An Interview with National Banger racer Scarrow Boy 159 Darren Scarrow
(interview published March 25 2014 in the lead up to the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship at Mildenhall on April 3)

Age: 38
Home Town: Beck Row
Occupation: Taxi driver
Family: Wife Gayle and four children
Racing career: Starting racing National Bangers at Mildenhall aged 17

You are set for action at the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship on Good Friday (April 3) at Mildenhall with one of the more interesting teams among the line-up, the Old Guns which features six drivers with a long history of racing at Mildenhall, including a few making their first appearances in quite some time, can you explain how the team came about?
Well to be honest it was all down to (Stu Brooks). It was his idea and he put it all together really, he just decided it would be good to get a few of the guys together who’ve been racing at Mildenhall for a long time back together for the day. Most of us have raced in teams together before including on Good Friday so it will be good to have the group back together for the day, I’m really looking forward to it, hopefully it will be a lot of fun, put it this way, I didn’t take long to agree to do it (laughs)!

The team includes a few drivers who’ve not been in action for quite some time, is there anyone in the team you are particularly looking forward to racing with again?
No, not really I’m just looking forward to racing with them all again because it’s been quite a while since we did anything like this so it will be really good to have everyone racing together again. I guess it will be cool to have Stu (Brooks) out, because he’s not raced Bangers at Mildenhall in a long time and this was all his idea but there isn’t anyone I’m looking forward to racing with more than anyone else, it’s just good to have everyone back out there together again. Even the couple of us in the team who still race regularly, for whatever reason we don’t seem to race together that often these days, let alone in a team together so this will definitely be special.

Has the team any intentions for the afternoon?
Just to enjoy it. We’ve no plans to try and win it or anything like that, it’s just about having as much fun as possible and I’m sure we’ll have a great day and the team itself will be a big reason for that, just racing with friends and people you’ve known for such a long time and having everyone back together again like we used to years ago, that in itself will be a cool thing and I’m sure everyone will have a great day, regardless of how well we do on track or don’t do (laughs). Team meetings are always a bit more enjoyable anyway because you have that team element of the meeting where you are all mucking in to help each other get ready for the next race in the pits. It’s such a different atmosphere to an (individual) meeting and I enjoy the team meetings, I like that side of it, the work you do in the pits, it’s just a different side to the racing and it’s good to have that a few times in a season. It’s funny really because at meetings like that you wind up not watching much of the racing, other than maybe the races the team are in because you get so busy helping out in the pits and often you lose track of time because you get so engrossed in things.

There were whispers the team might have been sourcing some different cars for the meeting, is this the case?
It was mentioned but we’ve not managed to do that. There might be a couple of different things. I think Stu (Brooks) is hoping to have something slightly unusual which is him all over really isn’t it (laughs) and I think we have a Triumph Acclaim which is a little retro at least! I’ve got a Civic for the meeting which I’m sure will be fine, I think it will be quick enough, it just depends on how strong it is because they aren’t the strongest of cars and usually Good Friday is a pretty rough one so we’ll have to see how it goes.

This year’s Suffolk Open team championship has 42 teams booked in and thus has the potential to be the biggest in its history, have you paid much attention to the entry and is it special to be a part of a meeting this size?
I honestly haven’t paid any attention to the entry list but then again I never do. It’s just something I’ve never done when I’m racing, I make sure I’m booked in if I need to be and that really is it, I don’t know why but I have never taken an interest in that kind of thing, I think it’s partly because if I want to race I do and I’m not really influenced at all by who else might be racing, it’s more a case of racing at the kind of meetings I think I will enjoy. The best thing about meetings as big as Good Friday is the atmosphere in the pits. When the pits are rammed full of cars, like they will be on Good Friday, the atmosphere is just different. It’s hard to explain it really but there is definitely a better atmosphere on days like that and when you combine it with the team racing elements and helping your team mates out and working as a team it does make for a good day. I don’t think it makes too much difference to the racing itself, other than there is a lot bigger gaps between your races (laughs), I do think it’s better when there are more cars in a race, it just makes it much more fun but it’s the atmosphere in the pits that you really notice.

Having raced at several 1400cc Suffolk Open team championships, what do you think is the appeal to the meeting which has now been running for 20 years?
I think it’s the cars we use that is a big part of it because with small cars like that, it levels the playing field everyone. The fact that there is usually so many cars as well in the races makes it even more even for everyone so everyone racing has a chance to be competitive and I think for a lot of drivers that is the thing they really want and you get that on Good Friday.

This season has seen you return to being an RDC driver for the first time in a couple of years, can you explain why you’ve made that change?
Well one of the reasons I went to Spedeworth was because of my work commitments. Being a taxi driver, it was hard for me to not work on a Saturday night and so I decided to switch my racing to Sundays instead but my work commitments have changed now and my hours are a lot more flexible and I have a lot more control over the hours I work which is fantastic and allows me to race on Saturday nights again more regularly. And the other reason for switching was because I was finding it harder and harder to compete on tarmac. You hear it from a lot of people now but unfortunately it is a problem that in order to compete on tarmac you do need to put a lot of money into your cars and have the right equipment and I just don’t want to do that personally. Thankfully it is nowhere near the case on shale which I think I showed (on March 7) where I had a second in my heat, the truth is I would have found that very, very hard to do the same on tarmac. My car would be the same and I guess I would but that’s just not enough. I do like racing on tarmac, especially if it’s a wet day (laughs) which is better than a wet day on shale but when you are so uncompetitive it takes a lot of the fun out so it was time to come back to shale.

Mentioning wet days and the March 7 season opener, even though it wasn’t a wet meeting the conditions were certainly very difficult, how did you find them?
(laughing) Oh God, it was terrible wasn’t it. Honestly I’ve raced at Mildenhall in some really bad weather but I think that was worse, those holes gave me a real headache! It was a bit of a shock to me really because the first time I went into the stadium was when I drove on the track for my heat so it was a bit of a surprise for me but yeah it was tough, I was just glad I still did pretty well even though I was finding it quite hard. I didn’t have the best of luck in the final, I was obviously trying to go round the holes and I kept getting turned into them and when that happened you had to just floor it and hope you came out the other side, it got to a point where I was considering picking up a shovel and helping when they were working on the track in between races (laughs).

Have you any plans for the rest of 2015?
Well I was hoping to have a good stab at trying to qualify for the British Championship but I’ve just checked my dates and it turns out the final is the same day as Darren Gathercole’s wedding and I’m the best man so I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak away for it (laughs). To be fair the date of the wedding was set a while ago, it’s just I’ve only just checked my dates! So with that out of the window I don’t really have any great plans, just to race when I can but I’ll probably make it all up as I go along.

What are your thoughts on the construction rules for 2015?
They don’t really affect me to be honest, nothing I do has really changed. The only thing that’s caught me out is there is now more restrictions on what you can do on Mondeo engines and typically I’d had a bit of work done on one for myself this season but at the same time I think more should be done to restrict what people are doing to the engines so I’m not against it, I just wished I’d known before I had the work done (laughs).

Is there anyone you would like to mention or thank?
Ben Jackson who does a lot of the work on my cars for me, Stu Brooks, TJ, Archie, Todd, Carl Jnr, Darren Gathercole, everyone else who helps and the wife for her support.