serious but if you get through that criteria they can't think how you think so. Yep yep but you're right I mean if I think it's like anything else you know when you're starting off brand new it's a building block you've got to experience you've got to build on that block you've got to get buying in from the other people you're working with and then their leaders and so forth so you're not going to walk in and walk on water you're going to walk in and you're going to try and avoid as many mistakes as you can and hope you don't have a flag which is probably. Yes Cardinal rule right. Oh my gosh yes. There's a few people wincing right now. Oh my gosh yes that's a little bit. It's so important to not have an ego about it because you don't know what everyone else you know I'll be honest I remember working with a couple of people I've been doing this since before you were born but okay you've done it like once a year. We all work like every week multiple weekends and you can't assume that you have more experience than some of us you can't and so I think it's so important to make sure that you don't come in with this whole I'm no I'm better than all of you I've done that you know you have no idea and I think the other thing too time and doesn't equal talent necessarily if you're just out of air going for the motions not actually taking to heart the feedback you're receiving you're not you know are you going to be you know I don't know what you're doing. I don't know I probably should stop but I hope you know where I'm going with this. Oh I put in where you get you get out or whatever yeah whatever that's saying. Just again the short time I've been here without ever saying anything or you get to do is look around right and observe and I've seen people did a very very season that it looks like they just picked up a flag for the first three and it's like wow you know and that's one thing. Let me just quick touch on this because it was one of the things I want to go ahead and bring to the teaching that Jim and Brian pits are going to put on this year. So Jim is asked three of us to come back to talk about the rookie experience which I'm excited about because we can do some Q and A maybe visit with the students and maybe alleviate some of their concerns or at least give them an honest answer on any questions they have. But the one thing I want to really emphasize to them especially if they are able to move into F and C quickly is to really try and get as much flag time as you can. And one of the things that I did just you know we go back to what we talked about never drop a flag right you can go on Amazon and buy a flag for $20. Yeah it's not cheap but you can't right I want flag and just practice practice holding it practice flagging and try and get into not only the rhythm but everybody's got a style. You know if I line to all of us up and we all flew the same flag we're going to fly it differently because we all have a different style. And then that to me is beginning the craft I view this as a craft and I think it's like a drummer if I sat down at a drum kit I couldn't play the drums I have to work on that for maybe a year or two or longer. Well how on earth can somebody grab a flag for the first time and expect a way that correctly or even hold on to it so it got to spend a little bit of time and hopefully we can get that across to the students during this is up and coming training session which I'm excited about. That's so cool what a great idea to bring back the alums of last year that to speak that's I think that's awesome that you'll get to give your experience. Well I'm hoping I really really am hoping that we can provide Jim value in retaining everybody that he trains there if and I need to give it some thought but I want to try and convince the new applicants that that this is just fabulous you know how exciting it's going to be how you make the opportunity is I think we all know there's certain tracks around the world that people wait 20 years to flag on. And here you are and your brand new your green and the gills and you're going to get a chance to step up and be a part of the group you know understand the value of that and the levity of that it's a very special moment in time so hopefully we can impart that let them know that look it's just nothing but fun and that's the big underlying and you know you going to have so much fun you'll never experience this other than being a marshal you know not as you said the VIPs don't get this fun you know we get it so. So what are the events you're going to do for the rest of the year Tony. Okay so I've actually got a pretty neat one coming up i'm going to pop back to Woolow Springs before I actually had the mask car for the Chicago street lights so thank you Marissa Marissa sent me a link a link to get licensed with you sat and you sat is responsible I believe at least for the Chicago street race and of course the Indy and other races. And I was surprised to find out they only use 26 marshals for that event and two of us Marissa's going to go and I'm going to go so maybe we'll pay off on a corner or we'll pair up with someone else I was surprised to find out we only get too flags so. We can learn everything you've learned about SCCA flag. Yeah reverse yeah blue flag for an instant ads so yeah totally totally so outside of that of course i put my application into the code so with fingers crossed maybe I can come see you guys and we'll do Coda and then i've actually the two close outs for me i've got the outside road course pro cards it's a three day event with Coring coming up and then i've got another TT so i'm sure you're asking well how come you're not coming to