An Interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship contender 226 Billy Webster
(interview published August 31 2016 in the lead up to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship weekend on September 10 and 11)

Age: 23
Home Town: Leeds
Occupation: Fabricator for family business
Family: Girlfriend Danielle
Racing career: First race was aged 10 in Ministox at Skegness

This will be your second appearance in the World Final having made your first, and so far only, previous appearance in the big race at Skegness in 2010, is this year different to that one?
Definitely (laughs). When I qualified in 2010 I honestly wasn’t chasing it at all, it just kind of happened. I was racing mostly on tarmac at the time and doing pretty well even though it was only my second season in the formula and the semi-finals were at Barford which was one of my regular tracks and one I went well at so even though I didn’t have the best of grid positions I had half a chance and managed to finish 10th and qualified for the World Final. To be honest I never saw myself as a contender in the race, I just saw it as a privilege to be in the race and be a part of it, I’m looking forward to being in it again now. When you think of how many drivers are in the formula and how few get to do the race, it’s a great feeling to be just a part of it all.

Was trying to qualify for this year’s race a target of yours this year?
It honestly wasn’t. I’ve never chased things in my racing. It’s just a hobby after all and I think when you start setting certain goals that is when you start to take things a bit too seriously and then there is a danger of taking the fun out of it so I’ve always been wary of that and keen to not do it and make sure I keep the racing as a source of fun. But at the start of this year I decided I was going to try and do all of the shale meetings, if you can call that a target or a goal and I guess the possibility of qualifying for the World Final came from there as I did race at all of the shale qualifying rounds but I’ve only done a couple of tarmac meetings this year so I certainly wasn’t going out of my way to try and qualify for the Semi-Finals but with the semis and World on shale I’d be lying if I said qualifying wasn’t in the back of my mind and I always thought it would be nice if it happened and I’m glad it has.

Has it been a good season for you?
Yeah, it has and I’ve really enjoyed it. Although I said I don’t set goals for myself at the start of the year I had a stab at trying to get to superstar and I managed it which was really cool. I had a couple of chances a few years ago and missed out by a couple of points both times so this year after the first weekend of the season went so well I thought I’d have another go. It helps at the start of the year because it’s the only time when there is about as many shale meetings as they are tarmac ones so being that I’d decided to do all the shale meetings anyway I thought I’d really make an effort and it paid off and I got to superstar for the first time which was really cool. In fact if they were still grading the old way I’d still be a superstar now but we have less superstars now so it’s just red grade (laughs).

Much has been said about the grading system with some feeling it needs tweaking to better reflect the ability of some shale only drivers, is that something you would like to see?
I honestly don’t know and to be fair I’m not too fussed with that kind of thing, I just get on with my racing and let the people in charge of that kind of thing worry about it (laughs). I do think reducing the number of drivers in each grade was a good idea though because generally there are less cars at the meetings at the moment compared to a few years ago, if numbers pick up then the number in each grade can go up as well. I guess it is harder for shale only drivers to be up the top of the points because there are less shale meetings but then the drivers doing lots of meetings and scoring lots of points deserve to be at the top of the points so I’m not sure what the answer is really.

Going back to the World Final and you are set to start the race on row five, are you happy about that?
Yeah, very happy, I’m just pleased to be in the race again but there are some very good and quick drivers up at the front of the grid so it’s going to be a very hard race for anyone to win. I think it’s going to be a pretty hectic race so I’m hoping I might be far enough up the front to avoid the early chaos, hopefully it will all happen behind me but you never know do you (laughs)? I really think there will be a lot of cautions and stoppages in the race, I know the last World Final at Mildenhall went the distance without a stoppage but I think that surprised a lot of people at the time and I really can’t see that happening again. But again you never really know do you.

