Confessions of a Race-Day Volunteer: The Clipboard Chronicles

It started with a clipboard. It ended in chaos.

Every motocross club has one. The hero. The legend. The person who shows up at 6am, fuelled by servo coffee and pure goodwill, and volunteers to "do the times today." Bless them. They have no idea what is coming.

By moto three, they are holding a clipboard in each hand, a pen between their teeth, and a third sheet pinned under their boot because the wind decided today was the day. Somewhere, a parent is asking "where did my kid finish?" and the honest answer is "spiritually, somewhere in the top ten."

The paper always wins

Here is a universal truth: paper lap sheets are undefeated. They blow away. They get rained on. They get a boot print right across the times for the 65cc Demos. And then, inevitably, someone reads a 7 as a 1 and suddenly little Jaxon has won a race he was not even in.

We have all seen it. The presentation where the wrong kid gets the trophy, the quiet panic, the frantic recount behind the canteen. It is a rite of passage. It is also completely avoidable.

There is a better way (and it is not a bigger clipboard)

This is the part where we gently mention that SquadRace exists. Lap times tapped in on a phone. Results that update live. Standings that do the maths for you so you can go back to enjoying the racing instead of refereeing a paperwork war.

No wind. No soggy pens. No accidental champions. Just times that add up and a volunteer who actually gets to watch a moto for once.

To every clipboard warrior out there: we salute you. Now please, put the clipboard down. You have done enough.