The adrenaline is screaming through the body, attention is required and you are close to the engine violence. That is the life of a job commissioner on the TT Circuit. Rebecca Wuffing is again in that role this year during the TT. “This volunteer work is really something for me.”
Wuffing used to be voluntarily active as a first aid person. Since 2003 she has also been doing that work on the circuit. “I didn’t even know until 2003,” Wuffen says laughing. During a tour of the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen, she found out. After the tour a call was made for enthusiastic volunteers for the TT Circuit. “My mother said,” Rebec this is really something for you, you like this. “
Initially, Wuffen was a bit cautious, but she reported. After a test round of one day, she has always stayed. “I liked it so much.”
It was never a dream of hers, but that was especially due to that she didn’t know it could be at all. “But it was a very nice surprise, otherwise I would never have started looking for this work.”
Wuffing is a job commissioner with a heart for sport. “I also follow the championship at home, so it is very nice to experience what you see on television in real life.” If nothing happens on the job once, actually after the job, that is not a problem. “I just think motor races are great to look at. If nothing happens, then I will have been.”
Although she follows the racing drivers well, she must continue to pay attention. “As soon as someone goes down at my post, I immediately lost who is in the lead.” Drivers must be behind the crash barrier or back on the motorcycle within a minute and a half. “You look further behind the crash barrier.”
The work as a volunteer on the TT Circuit is something different than her other first aid work. “At the evening 4 days it is sticking and taking care of blisters. During the TT, the accidents are more intense.” A broken leg, something with the back, a wrist, it all comes by. “I can’t do anything about it. I can make sure that the injury is less intense,” says Wuffen soberly.
Every year Wuffen and her colleagues get a course on how to take care of a driver. “Then we get further training for fierce accidents. For example, about setting the helmet and laying someone on a stretcher.”
For the drivers there are a lot of risks to the sport they practice. “You know that you run a risk as soon as you get on the engine and the sights close,” Wuffen says clearly. A moment that she stays with her is the moment that Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli went down together at her post.
That moment itself was not necessarily exciting, but looking back at it, it is special. “We then ran to Simoncelli.” Ten Grand Prix’s later, on October 23, 2011, Simoncelli crashed in Malaysia. “Then I realized: that memory in Assen is forever, because he is no longer there.”
But it can also be dangerous for the job commissioners, next to the job. “You sometimes wonder if they see you.” There is no time to think about and the adrenaline takes over. “You don’t have to think about it too much, otherwise you will never run towards the track again.”
Imagine: you are on the mail in the Geert Timmer-Bend. A bend where the race is often decided. Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards come together through the bend. “It was one of my first races like Baco. It was an exciting conclusion. “
But the catch -up action is not going well, the drivers drive through the gravel bin and the grass on the other side of the asphalt. “We thought: this goes wrong, now we have to run.” Running in the end is not necessary, but the tension was there. “Those are the best moments.”
At Wuffing it really starts to itch a week before the TT. Then she looks forward to working with the other volunteers. “You are a kind of large family during these types of events. Then you make it a very nice weekend together.”