After getting licensed, new officials do on-the-job training for a few races.
Work as a apprentice on a full crew of officials. Scheduling should be easy since you're a +1 not limited to vacant spots, but it's on you to identify and request races. Lean forward.
You're there to put into practice all that new licensing knowledge.
Everyone gets paid standard rates. The working crew gets paid by the event organizer. MABRA pays apprentices at the same AR/AJ rate.
Job #1 is learning to score a race, which is essential knowledge for working in every capacity as an official. At first you'll work mostly as an Assistant Judge to develop scoring skills. You'll move around a bit for exposure to different positions and you'll get to see how the team of officials work together. See below for what to bring.
After a few races, you move on from apprenticing to filling a position as an AR or AJ in the crew of officials. There is still plenty to learn but now you're doing it with the training wheels off while working the race. You'll still be supported as you develop skills; the Officials Coordinator and our small officials community all want you to succeed. The assignments available to you grow as you build experience.
You're an official first and a motoref second. That's true in the existential big picture and down in the weeds of getting licensed and out on the road.
You need your Commissaire License before you can finalize your Motoref endorsement. You also need the practical knowledge of scoring, crew communication, and officiating you pick up in your early work as a ground official before getting out on the road as a motoref apprentice.
Continuing to work some as a ground official, at least some of the time, makes you a better motoref. That doesn't stop after your first couple of races.
You will apprentice at least one race as a motoref in training, again as a +1 to a full crew. When you clear apprentice status, it's on to filling an open slot as a working motoref in the crew and continuing to develop skills.
Working your first races is all about you keeping your head, controlling your motorcycle, and functioning within the living organism of the race and the team of officials. Your early goals are deceptively simple in theory. See how it goes in practice.
Ride with the race and do no harm.
Recognize and understand what is going on with the race situation.
Operate thoughtfully within the norms for motor positioning and crew coordination, based on the race type and situation.
Observe and communicate the race situation with other officials in workmanlike terms.
Before your debut, brush up on key knowledge. Even veteran motorefs do a periodic tune up & refresh. All of these are available on the Resources page.
USA Cycling Rule Book. What rules apply to the type of race you’re doing?
Motorcycle Handbook. Review the relevant sections.
The Working The Front article for its communication examples.
See the equipment section at the bottom here. KISS!
You can view the full calendars at MABRA and see details for a specific race at BikeReg. Here are some broad brush comments on the local racing calendar's opportunities as they apply to new officials and motorefs.
Just about any race you can get to is a good race for learning. Here are some particularly good ones for learning to score:
Feb/Mar Trade Zone is an office park circuit race that's a great early road season opportunity for folks who got started over the off-season.
Beyond that, any crit, small circuit, or cyclocross race (CX season is Sep – Dec) is great scoring practice. Longer road races give you fewer reps for scoring but offer other flavors of experience.
The Greenbelt series (Wed nights May – July) is where scoring Jedi are forged. The hottest fire makes the strongest steel.
The road season runs Feb to August. Most of the road races from April to August use motorefs, typically at least 2, maybe 6 when there are three fields on course. Trade Zone and Greenbelt don’t have motors; neither does cyclocross. Wilmington and Armed Forces need experience. Most other races are generally in play for new motorefs.
All races have a Chief Referee and Chief Judge; you can do that before long. Most races will have Assistant Judge(s) and Referree(s); you can do that sooner or now. Motorefs are a flavor of Assistant Referee, as are Pit Refs (crit) and Pit Refs (cyclocross).
To get on the schedule, work with the MABRA Officials Coordinator -- initially by email (ferbs42@gmail.com) then, as soon as you get licensed, go to usac-officials.org to set up an account. That's a stand-alone scheduling tool for viewing, requesting, and managing race assignments. Use that once you're in, but don't let early access or other hiccups get in the way of you communicating to get on the calendar.
Look at your calendar and MABRA's to identify opportunities. It’s relatively easy to get scheduled as an apprentice. You're working as a +1 on a full crew of officials so you’re not limited to open spots. Once you’re through your apprenticing, you need to look a bit further out. You can see assingments and vacancies in usac-officials.org. You'll get fair consideration for available assignments by raising your hand before the assignments are made.
For specific race assignments.
When you get a race assignment, you'll see it in usac-officials.org. You may get a "you've been assigned" email.
Closer to the event (a few days or a week?), the Chief Referee usually sends a brief email to the crew. You haven't been starved for details because you can help yourself to most of what you need to know -- location, schedule, event notes, etc. -- through the event listing in BikeReg.
For general info in MABRA, these two Google Groups are in play. Sign up to keep up.
mabra-uscf. Race announcements and miscellaneous chatter for the broader MABRA community. Consider setting to daily digest mode.
mabra-officials. Officials only. Not used often and when it is, it is often notable. Consider leaving in each email mode.
When you show up to work a race as an apprentice, bring:
Notebook or clipboard & paper, plus pens or pencils.
A comfortable chair
Drinks & snacks to get through the day. Lunch is usually provided and often shows up, but be prepared.
Don't worry about official clothing for your very first day as an apprentice. In time we prefer you get one of the uniform blue tops to wear over khaki bottoms. MABRA does not expect you to invest in the full logo wardrobe of outerwear. Wear whatever outer layers makes sense for the weather. Avoid team kit while working as an official.
If you have a stopwatch and whistle, bring them. Whatever you have will do to start. If you need to get something, there is whistle and stopwatch info in the motoref equipment document found here. Look in the essentials list up front, then in the stopwatches section a bit further in.
Later, if you go on to work as a motoref apprentice, the big ticket items are:
A motorcycle. BYO. Reliable, agile, clean, with a decent range and a sane exhaust.
An open face or flipped-up modular helmet let's you speak with riders, blow whistles, etc. Things that don't work so well from inside a full face helmet.
See the other details in the missive on motoref equipment in the documents section. It starts with shortcuts to the minimum gear you'll need for your first races -- a vest, an earpiece, and some other baubles. Take the shortcuts. This is somewhere that if the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum. Don’t let gadgetry consume mental bandwidth and get in the way of your first experiences on the road.