An Interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar May 30 heat winner 842 Ben Kerry
(interview published July 8 2015 in the lead up to One Wild Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium on July 25 and 26)

Age: 28
Home Town: Diss
Occupation: Procession driver
Family: Single
Started racing: Aged 10 in Ministox at Swaffham

You secured your first BriSCA F2 Stockcar race win at Mildenhall on May 30 which was your second in the formula, how special was it to get that first win at Mildenhall?
It was special, I suppose it’s a bit like finally breaking your duck and it was a big deal for me to finally do that. I’ve been going pretty well the last few meetings and been getting closer and close to finally getting a win and to now have one is pretty special and it’s a great feeling. Don’t get me wrong I don’t consider myself a serious by any means. I only race maybe 13 or 14 times a year and this year I’ve only been racing at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn so this is very much about just having a bit of fun every few weekend and as long as I’m enjoying my racing that is all that really matters to me and I’m definitely enjoying my racing at the moment. That is a lot more important to me than chasing points or championships or race wins but at the same time it’s a really good feeling to get a good result from time to time. The only problem was that once I had my last win the rest of the night pretty much went as expected and I got smashed up in the next races (laughs) but it wasn’t the end of the world, it was worth it to have that win.

Having had some good results in recent meetings at Mildenhall was there any growing frustration from not getting that win or were you confident it would come in time?
I guess I figured that if I kept plugging away at it, it might come eventually but it wasn’t a big problem or anything because I was still really enjoying my racing and again that was the most important thing for me and all the time I was enjoying it, it didn’t really matter if I was winning or not because that’s not what I go racing for, it was much more about having fun but I can’t deny that getting the win was a great thing.

We saw a big change in your fortune towards the end of last season, you finished third in the last final of the year at Mildenhall in 2014, was there any reason behind the change?
(laughs) Yeah there was a bit change really. The biggest thing was that Richard Shearing helped me with setting the car up. He has a lot of experience with these kind of cars over the years and he agreed to have a look at the car for me because this kind of racing was pretty new to me and he made a lot of changes to things on the car and the difference it made was just incredible, it was like driving a completely different car. Having a car that performed so much better and was so much easier to driver makes a massive difference and it also boosted my confidence a lot and it’s built from there. Also when things are going a little better you become a bit more enthusiastic in between the meetings at home when you are working on the car and that can make a big difference as well. I’ve found this year that I am enjoying that a bit more and I’ve really got into fabricating parts for the car which is something I’ve never really done in all my years of racing but I’m getting more and more into that lately and trying some of my new ideas but not all of them are good ones (laughs). It does make a big difference having that added motivation and enthusiasm because I do pretty much all the work on not only my car but my dad’s (442 Graham) as well because he’s really busy as well. That is why we only race at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn because it’s just about enough racing for the two of us, any more and we’d struggle to keep up!

This is your second season in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars, can you explain how you came into the formula?
It’s a bit of a strange story. I was racing Lightning Rods at Spedeworth and while I enjoyed it I never really had the best equipment to be honest but a bit like my F2 racing now I used to enjoy competing with what I had and if I could get the odd win here and there that was fantastic. Unfortunately I was getting a little put off by drivers spending more and more on their cars which was making it harder for me to compete and it was taking a bit of the fun out of it. Then dad got offered a Superstox to race at Swaffham and I’d always fancied a go in an open wheel stockcar so I got one and we did that as well for a bit but I wasn’t too keen on the racing there for one reason or another. At around the same time I qualified for the Lightning Rod World Final which was a really big deal for me but I had a crash and wrecked the car. The car was pretty old anyway and I was a bit of a cross roads with my racing and so I decided instead to put everything into the stockcars as well but because we didn’t want to race at Swaffham we instead got BriSCA F2 Stockcars instead. I think it’s been a good season because I’m really enjoying myself, I think it’s a great formula to be in and the racing is excellent. Also it suites me well having Mildenhall and King’s Lynn and just sticking to those tracks is just about enough racing for me without racing every week or having to travel too far for meetings. I do enjoy the racing at Mildenhall a lot, the great thing is that being a smaller track there is always something going on, something to think about and you can never take it easy, you always have to be ‘on it’ and that makes for exciting racing when you are out there and that’s what I enjoy about.

