• Durham Auto Club – Director and Treasurer
• Alnwick and District Motor Club – Director, Treasurer and Secretary
• Hawick and Border Car Club – Secretary
• Scottish Hill Rally Club – Staffing Officer
• Association of North East & Cumbria Car Clubs( ANECCC) – Vice Chair
• Scottish Rally Championship – Secretary
MOTORSPORT VOLUNTEERS
Her ability to step into a wide range of roles helps in many ways, creating variety for her and flexibility for her Clubs.“ We call it dynamic staffing,” she explains.“ If you need to move people around, knowing the skills of your people, what vehicles they are in and where they can go is important – and having the ability for multiple roles is very valuable.
“ If you’ re able to find somebody new for a particular role, if you can do that role yourself you can support them better. Equally, if somebody’ s not able to attend, being able to move between roles gives the event resilience. For example, on the Border Counties, one of the Radio Controllers was ill and couldn’ t come, so I sat in that chair instead.
“ So far this year, I’ ve been Deputy Clerk of the Course, Stage Commander, Staffing Officer, Event Secretary and Radio Controller. When you’ re not doing the same thing repeatedly, it keeps the interest up, but also being able to do the different roles gives a better understanding of how it all fits together – and, for me, that is really important.”
Organisation and attention to detail is just as key in her day job as it is her motorsport roles, and the two align very well.“ It helps to be able to see how all the pieces fit together and follow a long-term plan,” she says.“ Having a reasonable memory is also useful to remember people and their abilities, and so too is the financial management side.”
Sometimes, however, even Burnip struggles for time. It is well recognised that there are certain moments in life when people have more or less time available. Many factors can affect the ability to get involved – with family pressures, work pressures and health and wellbeing all playing a part – and it is never easy to get the perfect balance.
It cannot be underestimated, however, just how important volunteers are to the running of motorsport Clubs and events – and Burnip encourages those who are interested not to be put off by time pressures, because most Clubs are simply happy to welcome people onto their committee, whatever amount of commitment they can give.
Burnip has reached a point herself where she needs to scale back her involvement to concentrate on her Master’ s degree – but that does not mean she is cutting all ties, and she explains:“ Your commitment can be as little as a couple of hours a month up to quite a lot more than that, and that commitment can change.
“ That could be simply coming along to committee meetings and being there to take part in the discussion. For some club members, it is being a voice on the committee and giving a different viewpoint, a different perspective. That is really, really, important because if we all thought the same, it would be boring.
“ When I started doing my Master’ s, I had to cut down my roles so I looked at what I did and what I could essentially put on hold for a couple of years. Last year, for example, I chose not to do the results on my Club Targa Rally – but this year, because I do not have an essay deadline the week after it, I should be able to do it again!
“ Clubs need to give people that flexibility of being able to say‘ actually I cannot this year’ or‘ I have never done that before, but if I can work alongside somebody to see how it works, I can see whether or not I want to take it on’ – and it’ s the same with events. We need volunteers, and we need to make sure we have enough to be flexible.
“ I have slightly demanding silver tabby cats, and I could not go to the Argyll Rally this year because there were no cat sitters available! Although it does sometimes feel like a second job, essentially it is a volunteer role – and if you do not enjoy it, you need to look at either adjusting how much you volunteer or changing where and when you volunteer.”
Burnip is now in her fifth decade of motorsport volunteering – sixth if you count that night in the boot of the Saab – and she continues to love almost every minute of it. There are, she concedes, a few difficult days, but the bonds she has built over those many years mean that everyone pulls together to make things work.
Burnip’ s Club and Championship Roles
• Durham Auto Club – Director and Treasurer
• Alnwick and District Motor Club – Director, Treasurer and Secretary
• Hawick and Border Car Club – Secretary
• Scottish Hill Rally Club – Staffing Officer
• Association of North East & Cumbria Car Clubs( ANECCC) – Vice Chair
• Scottish Rally Championship – Secretary
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Lindsay received the Bill Troughear Trophy for the work she does for the benefit of the ANECCC and motorsport in the North of England and Scotland
Revolution- July 2025