An Interview with National Banger livewire Bobbles 132 Robert James
(interview published May 18 2016 in the lead up to the 2016 Mildenhall pre 70 meeting)

Age: 27
Home Town: Sawston
Occupation: Tree Surgeon
Family: Wife Alison and three children
Racing career: Started racing aged 15 in Baby Bangers at Henham

You are set to make your second appearance at the Mildenhall Pre 70 in as many years, is this one you are looking forward to?
I am. I’d wanted to do the meeting for such a long time but had never been able to find a car to do it with so when the Rover (P4) came up last time I snapped it up and it was great to finally be out there and do the meeting after just watching it for such a long time. Amazingly after struggling for so long to find a pre 70 car, I found another one almost as soon as last year’s meeting was over so again I didn’t wait for someone else to get it and I snapped it up and it’s been sat there ever since for this year’s meeting.

What was the attraction of the meeting?
It always looked like such great fun. Just racing the older cars is a blast anyway, they are good fun to build, even though they are usually harder work. For some reason when something goes wrong with an old car it’s just a challenge whereas with a newer car it’s a headache (laughs), maybe it’s because you expect the old stuff to be hard work! The racing has always been good at the Mildenhall pre 70, for me it’s always been the best classic car meeting because it’s always been such a crashy meeting. Admittedly it’s not as heavy as it used to be but then I don’t think anyone could expect it to be but I still think it is more action packed that most other classic car meetings and also at the end of this one most people are usually happy to smash their cars up. There have been some brilliant DDs at this meeting over the years with some massive grids of cars, usually a lot more than you would expect to come out and for that is the thing which makes this meeting so special because the drivers seem a lot more willing to wreck their cars once they’ve got their night of racing out of them, I think that is a big part in why it has been so popular. It was great last year to finally be in one of those DDs and I though the last race last year was excellent and I was in the big pile-up on the top bend and that was a brilliant buzz.

Did you enjoy last year’s meeting?
I did but it wasn’t easy (laughs). I broke the prop in the first race so we decided that rather than keep the car for a year we would try and fix it so we actually loaded the car on the lorry and went home to fix it! I don’t think we would usually try something that ambitious but I’d waited so long to do the meeting and when I finally had the chance I didn’t want to waste it. It usually take between 30 and 40 minutes to get from our yard to the track but I think we did it in about 20 that night (laughs). We were rushing a bit! I think the whole round trip took about an hour and amazingly I got back in time for my next race so it was well worth the effort because it allowed me get a full night of racing from the car. I was really pleased to make it out for the last race because again I’d seen so many good DDs at the Pre 70 meeting in the past so I really wanted to do one myself and it was the nuts. I managed a good hit on (322) Thomas Fox and then everyone else piled in behind me but it was a great buzz to be in a pile-up like that, I love stuff like that (laughs).

What car have you got lined up for this year’s meeting?
I’ve got another Rover P4 believe it or not. Like I said, it was amazing really because I’d wanted to do the meeting for such a long time and could never find a car but now I’ve found two in a row and they were the same car as well! I got the car not long after last year’s meeting and snapped it up as soon as it was available because having enjoyed the meeting last year so much I really wanted to do it again and hopefully I might be able to have a better time this year because I’m building the same car again. There were a few things which we will do differently this time so hopefully it will make the car a little better and I can have an even better night of racing, I’ll be glad to not have to make a mad dash back to the yard half way through the meeting this time (laughs). I really like the P4s as well, I love the look of them, they look like a proper gangsters car. My dad prefers the P5 but I like the P4s more.