Your switch in racing careers also now means you are racing on shale, something you didn’t really do prior to starting in BriSCA F2 Stockcars, do you like the shale racing?
Very much, it’s a lot of fun and it also keeps things a bit more competitive. You don’t need to spend quite as much money to compete on shale and you can compete without having the best stuff which we see a lot at Mildenhall and I think that is an excellent thing to have in any formula.

The drawback of shale racing is that you can have some difficult track conditions as we have already seen this season at Mildenhall, how hard was it to cope with the conditions at the first two meetings of the year at Mildenhall?
(laughing) Yeah it wasn’t the best was it. I did find frustrating, not because of the racing itself but because I suffered damage to my car which was quite costly because of the conditions. Don’t get me wrong, I understand, it’s shale and these things happen, no-one blames everyone and you can see how much work has been done to get it sorted because the track has been much better more recently and the (May 30) meeting the track was brilliant but when you get damage, it’s one thing when it’s because of the racing itself but when it’s because of something like the track, it’s tough to take but the important thing is everything seems a lot better now which is good.

This season we have seen less BriSCA F2 Stockcars at our meetings meaning we’ve seen more meetings with a 2/3rd heat format rather than a full format, one possible advantage to this is it means drivers have a greater chance of getting more racing from their night, is that something you like?
It’s a catch 22 really because on the one hand it’s nice to get some more racing from the meetings and get some more track time but at the same time it’s hard because the more you race the more likely you are to get damage and then you have a load of work and money to spend before the next meeting. If you can do the four races in one piece it’s ok, but if you get damaged in the fourth you almost wish you’d not gone back out (laughs). But at the end of the day we’re not getting as many cars as we did before and I think 20 cars or so is almost ideal around Mildenhall and we’ve had a lot of races with around that number so there has still been some good racing and that’s what matters the most because if the racing isn’t good then you don’t enjoy yourself.

Do you have a preference between a straight 2/3rd heat split or do you prefer it when heat one is a white and yellow grade heat and heats two and three feature all the top graded drivers?
I’m not too fussed really, for me the most important thing is that the three heats have roughly the same amount of cars. It’s ok having a white and yellow grade heat unless that is the majority of the cars at the meeting because just lately we’ve had a lot of yellow graded drivers so if that’s the case I think it’s better to have an even split of the grades in every heat.

This year has seen a change to the restart procedure for lap sheet order restarts and now the lapped cars stay in position among the lead cars when both a red and waved yellow flag is used, are you happy about that change and are you happy for red flags to be used to stop a race?
I think sometimes red flags should be stopped. Like (on May 30) when I was stranded across the track with a wheel off the car. If I’d been hit not only would it have hurt but the wheel could have gone anywhere so I think it was right for the reds to come out because I do think drivers react quicker to reds than waved yellows and that can make a difference. I’m not too worried about the order in which the cars are restarted but I think the way we have now is probably a little better in that usually it doesn’t take quite as long to get the race back underway which is important because it’s easy for the cars, and drivers (laughs) to get a bit hot when you are waiting to get going again so for me, the quickest way is the best.

Next season sees the World Final staged at Mildenhall and the Semi Finals at King’s Lynn, might you consider a campaign at qualifying for the World Final?
To be honest, I won’t be and I don’t think I would deserve to be in a race like that. That race is for the best drivers in the sport and there really are some brilliant drivers out there and I don’t think I’m at that level, especially with the racing I do so personally I don’t think I would feel right being in a race like that, but I’ll definitely be watching it and I’m sure it will be a good one.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My dad for all his help and all my sponsors, Richard Shearing at Thetford Autoparts, Ian at Rix Engineering, Mike Loman Engines and Jon Pickett Windor.