An Interview with National Banger driver Tyrone 928 Emmerson Prime
(interview published November 11 2014 in the lead up to the Mildenhall Team Championship on November 23)

Age: 32
Home Town: Stowmarket
Occupation: Traffic Management
Family: Girlfriend Cara
Racing career: Started racing Bangers at Mildenhall in 2006 but failed scrutinnering at first meeting, rectified the car for the DD but broke down before the start!

Team Relentless have become regulars at the Mildenhall team events in the last few months and are once again set for action at the Mildenhall Team Championship in November, is this a meeting you are looking forward to?
Yes, very much because I really enjoy the team meetings. They are really different to a normal meeting and the thing which sets them apart from a normal meeting is what happens outside in the pits. The actually racing I don’t think is too different to any other time I race, at least it’s not for me, I just try and keep going (laughs). But in the pits it is completely different and as I guess I am team captain that is especially the case for me. At an (individual) meeting once your own car is fixed and ready for the next race the chances are you will go inside the stadium and watch some other racing until it is time for you to race next but that’s not the case at a team meeting because once your own car is done you then move onto your team mates and do everything you can to help them with their car. I race very much for fun, that is always the main goal for me and the main goal for anyone who races in the team, just to enjoy yourself and have a good time and if you do well on the track it’s a bonus so when you have that element of the sport in the pits it just makes the day even more fun and that’s why I enjoy these meetings so much.

Prior to Team Relentless you would regularly race with the Rat Pack until the team dissolved, do you enjoy your role as captain of Team Relentless?
I do as it goes, it can be hard work sometimes getting drivers for a meeting and then chasing them and making sure everyone is ok but ultimately I enjoy it and the fun we then have at the meeting more than makes up for it. The Rat Pack was great but when the team drifted away there was a small group of us from Stowmarket who still wanted to do the team meetings so we became Team Relentless. Dale Woolnough was a big part of it at the start but he didn’t want the hassle of organising it all so it was left to me but I’ve found I’ve enjoyed it which is why it’s carried on. Out of the original four I’m the only one left now but it’s funny the friends you make through this sport and the team is pretty much the friends I’ve made. It’s incredible that you can form a friendship from something as simple as lining up next to guy on pit road and striking up a conversation or having a crash with someone and a laugh afterwards and it goes from there. We’ve even had people come in and race with us just because they wanted to do the meeting and didn’t have a team and we needed a driver and they’ve become friends which is pretty cool. Everyone who races in the team is quite like minded I think. We all do it for fun, we’re not too worried if we get any results or do well, as long as we enjoy ourselves that’s the most important thing. And it’s also pretty cool that we only race as a team at team meetings. We sometimes struggle not to hit one another at team meetings so what chance would we have at a normal meeting (laughs), thankfully the guys who race with us aren’t the kind who get upset it we crash into each other when we aren’t racing as a team.

Given your enjoyment for team racing, do you have a favourite meeting?
Definitely the Old Skool meeting, I love that meeting and it’s one of my favourites of the year. The thing I like the most about it is because the heats are eight on eight I think there is a greater opportunity to get stuck in without worrying too much about going no further. At some team meetings there can be 30 to 40 cars in a race and if you do a hit, the likelihood is that someone is going to do you in turn so it can make you a little less eager to have a crash with that knowledge that it might be the end of your race. But with the Old Skool because there are only eight drivers against you I think it gives you a better chance to have a crash and get going again for another because there aren’t as many people out there who might smash you up and with those odds it makes me keener to have a crash. I do enjoy crashing but I’m the kind of driver who tends to keep the crashing until the DD after I’ve had my night’s racing but the Old Skool is different because it’s one of the few times when I’m normally up for a good crash from the start. I had a great meeting this year and some big hits and I was really pleased that we’ve won the head to heads both years we’ve done it. I know there might be some who’d say we’ve been lucky as we’ve avoided some of the stronger teams in the draw but I think that’s actually quite good because when you have two of the not so strong teams against each other they tend to put on a good show and I’d like to think our head to heads with Team Kamikaze and Hammertime were pretty good.

Looking at the forthcoming Mildenhall Team Championship, have you any targets or goals for the meeting?
Not at all, only to enjoy it and have a good day and have some fun and it’s the same for everyone in the two teams. It’s been quite fortunate because after the Old Skool meeting everyone was buzzing and eager to race in the team again, hence why we’ve two teams (on November 23) and if we can enjoy this day half as much as the Old Skool we will have done well. Don’t get me wrong it would be brilliant to qualify for the final or have a win on the day, it’s always great when you have a win, but it’s far from the be all and end all for me.

One of your head turning moments this season was at the Unlimited Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy meeting where you raced a Jaguar which could be described as a rush job, can you tell us about that?
(laughs) Yeah you could say that. It took us six hours and it started the morning of the meeting as a complete car. I was kind of egged into doing it and it started on the Thursday night where some friends were joking that I had the car and why hadn’t I built it and I could do if I’d wanted so on the Friday I called my mate to see if he was free Saturday and asked if he fancied a challenge (laughs). There were three of us in all. Me and the friend I called Friday started by stripping it and when it was nearly stripped I had another mate who came along and helped build it and we did it all in six hours and raced it that night and I had a brilliant night, got a fourth and qualified for the final which was more than I ever dreamed I would! Everything was original and it all worked pretty well, don’t get me wrong if I did it again with more time there are plenty of things I would have done better of differently but we still had a great time building it and racing it. Eventually we think a wire got cut or something but because it was all original, on the key and automatic as well, there was about 500 wires in the car so I wasn’t going to start looking for which one was broken (laughs). I’ve got a couple more now so I’m hoping that with a little more time they will be good cars but I think it did show that you can race without spending loads and loads of time on a car if you want. Of course it helps but I still had a good time with what we had.

With that in mind have you any plans for next year?
Well the Suffolk Open was my first unlimited on shale and I really enjoyed it so I’m looking to do more of that next year and the RWD meetings if I can which will probably mean less Mondeo meetings because I can’t do everything but after the unlimited I think I will enjoy those kind of meetings a little more. I want to do the Supreme Championship meeting and we’ve already spoken about having a team at the unlimited team meeting again which will be good, combing the fun of a team meeting with an unlimited and of course I intend to do all the team meetings at Mildenhall as well. I’m also hoping to do the unlimited vans as well. It’s a meeting I’ve always wanted to do but never managed to and I had a van this year but didn’t have the time to get it ready so hopefully everything will come together for next year’s meeting because that also looks like a lot of fun.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
Ant and Sarah especially at AS Car Spares for everything they do especially with helping me with cars and transport as well and Kai for everything he does to help me and everyone else who helps out.