An Interview with defending National Banger British Champion 313 Craig Osborne
(interview published June 21 2016 in the lead up to the 2016 National Banger BBA British Championship)

Age: 25
Home Town: Red Lodge
Occupation: Waste Operative Driver
Family: Fiancé Dannii, son Riley and second baby due in July
First race: Aged 17 in Bangers at Mildenhall

Your second child is due around the date of the British Championship, how close is it and you concerned you might have to be elsewhere rather than at Mildenhall on July 2?
(laughing) He, we know it’s a boy, is due on July 2 so the same day as the meeting so we could be cutting it a bit fine as I’ve no intention of being one of those guys who leaves his misses in the hospital in Labour to go and race or something like that, if Dannii is having the baby then I won’t be at Mildenhall but hopefully it won’t come to that. I’m actually hoping he is late arriving because I’ve not done very much to my car for the meeting at all so if he does arrive early that could be just as bad as I hardly want to be down the yard building a car when my new son is at home! They do say the second ones are usually early though don’t they so I guess I will have to hope that’s not the case! Our first son, he arrived late, hopefully it will be the same this time but it can’t be helped, what will be will be.

Are you looking forward to defending the championship?
I am to be honest. It will be something different because I’ve never been in a race as defending champion. The only other things I have won have been the Mildenhall points which you defend all season rather than in one race and the Hot Shots which isn’t until later in the year so this will be a first so it’s definitely going to be a little different I guess but I suppose as soon as the race starts it will be like any other race (laughs).

Have you enjoyed your year as champion?
I have. Admittedly I’ve cut right back on my racing this year with the baby due but it’s been good to have a year as champion and I’ve really enjoyed having the chequered roof on the car, that has been excellent. To be honest the year seems to have flown by, I really cannot believe it has been a year already, it seems to have good so quick but I think that maybe shows that I’ve enjoyed the year as champion.

How do you rate your chances in the race?
I think it’s the same as anyone else really. Everyone in the race is good, you don’t get in it without being good so everyone has a chance and I think when the race starts everyone will be going for it and that can make it hard, when everyone in a race has the same goal, it makes it tougher to be the one to actually win the race. I don’t know if I might be a target being defending champion. Again I’ve never defended a title so it’s a new experience for me so I don’t really know if more people are eager to take you out being defending champion or not really, I guess I’ll find out (laughs).

What are your lasting memories from last year’s race?
I remember it being a really good race. It had a bit of everything, started off really fast, like you would expect from a championship race and then around half way, all hell broke loose and it became a real war zone, like a proper banger race should be (laughs) and I tend to do better in races like that so I think it suited me but I was pleased to have held the lead before that because I think I showed I was as quick as anyone else and then when I needed to I could show I could find the gaps and force a way through the blockage. It was a great race to win because you had to do everything to win it. I was a bit lost towards the end, there was so much going on. At the end Jordan Cumming went past me and I had no idea if he’d taken the lead so I had to go for him and get back in front just in case but it turned out he was several laps down on me but I had no idea where anyone was or who was second, anything like that, you just had to keep on going for it.

You had damage towards the end of the race, was you aware of that and how worrying was that?
I ripped out a rear leg and I was aware of what I had done because when I backed up I could feel the rear of the car go up so I knew what I had done but thankfully when I was going forwards the leg held up straight and to be honest the car went just as well when I was going forwards as it did before I’d done it. It was a concern but there was so much going on you couldn’t worry about it too much, you just had to keep on going.

Do you think we will see a similar race again this year?
You never know but I think it will be a good race one way or another, it usually is and with a big field and a lot of top drivers out there, it’s hard to see it not being good, you just never know if it’s just going to be a really fast race with everyone going for the win or a wreck up again. The thing with Mildenhall is you don’t need much for it to suddenly become a battlefield, it only needs one driver to think ‘sod it’ and turn round, or something to kick off between a couple of drivers and before you know where you are you have a track blockage and then it’s anyone’s race.

Have you been enjoying your season so far?
I have. To be honest it has been nice to cut back on the racing this year and not be rushing all the time. But it’s weird because now I think to the last couple of years and when we were doing every meeting and I honestly don’t know how I ever managed it but then we did have a bit more help back then which makes a massive difference. Even now where I’m racing a lot less I still seem to be behind but again it’s been great to not be up the yard as long every day, I still go almost every day to do something but rather than come home at eight or nine, I’m home at six which is nice to spend some more time with the family and when the second baby arrives I’ll probably do even less. To be honest Sharkie (69 Clive Manvers) dying recently has made me think a lot. It was like when my dad died, that was totally out of the blue as well and Clive going the same way has really made me think about how you never know what the future holds and I don’t want to have any regrets in 10 years about not spending the time with my kids when they were young and missing out on that stuff, because once it’s gone you don’t have a second chance. I’ve actually just sold all my unlimited banger stock and while I will probably get some more down the road, it’ll be the more modern cars which are a little cheaper, so at the moment I’m just going to stick to the meetings with my Cougars. The thing with them is they are cheaper and easier to build than most cars and most times you get a full meeting from them. I’ve always loved my DDs and with a Cougar or Mondeo you’ve a good chance that the car will last until the end and you can have a good DD. The last one I had, I won the DD at the last British qualifier and we pulled it straight and did the whole meeting with it at the Inter Counties, so they are great cars and I think for the time being I will just stick to them and of course I’ve kept my Triumphs, I’d never part with them?

On the subject of Triumphs, you almost won your father’s memorial trophy in the DD at the pre 70, was you disappointed to come up a little short?
Yeah, truth be told I was pretty gutted but it’s probably a bit my fault because I was starting to think I had it in the bag which is always a mistake (laughs). It was a good DD and to be honest, looking back I was glad to just do well in it because I’ve not had much luck in it since it became dad’s memorial. Triumph’s aren’t really the hardest cars for DDs to be honest but that one did well until I broke the gearbox, at least I won the entertainer award which was something (laughs).

You also raced a Triumph 2000 for the first time at King’s Lynn which has been on your bucket list for a while, did you enjoy that?
I did but we had some problems with the car. Turned out it was something Clive (Manvers) had told me to do which was causing the problem, I guess it was his parting gift or something (laughs). Once we got it sorted the car was going well and it was flying in the final but it just got so hot I had to retire which was a shame but it was good while it lasted. On the plus side the car is still good to race again so I’ve got that put aside for the 2Litre RWD meeting which is good.

When we last spoke to you the new ORCi ruling about drivers not exiting their cars while races were in progress had just been announced and you spoke about your reservations, how do you feel about it now?
I think it is ok, I think the biggest issue for me is that now drivers have to stay in their car it can sometimes be hard to remember how long a car has been parked up and whether you can hit it or not, you have to try and remember if it was there the lap before which isn’t too easy sometimes and personally I don’t want to do a lossy hit and blow up a car which has been there for a week. It’s worse in a DD because before if the guy was in the car that meant they were in the DD so you would hit it and now you’re not sure so you’d leave it and then look round and it would be going again (laughs). It’s worse when you do a DD and you’re finished and you have to stay in the car. At the Inter Counties my car was dead and I was sat in it, sweating my tits off with my belts and everything in while the few left were trying to finish each other at the other end of the track. That is frustrating because you really want to get out of the car and it is perfectly safe to do it but you have to stay put.

Is there anyone you would to thank or mention?
Brett and Simon for everything they do and Dannii for all her support.