

“A marshal presses local yellow as a car goes into the runoff and tries to get turned around. Petersburg for example, because it’s always one of our busiest in the runoff area with local yellows,” Novak explained. With the new light panels, triggering the system serves both needs. Under the traditional flagging process, one corner marshal would wave a flag while another used a radio headset to call in an incident to race control. We think that this will enhance visibility and it’ll enhance our tools in race control.”

They’ll be operated by the marshals via consoles at each corner. So waving yellow, full-course yellow, surface conditions, blue flag, etc. “So those panels will be operated by the local volunteer marshals, and they’ll display the exact same Ind圜ar flagging codes as before. These light panels are designed to supplement the cloth flags, and sometimes replace them, depending on the circumstance at the marshal post. “That includes their light fixtures that are fundamentally the same as what you see at Formula 1 races. “EM already provides us with our ADR - the accident data recorder - technology and also the earpiece accelerometers the drivers use, so we’re expanding our relationship one more step in a big way,” Novak told RACER. With the system connected to a local network that feeds directly to race control, the activation of a light panel will reach race director Kyle Novak and his team in an instant, displayed on a monitor showing the location of the activation and the type of flagging display that was used.


In a significant investment to give its race control team an enhanced set of session management tools, Ind圜ar is bringing the EM Motorsports Marshalling System to the series with large 20×20 inch light panels that will be affixed at every corner and can replace the need for corner workers to wave signaling flags by hand. LED panels will be making a return to the NTT Ind圜ar Series in 2022, but the colorful light displays won’t be attached to the cars like they were from 2015-2020.
