SMMC Member Dene Wicks was awarded the Jim Clark Marshalling Award during the lunchbreak on Sunday at the Motorsport Emergency and Medical Services Training Weekend held at Knockhill.

The Award is the most prestigious made by the Club and is presented to a member who, in the sole opinion of the Trustees, had made a significant contribution to motorsport marshalling and safety in Scotland.

First awarded in 1994, Dene is the 19th Club member to receive the Award. Read more about the Jim Clark Marshalling Award here.

Dene joined SMMC in January 2010 with a view to putting his experience in the fire service to good use on the Rescue Units. He quickly completed the necessary training and passing the necessary assessments became fully licensed crew in December 2010.

Alastair Gray, SMMC’s Rescue Co-ordinator said, “Dene has provided a steady active pair of hands when dealing with incidents through the years and has put his previous knowledge and experience to good use during events and especially during training sessions.”

Always on the lookout for ways to improve the service that SMMC can provide to motorsport, Dene alerted us to a new extinguishing medium (developed by Firexo) that had come on the market and would work well in the scenarios presented to us during incidents. Consequently, testing was arranged with Motorsport UK to prove its efficacy. This medium and those similar have now been accepted as suitable for use in motorsport.

Dene is also an individual who can genuinely say that they have put the training gained in motorsport into a life saving situation outside of the motorsport environment.

The much-summarised sequence of events being that whilst staying in a hotel, he became aware of a RTC on the passing road. Outside he was met with a single car that was totally unrecognisable, three walking wounded, driver completely trapped and not able to be accessed due to damage to the car and a front seat passenger in a very bad way - struggling to breath and in and out of consciousness. Going in through the back of car Dene gave the passenger a jaw thrust and supported his head until the emergency services arrived. In due course the passenger provided a significant donation to the Club as a thank you. This donation helped in the provision of new overalls for the rescue crew that they received last year.

Thank you, Dene, for all you do for the Club and the motorsport community.