Motorsport Rescue Camp 2024

The 1st annual Motorsport Rescue Camp, which is a comprehensive training course for rescuers in motorsport, took place on 16-18 February 2024. It aimed to deepen cooperation between technical and medical rescuers with regard to the specifics of interventions in individual motorsport disciplines. It is a joint project of the Autodrom Most, the Autoklub Sport Rescue rescue system and the DavepoMedevac medical service provider.

Representatives of the Autoclub of the Czech Republic as the national sports authority, as well as representatives of the FIA and some other rescue teams or health service providers, were invited to participate as observers. Some of them expressed interest in becoming active participants in the next Motorsport Rescue Camp during the training.

As part of the opening ceremony, the Golden Clasp (an honorary award of the Autoclub of the Czech Republic, which is awarded to individuals and legal entities for their contribution to the development of Czech motor sports) was presented to a prominent organizer of sports events, especially the 16th edition of the Rally Teplice, a long-time rescuer and team dispatcher, Jiří Dvořák, who is the doyen of the ASR rescue system.

On that occasion, Richard Gironi, the executive director of the Czech Automobile Club, pointed out how valuable it is that people like Jiří Dvořák, who have extensive experience, are still with us and willingly pass on their experience to younger generations. At the end of his speech, he highlighted the meaning and significant benefit of this comprehensive Rescue Camp and stressed to the participants the need for regular training, saying: "You can have the best equipment, but if you are not skilled and do not have the experience that is most valuable, it will not help you in an intervention."

His words were followed up by MUDr. Milan Procházka, chairman of the medical commission of the Autoclub of the Czech Republic, who mentioned the shift in the level of cooperation between rescue services in motorsport: "Today we have moved a long way forward, because we are starting to operate in the same way that cooperation works at the highest world level of motor racing companies. The training is already comparable to foreign teams, and the proof of this was the participation in the Central European Rally, an event of the World Rally Championship."

Friday's block of theoretical training included topics ranging from the design of racing vehicles and their safety features, through the organization of a sports event and mutual communication within it, the use of various types of fire extinguishers and rescue equipment during an intervention, including the specifics of intervention in hybrid-powered vehicles, to crew extrication techniques and dealing with such a traumatic situation.

The concentration of equipment during theoretical training was also used to carry out an inventory of vehicle equipment and periodic inspections of fire extinguishing equipment and rescue tools.

The Saturday and Sunday program focused on practical training of the knowledge acquired on Friday, and in various situations. The responding crews of technical and medical rescuers were divided into five groups, in which the crews rotated around individual stations throughout the day. Racing equipment representing various disciplines of motorsport was available for loan: autocross, circuit racing and rally.

A slightly more demanding program awaited the rescue drivers, who, in addition to the program, had to continuously drive vehicles on individual tracks of the Most Autodrom polygon with their crews. Saturday's training block ended after a joint dinner with a night training intervention on an overturned vehicle, which thoroughly tested the responding crews in difficult conditions.

Sunday's training program was more demanding for the crews due to the need to use mechanical and hydraulic rescue equipment to extricate the crew of the crashed vehicle.

During the closing ceremony of the Motorsport Rescue Camp, the organizers thanked the participants for the successful completion of the training. Each participant also received a certificate of successful completion of the 18-hour training from Zbyšek Zuber (Head of the ASR rescue system), David Veselý (Managing Director of DavepoMedevac) and Jindřich Hrneček (Sports Director of Autodrom Most). The latter also concluded the training on behalf of all the organizers with the words: "I want to thank all three entities without whom this training would not have been possible - the ASR rescue system, the DavepoMedevac medical service provider and of course the Autodrom Most as company. At the same time, I must thank other partners who willingly and selflessly lent us their racing equipment needed for practical exercises: ŠKODA Motorsport for the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, the Chabr Motorsport team for lending us a single-seater, the individual teams of both Svobodov families and the Švorcov family for their autocross specials, and I must also not forget to thank them for the vehicles intended for cutting with rescue tools. It is great what support we have received from this side as well and once again: Thank you!"

text+photo: ASR Media team

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