Anyone who has tracked their car knows how important and helpful good corner workers can be -- one time they noticed that my exhaust was loose before I even realized it, and signalled me to come in before anything bad happened (sure enough, they were right).

I've been wanting to see what it's like to be a corner worker, and this weekend I got my chance. NASA had an HPDE and racing event, and they needed corner workers, so I arranged to help. TWS is a good-sized track, with 2.9 miles of track and 15 turns. I was placed at the turn 7 corner station, which is the 2nd highest-speed turn of the track -- it's a banked, increasing radius turn, coming off the 2nd-longest straighaway on the track (in the CCW direction). When I take the turn and glance at the speedometer, I'm usually doing about 90, and some guys can do over 100 through it (larger ***** and better tires).

All in all, it was a great experience, despite the Texas heat! There were 2 of us at the corner, so we could chit-chat during the lulls. The track guys gave us a cooler full of water bottles to keep us hydrated, and a radio + headset. There weren't any bad incidents at our corner... there was more action at turn 6, which leads onto the long back straightaway. I got a chance to get a few photos and videos from the corner, here's a video that shows the cars coming out of turn 6, onto the straight, and then past us at turn 7. This is during one of the races, you'll see a bunch of spec RX7's (I think they're spec of some sort):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...61759314&hl=en

 

Must have been fun. Corner workers are always appreciated, but I would be scared to be one.

 

You can really learn a lot about driving by working a few corners and talking to the corner workers.

 

Not nearly as scary as being an instructor, from what I've seen!! I can't wait to be a corner worker again... it's a great view. The races were a bit more exciting than the DE sessions though... wheel-to-wheel through turns... i love it

 

Thanks for helping. Other types of racing, like autocross, also depend on volunteers. It doesn’t just happen.