The Banbury Run is planned and managed entirely by volunteers – in 2025, over one hundred people in a wide range of different roles.We are now recruiting volunteer event staff for the 2026 Banbury Run, on Sunday 7th June. If you took part in the 2025 event you will be contacted individually by email. However, if you helped out in past years but not in 2025, or if this is all new to you, please read on.
Most volunteer roles are active only on event day.A few involve some preparation work in the lead up to the event, and a small core group works year-round, starting to plan and prepare for next year’s event almost as soon as this year’s is over.But these more complex and senior roles tend to be recruited from amongst established Banbury volunteers who have some experience, or individually for specialist skills. For the 2026 event, we are particularly looking for people willing to help in some specific ways.
Traffic Control at Gaydon
Event day at Gaydon is busy, with lots of motorcycles, cars, vans and people all trying to be in one quite small area at the same time. We need people who can bring smiling faces, and patience but firmness, to take on the task of directing traffic and people to help ensure everyone stays safe.
Timing Marshals
In 2026, for the first time, rider timings at checkpoints will be recorded digitally rather than using pen, paper and clocks. For this, we need a team of Timing Marshals with smartphones, to record riders as they pass the Start and Finish line and the four checkpoints out in the country. A special app will be loaded onto your phone on the morning of the event (it can be uninstalled the next day), and you will be shown how to key in and submit each rider’s details.
Programme Sellers and Event Evaluators
We need a group of people who can work at Gaydon on the morning of the event to sell programmes to event visitors as they arrive. Later in the day, we hope the same people will talk to event participants and visitors, to ask (and note the answers to) pre-prepared questions that will help us understand how successful the event has been, and to improve it in future years.
Runners
An ideal task for younger family members. We need some keen helpers who can work in close support to senior event officials in ways like carrying messages and finding people … no actual running is required!
Pushers
For this, you need to be physically fit and like old motorcycles!At the Start Line, and also on Sun Rising Hill out on the course, we need people to give a push to those whose bikes are refusing to start or are struggling on the steep gradient. The day will start with a training session on how to do this safely.
Breakdown Drivers and Travelling Marshals
We need four or five people with vans or cars-and-trailers, and experience in loading old motorcycles, to provide a recovery services for those riders whose bikes have broken down. We also need eight to ten motorcycle riders (on new or old bikes) who have modern helmet communications equipment and smartphones, and who can patrol the routes to assist those who have got lost or broken down.
There are plenty of other roles if none of these appeal to you!
On the Day
Everyone is expected to be at Gaydon for 7.30am on 7th June: on-site camping can be booked for the night before. Volunteer event staff are entitled to an expenses payment of £12 towards lunch or petrol, paid in cash on the day, along with an event badge, a copy of the Programme, and a free admission ticket to the museum at Gaydon. Hi-vis jackets are provided. You do not need to be a VMCC member to help with this event – you just have to fancy the idea of an enjoyable and worthwhile day out!
What Next?
To offer your services in one of the roles noted above, or any other, at the 2026 Banbury Run, send an email to banbury@vmcc.net. Please give your name, postal address, phone number (preferably a mobile) and age, and say what specific role or roles might interest you. One of the event organisers will then get in touch with you to take things further.
We hope to see as many of you as possible at Gaydon on 7th June 2026.
ANNIE DURRANT and BOB CLARK
Event Organisers
