An Interview with National Banger racer 164 Jack Turner
(interview published April 6 2016 in the lead up to the National Banger British QF at Mildenhall on April 16)

Age: 22
Home Town: Braintree
Occupation: Tyre fitter and mechanic
Family: Girlfriend Georgina
Racing career: In Junior Bangers at Henham (Stansted) in 2008 and debuted in National Bangers at Mildenhall in December 2010

You made a great start to the British Championship qualifying series at Mildenhall on March 12, was trying to qualify for the British Championship a goal for you this season?
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t but at the same time it wasn’t life or death or anything like that. I decided this year to try racing Mondeos a bit more. As much as I love racing the older cars and doing the classic car type meetings the cars are getting more and more expensive to buy for those kind of meetings and the cars require so much work and I was just getting a little fed up with it I guess and wanted to try something different. I’d raced a couple of Mondeos and each time had good meetings with them, I built my own one for the Masters Championship at Dover at the end of last year and even though the weather was a bit horrible I had a great day so I decided that this year I would try and do a bit more of that and most of the Mondeo meetings, especially at this time of year, are the British qualifiers so I guess I thought it I was doing those meetings it made sense to have a go at least at trying to qualifying for the British Championship, but I never expected the first round to go as well as it did.

Does the fact you did so well as the first round add pressure to you for the next round or does it make things easier?
I think it makes things easier simply because the first round have me a massive boost in confidence and that makes such a massive difference. What I found the most I think is that if I get my head down and really go for it I can actually do quite well (laughs) and I think finishing third in the 20 lap final showed that I am capable of doing well when I put my mind to it. I don’t know what happened but one of the best things about the meeting was after the consolation when I was chatting to Victor (John Reeves) and Andy Battle and they both said that about half way through the race it was like a switch went off and I was as quick as anyone else in the race. I think them saying that gave me a confidence boost which really helped in the final and then to finish third was a massive boost and I think that will really help the next time I race because again confidence can make a huge difference.

Mondeo based National Banger racing is often not seen as the most popular form of the sport, what is it you enjoy about it?
There are a lot of things to be honest which make racing Mondeos quite appealing. First the cars are much easier to find than most other cars and because of that they are usually a lot cheaper to buy, I’ve been getting them for between £80 and £100 a time and I think I’m actually spending more than a lot of people but because it’s so much cheaper than the cars I was buying before which were mainly pre 70 ones I think I’m onto a winner (laughs). Even with the price of scrap being low at the moment, by the time you have filled a wrecked car with the rubbish from your next one, you can get a bit of money back and Mondeos almost always come with a cat and alloy wheels as well which all helps so they are not a very expensive car to race as well. Then they are pretty straight forward to build. Once you’ve done one it’s just a matter of taking your bits from one and putting them on the next. I reckon if I had to you could build one in two days if you spent the whole day on it so they are pretty straight forward. The other great thing about them is a standard one is pretty much on the pace, especially at Mildenhall and I think I proved that at the first British Qualifier when I finished third in the final but the other brilliant thing is that unless you are really unlucky you can normally get a full night’s racing with one. It’s even so easy to change engines and gearboxes that if you needed to you could change one in between races so unless you are really unfortunate you should get all your races. Obviously the downside for a lot of people is that the cars are actually too hard but the good thing about that is that they are usually strong enough that you always get more than one race from your car.

You were set to appear at Dover for the second British Qualifier on Easter Monday which was cancelled because of the weather, are you planning to do the next round on April 10 instead?
Well I guess I’m going to have to now because I left my car at Victor’s (laughs). We’d gone down the night before but to be honest I wasn’t surprised when we got the message that it had been cancelled because the weather was so bad. It was one of those situations where while I was disappointed it was cancelled, as a driver you always want to race no matter how bad the weather is, I think it probably was for the best because it was absolutely awful in the morning. But as the next meeting I was going to do would have been the next Dover round I decided to leave the car there rather than bring it home just to take it back again.

Do you enjoy the racing at Dover?
I love it there. I’ve only done a few meetings at the track but I think it’s a brilliant Banger track. I said about drivers being on a level playing field at Mildenhall but at Dover it’s even more the case, all the fancy and tricky stuff in the world will not make a difference at Dover and that is the beauty of the place because it means everyone can be competitive and enjoy their racing which to me is how bangers should be.

The first British Qualifying round in March saw something a little different as you were racing in new colours, was there a reason behind this?
I just wanted to try something different and I guess this year is a lot about me trying to do things my own way. Me and Humps (Alex Humphrey) have got our own yard now and we are just trying to do things our own way now and part of that was painting in my own colours. It’s been working well so far and we’ve been working well together building our cars. It’s funny because I think we will both admit that the time down the yard is probably the part of the sport we enjoy the least but once we get down there and get going it’s amazing how much we are able to get done and I think what we’ve also found is that being on our own there are perhaps less distractions and we can get on with what we are doing rather than mucking about so much and that has made a big difference so far.

Have you any other plans set for this season?
There are meetings I would like to do but we will have to see how it goes. I would like to do the Stan Woods Memorial at Stoke again as I have always enjoyed that one but I’ll have to see how the time goes, it doesn’t help being surrounded by the British qualifying rounds which I guess have become a bit of a priority now but it would be a shame to miss that one as it’s always so good. I’m provisionally booked in as well for the Classic Carnage meeting at Eastbourne but again I will have to see how time goes nearer the time although I haven’t got that much planned around then so hopefully it will be ok. I did the A60 Amble there last year and had a great meeting and really enjoyed it so I wanted to go back and I would also like to try and do a big van meeting if I can. I’ve never done one and they always look like loads of fun so I would like to finally get round to having a go at one this year. To be honest I can see this year being a bit busy which wasn’t the plan (laughs). Before when I stuck to the older cars and the classic car meetings I only did a handful of meetings a year because the cars were more expensive and harder to build. The idea of racing Mondeos was to try and not spend so much money and time on cars but I seem to have got the bug really bad right now so I can see me doing twice as many meetings as normal so I won’t be saving anything at all which really wasn’t the ideas when the year started (laughs).

A lot of drivers have started using personal safety equipment which isn’t mandatory in the rules, do you use anything like that?
The first British qualifier was the first time I used a Hans device and I’ve always bought a new crash helmet for this year and although I only have one meeting to comment on, that meeting went really well and I’m very happy with the stuff I’ve got. Being quite a small person I have suffered in the past when I’ve had a rough meeting and I’ve really felt it the next day, especially with my neck and it was something I was keen to try and improve on and so many people recommended the Hans devices so I thought I’d give it a go. I had a pretty big head-on with Brett Osborne in the DD (on March 12) and the following morning my neck felt absolutely fine so that was something I was really pleased about. I must admit my ribs did hurt a bit but I think that was because my belts came a little loose in one race rather than anything else. I know there are concerns that the Hans devices can cause drivers to get knocked out and I know this has happened to some people but usually the people it has happened to, they’ve been using them for a lot of meetings so I’m not sure it’s the case but then nothing is full proof, I think you just need to look into it and see what’s best for you.

Is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My dad, he’s started to get a lot more involved in my racing recently which has been a big help and I’m very grateful for that, Alex and Dave Humphrey, Del for everything he has done over the years to help my racing and more recently Andy Battle and Victor and everyone else whose every leant a hand.