Have you got a personal target for the race?
(laughs) No, I said I don’t do goals. Well most of the time (laughs). Ultimately I wouldn’t like to finish the race, hopefully damage free and if I could get in the top 10 I would be over the moon but the most important thing for me is to enjoy it and as long as when it’s over I feel that I did the best I could then that will be good enough for me. Enjoying it is the most important thing for me but I will definitely be giving it everything to try and win if I can.

Does the race being at Mildenhall give you an advantage, especially as you are currently third in the track championship?
I think it might, well I hope it does (laughs)! I think the drivers who race at Mildenhall will have an advantage over the ones who don’t simply because it’s such a unique track and it’s actually quite different to any other shale track as well so I think the drivers who have more experience of it will have a bit of an advantage but at the same time there are so many good drivers out, they are all going to good on the day.

That, said who stands out to you as a leading contender for the race?
I think anyone who is in it has a chance and I include those who qualify on the night, especially if say Mark Simpson qualifies, I think someone like him could easily win from the back of the grid. Again I really don’t think it will be like the race in 2006 that went flag to flag, there is going to stoppages and I think a big part of the race is going to simply be survival and try out of trouble which won’t be easy with that many cars. But it makes it all the more unpredictable and hard to say who is going to win. I guess if I was going to pick someone, I’d say Carl Issit because I think all his experience will help him a lot and personally I’d like to see him win for everything he has done in the formula, he was racing when I was just watching as a kid and I’d love to see him win the big one, I think he really deserves it. I think the Dutch drivers are going to be worth watching as well, you’ve got Wim Peeters, Barry Bauer, Michael Schutter and Toon Schut and they are all very good as well and have gone well at Mildenhall before so they will be up there as well. There is so many drivers capable of winning it. Hopefully I’m one of them as well (laughs)!

Much has been said about the World Semi-Final and World Final being on shale this year, what were your feelings about this?
I couldn’t believe how many people were moaning about it to be honest (laughs). Both events are on a rota and that’s how it fell this year, I couldn’t see the issue, after all you never hear people complaining about the years when both races are on tarmac which happens a lot more often. I think shale needs a better representation on the World Final rota because it’s only on shale very few years compared to the years it’s on tarmac and while there are more tarmac tracks than shale ones I don’t the gap is as big between the drivers and F2s is supposed to be a shale and tarmac formula so surely the World Championship should be evenly split between the two surfaces the formula races on? I’ve heard people say ‘shale drivers have the World of Shale’ and while that is true and as brilliant as that race is, it’s not the World Final and also tarmac drivers have the European and UK Open every year on tarmac.

2016 has been a season where much has been going on behind the scenes to try and improve the formula, how do you feel the formula is doing at the moment?
I think the formula is in a good place overall and it’s great that we have a driver’s board again who are more involved and that is something I think should have never gone away in the first place. I think the important thing is to try and stop certain issues that exist before they get out of hand and I think that is already happening. The shale scene is doing really well at the moment but I think a big reason for that is because unlike tarmac, on shale you can get away with your car not being absolutely perfect. Of course a lot of us do everything we can to make sure our cars are as good as possible but I think if it’s not it’s not so much of a handicap as it is on tarmac but I don’t know what can be done to overcome that.

It is being suggested about the introduction of a shootout style series to the National Points Championship much like what BriSCA F1 Stockcars currently has. Is that something you would like to see?
I don’t think it is fair to the guy who races all year, does all the meetings and scores more points than anyone that they then don’t get the silver roof, I think that should stay for the points champion like it always has but I think having a shootout series for a different title would be a good idea and I think it would help keep things interesting after the World Final to have something like that in place, I just don’t think they should have the silver roof, that should be for the points champion like it always has.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My mum and dad, my girlfriend for letting me spend all my late nights working on the car, my grandad, Custard for all his help and all my sponsors, Colin Casserly at Stox Photos, Sevenage Insurance Services, Lucas Oil UK who’ve been supporting me for five years now, Alistair at GSN Protect Shocks, Sheaf Skips, Oak Mechanical Ltd, ASG Group Garages, Houghton JCB Plant Services, LFB Motorsport and MW Fabrications.