the Vegas. Step one event and my answer is is sharing I are going to Australia for six weeks. So I'll absolutely do Vegas in 26 but it's not going to be this year well what you can do to make up for it besides Coda is come to Coda and work the world endurance challenge in Liberty weekend because that's probably the greatest event. That happens for marshalling in North America in my humble opinion wow wow they tested good all right we will do. I'll send you the link yeah those will come to me yeah i'm the sucker that's sending at the the episode. Oh boy it's one of those. No that's it's a it is a popular one especially with the Nero's and Dero races. Oh yeah for the connoisseurs I think is kind of the joke we say is more like the f1's you know great and all but like weck is for like the true purest you know. I agree it's my absolute favorite event always will be. Oh how exciting and I get to miss it this year oh well. Very good obviously everybody that's going to go through the f1 opportunity you're going to have two pathways you're going to either go. F and C of course which is flag and communication where you're going to go over with on a blanking out here intervention intervention sorry. Now what I want to also mention is there when you go back to the local level of the regional level there are other disciplines you can engage in so. Even though f and C's got two pathways locally you could look at grid you can actually look at car tech registration and maybe even timing scoring so there's a lot of diversity at the local level you know I would really encourage people if for some reason. Either a fancy or an invention and not working for you perfectly then maybe take take a look and consider that. Outside of that I would say if possible be passionate about the position in trying to stay at least one year would be the goal you know just don't come to f1 and done you know trying to get out to your region try and do something locally if you're spending you read it you're going to know thoroughly whether this is going to work for you. Not but if you only get an experience with one event I just think that that's not enough to really embrace or understanding experience absolutely and I would I would extend what you're saying Tony by saying. So you get good at f and c is when you can really get the most out of the other specialties because I know as a starter we can't really everybody wants to be a starter because they're the one that's always in the photos and they're the ones on TV and I get that it's an exciting gig but you have to be a solid Marshall before you can take on the role of a starter. Same with pit and grid same really was timing and scoring or or the steward specialties there are steps on the ladder you can take if you if you don't want to be a Marshall and you knew that you want to go into something inside race control or you know another path maybe scrutineering to work with the cars directly you know tech as a CCA knows it that's great but you have to know how the racing week. And how the racing weekend works you have to know the rules you have to know you know what all of the pieces are and it all starts with f and c and once you get that grid foundation then those other opportunities start to present themselves and so you know what Tony says is absolutely right. Yes sir Tony thank you so much for joining us this is a pleasure and I'll definitely hitch up next time I'm in Vegas we'll have to meet up I'll be there a few times this year later and we'll have to meet up for some barbecue when you come to go though. Most definitely thank you guys this is absolutely being exciting terrific I'm so privileged to have at least met you Jamie and hopefully at some point just again we'll get together as you said if not Vegas maybe code up the this been a great experience thank you for the opportunity and if any Marshall is out there sitting on the fence just jump over let's get in let's make sure you get to your first event and have a lot of fun. Well said Tony Shepherd is a survivor of the initial Vegas outreach he's gone on to do great things and fascinating as you can tell individual and great pleasure to have on the Tony on the podcast Tony we will see you at the racetrack. Thank you guys have a great day take care thanks you too so that was our interview with Tony and I had never met him before but he was very charming and totally such a cool guy and such a great salesman. Well you know one of the cool things one of the cool things I love about a lot of Marshalls not just Tony although Tony epitomizes it is that a lot of them when they get this opportunity they're so excited and they just jump in with both feet I know that's how I approached it you know this was something I have always wanted to do and be a part of and when I got the chance man I was all in Tony's that way too but you're right he's such a well I hate the word but you know he's just such an evangelist for for the cause for the you know the hobby that we what do we call this is and it's not a profession but anyway you know what I mean this passion for motor sports that we have and get to experience as Marshalls and that's why I thought he makes such a great guest to talk to yeah no great great job on on recruiting him for the show for sure you know he and as you you've probably heard you know he said you know he would suggest try it for a year and I think that's such an interesting thing to say and so true because like I and I kind of alluded to this I actually did not have the most positive experience the first time I ever Marshalled but I thought I'm going to stick it out because I want to do F1 so I'm I was one of those people that