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Track marshals have a long history in motor racing in running of racing events, even at more amateur levels such as the racing of go carts. They are responsible for the safety of competitors, and their presence is to aid them in the case of any collisions, accidents or track problems.

A rally marshal holds much the same duties, but are used in rallies. They are usually housed in posts along the stage of a rally in junctions, to be of aid if a car has an accident.

Most track marshals have a love for racing and possess the following skills:

• Use of radios (radio protocol and shorthand)
• Good vision
• Flag signaling
• Trained in fire fighting, including chemical fires caused by gasoline, oil, nitrous oxide, alcohol etc.
• Trained in first aid, as a first responder (first aid, CPR and heart defibrillator certifications)
• Experience with crowd control, ticket sales, pit crew safety and racing rules of various racing events, including race car equipment inspection.

Often a Chief Track Marshal's responsibilities will include the supervision and briefing of marshals for all daily activities, allocation of day-to-day marshalling duties; provision of marshal vehicles, training of all marshals for incident handling, flag signaling, fire fighting, communications and basic track first aid, and monitoring of health and safety on site to ensure the safety of all guests and personnel. A Chief Track Marshal’s role is running the radio “network” during the race and communication with all other track marshals as “net control”.

The successful Chief Track Marshals are highly organized with good communication skills and have previous experience in a track marshalling or similar motor sport roles.