The pre 70 meeting is set to be the start of a very busy bank holiday weekend for you, can you tell us more?
Yeah, it will be the first time I’ve ever done three meetings in three days so I’m very much looking forward to that! We are going to Mendips on the Sunday for their Unlimited Rookie Banger World Final and then on the Monday we are going to Taunton from Crasharama. Most of the Shunters team are going so it should be a great weekend away. The plan is to do Mildenhall and then come home and set off again early in the morning but after Mendips we are heading to Taunton and staying there Sunday night for Monday. I’m looking forward to it, I’ve not raced at Mendips or Taunton before and it’s always good to try different tracks but I’m not sure I’m looking forward to going back to work on the Tuesday (laughs). I think that could be a struggle! I’m flat out on cars because my plan is to build a car for all three meetings but some of the others are hoping their cars will survive Sunday for Monday. Hopefully it will be ok because Mendips is a rookie meeting with limited contact but I don’t want to chance it and not have a car to race Monday but it does mean we are really busy building the cars right now.

This season has seen you join the Shunters team having been in the Aftermath for a few years, are you enjoying the new team?
Yes it’s been good so far. It was great with the Aftermath but it got to a point where most of the guys weren’t racing very much, they were just doing different things and it got to a stage where quite often it was just me and (32 Alan Wombwell) on our own and I guess we started to think that if that was going to be the case we might as well just do our own thing. We then went on (514 Charlie Taylor’s) stag weekend in Skegness and we all raced that weekend and part of it we all raced in Shunter colours and it kind of went from there really and me and Alan made the switch fully at the end of last year and it’s been good so far. They are a great bunch and it’s been cool to race in a team again, I really enjoy that and they like travelling a bit as well which is excellent, it’s always cool to travel somewhere as a team and take on the drivers there, even if we usually end up squashed (laughs).

One of your first appearances after switching to the Shunters was at the wheel of your superb Cadillac Fleetwood hearse at Stoke, was that one you enjoyed?
That thing was a beast and I loved racing it but it wasn’t until I had the head-on with Mr Grumpy’s (152 Jim Dillon) Cadillac and it destroyed it that I fully realised how strong the thing was. I was pretty surprised at how much damage it did. The car did cost a lot of money, but it was one of those one off kind of things, I doubt I’ll ever get a car quite like that again so I figured it was worth the effort as I doubt I’ll ever have something as good as that again. I managed to get two meetings from it which was good, it made all the effort a little more worth it and to be honest we could have possibly fixed it for another meeting and did consider bringing it to the Supreme Championship at Mildenhall but I think it would have only had one more hit in it so I didn’t think it was worth the work. As it turned out I had a terrible night at the Supreme so maybe I should have just brought the hearse back after all (laughs).

Mentioning travelling, is there anywhere else you hope to visit soon?
We want to go to Emmen. We’ve heard such great things about the place, the track looks brilliant and the drivers look just as good and everyone who goes speaks so highly of the place but at the moment we are struggling to find a way to get there that won’t cost a fortune because the costs of the ferry are so much but hopefully we’ll get something sorted, I’d like to do the Blue Oyster Trophy meeting is possible because that looks like a really good one to do. We are also doing the War of the Worlds team meeting at King’s Lynn at the end of June which should be good, I always enjoy team meetings and the Suffolk Open at Mildenhall is one I’m looking forward to because I really enjoy unlimited meetings at Mildenhall, it’s a great track for unlimited bangers. We were doing the Banger World Series meetings at the start of the year, the plan was at the start of the year to try and do most of them but we quickly found out at the Ipswich round that we really aren’t quick enough for those meeting so they weren’t much good for us but I think we might still do the odd one at some point.

You tend to stick to unlimited bangers these days, is that your favoured format of racing?
It is now, it was Mondeos when I first started but while racing them is easier than unlimiteds, I find them a little boring now. Mostly it is because it’s a lot easier to race a Mondeo, it’s the same with any front wheel drive car really, the car does a lot of the work but in an unlimited or any rear wheel drive car, it’s much more down to the driver and I find that a lot more fun and also when you have a good day you get a bigger buzz from it. But we have started doing some Micro meetings now. It’s more so Callum (Henderson) can do a bit of racing as he’s not really ready for the unlimiteds just yet and the Micros are pretty good, again they are quite easy to build and a good bit of fun.

Is there anyone you would like to mention or thank?
My dad and all the team for everything they do and my wife for her support and putting up with me!