was exactly what I was preaching against was like oh I just want to do it once and be done with it but it was in that in between time of like okay I'll do a couple more and it was small things and that's what sucked me in because of the local people and they were so nice and it was like oh what a great way to meet new people here I I don't even living in Austin like a year at that point I mean I knew a lot of other people at the time I thought I just would be a cool little side big thing because I'd heard at the time hey you know Kota hires part time Marshall that I might be kind of a so it definitely goes to show that you know try it you know even if it's not positive the first time which we hope doesn't happen of course you know try a few more because there's a lot of awesome people that are going to be really good mentors you know he talked very highly about the people that have mentored him and you know it's it's so important and it takes a real special kind of person to be willing to mentor other people and so it's always really cool to hear about that so I think yeah I would think every successful Marshall every Marshall who is kind of gotten into it and and you know sort of is now what we would call a regular probably has somebody that they could consider their mentor the person that kind of taught them the most the person that kind of set them up to succeed and you know for those marshals that are listening to this that have been doing it for a while remember that when you're encountering newbies you know the folks that are just there you know we've got to be a teacher we've got it not only teach them how to do the job that they're toss to do you know presumably under you as a corner capped in that weekend but more importantly you have to make it so that they want to come back because as I think every Marshall meeting I've been to in the last 10 years has said you know if you know people that want to do this recruit them well that's because you know like Tony said not all of them come back and not all of them have that good experience the more experienced Marshalls can do to become that mentor to become that person who lights the fire under some of these new people you know I I really love talking to people about what we do out there because I know a lot of people are interested in it they may not know that they're interested in it yet but they may have that sort of a flame maybe it'll get lit and you know maybe you know something that that I say or or that they see will help them want to do more and I want to try and be that person who can give them that path in you know so I were doing this podcast you know yeah oh definitely and I think too it's very rewarding to see that like people that that I've trained and then see what they've gone on to do it's such a cool thing to get to see so I think you know if that's not you know not everyone's into training and that's fine don't have to be but just still be kind remember that everyone has to start somewhere you know you have to you know think about your first time you didn't know anything either right that's right you don't have to necessarily be willing to be a trainer but at least be willing to just you know be be cool and not you know check your ego at the door you know it shouldn't be about oh well I've done X number of it yeah okay that's great whatever we all we've all done it's like let's let's focus on this weekend and you know kind of the positive things so much about yeah anyway so yeah no it was great talking to him and hopefully we will run into him again either at Coda or Vegas some points so yeah no good good pick for sure well big plans for our podcast as we roll into the summer months we're we've got let's see we've got interview more interviews with marshals who have done some great stuff kind of like we've done with Miami with book ending it we're going to try and do some podcasts around Silverstone we're going to try and do some podcasts around the runoffs later this year we're always welcome welcoming your feedback starting to get a little bit of feedback if you go to www.tracksidepodcast.com on each episode there's a little feedback widget that will send your feedback directly to my phone and so I've started get a couple of those always glad to get those if you've got a show idea if you want to hear us talk to someone about something by all means shoot us an idea we're not just Texas we're not just USA we want to talk about marshaling all over the world and if you've got an idea or an interesting person to talk to let's make it happen so yeah I'm excited for where things are going with the podcast I think so this was this has been so fun and we've got to talk to so many cool people and you know another show idea I would love to do would be like a ask me anything type of thing so if you guys have questions or you know we'd love to do a whole episode about answering listener questions I think that's a great idea Jess I think that's a great idea if they care to hear what we have to say I never know but yeah no I think it's been super fun so thank you for having me along the ride well you've endured another episode of Trekside the podcast for marshals this podcast is copyrighted owners and creators though Jessica and I are employed by circuit of the Americas nothing we say represents an official opinion or endorsement from the circuit or any of their clients or other series we might mention all opinions are our own we thank you for listening we hope you're enjoying the podcast give us some feedback if you are or art and we will see you on another episode of Trekside the podcast and pretty soon we hope to see you Trekside[Music][Music]