An Interview with Ministox final winner at Mildenhall on May 10 368 Dan Santry
(interview published June 4 2014 in the lead up to rounds nine of the Ministox Mildenhall Championship on June 21)

Age: 13
Home Town: Newmarket
Occupation: School
Family: Mum, dad, two sisters and brother
Racing career: Started racing Ministox at Mildenhall aged 11

It’s now been a couple of weeks since your big accident at Cowdenbeath, how are you doing?
I’m alright I guess (laughs). I’m getting better which is the most important thing I suppose but it’s slow. I’m still badly bruised, especially around my neck and collar bone. I had to wear a neck collar for seven hours in hospital while they made sure my neck was ok which thankfully it is but the bruising is really bad. It’s been a couple of weeks now and they are only just starting to get better now. The biggest injury was that I broke my wrist but I also hurt my ankle, although again I didn’t break anything, I suppose you could say I was quite lucky to not do anything more severe but I won’t be able to race at the next Mildenhall meeting (on June 21) which I’m really disappointed about. Originally the doctors said my wrist would take two weeks to heal so I was hoping I would be ok for Mildenhall but now it looks like it will be three so the plan is now to try and get ready for the meetings in July. I guess you could say I’m a little lucky to have hurt myself at a time when there aren’t so many meetings at RDC (laughs).

What can you remember about the crash?
I don’t remember anything about the race when it happened. I remembered the race before, which I won, really well. I took Billy Banwell on the last bend to win that race and I think I remember every single thing about that race but I can’t remember anything about the race with the crash. I’ve seen some video now and spoke to people obviously and I got out of shape, I think I might have hit some oil or something but the car got very taily and I started to lose control. I thought I’d corrected it and floored it but obviously I hadn’t and there were a couple of cars on the outside of me and they wound up flicking me into the wall and I got hit again down the straight. Apparently I was knocked out for a couple of minutes and the next thing I remember was waking up with everyone around me, looking worried (laughs). It’s strange but I remember after the accident, just nothing before.

You clearly have not lost any desire to get back on track?
Definitely not, it’s just one of those things and I’m just really disappointed that I don’t think I will be able to race at the next Mildenhall because things were starting to go really, really well for me, but the most important thing is to get better and hopefully I will be back out soon. My target is the Dover meeting at the start of July and then Mildenhall a few weeks later.

You mention things going well and this was certainly the case the last time we saw you at Mildenhall where you won the incredible final on May 10. What do you remember about that race and did you enjoy it?
It was brilliant, I remember going into the last bend and seeing them in my mirror and being pretty nervous. I tried to keep it as tight as I could on the final bend and hope for the best really, I knew the hit was coming and it was going to be close but I couldn’t believe how close it was in the end. I was pretty sure I’d won but because I’d spun across the line I really wasn’t sure but it was a fantastic race to win.

You reclaimed the lead at the start of the final lap, do you think that was the move that won you the race?
I think it was although I didn’t have much of a say in it really. Liam (Aspin) had a go at Cole (Atkins) who was leading and there was a backmarker there and I had to go for the gap, if I hadn’t I think I would have got caught up somewhere else. I didn’t really want to lead the race into the final bend but there wasn’t any choice at that point, I had to go for it and go for the lead at that point and somehow it just worked out for me.

The win helped you secure a red roof once again, is that something you are particularly pleased about?
Yes, it’s been my target for a little while now but it’s a hard thing to keep at RDC because the racing is so hard right now. I didn’t have too much luck last time I was red so I’m hoping this time will be better. It’s nice to have got away from the blue grade because there is a few of them at the moment which can make it tough before the starts are quite difficult but being in the blues does help because sometimes the yellow grade drivers do a lot of the work of getting through the white grade for you and the reds start a long way back so it’s hard but I’m hoping that second time round I will have a better run of it. I did drop down the grades earlier this season but I honestly think it was more down to bad luck than anything else, I just had some bad meetings which happens.

Speaking of bad luck, you were also having a good run in the National Championship at Northampton in early May, can you tell us what happened there?
I broke the steering arm, we did the same thing at Loch Gelly so we’ve obviously some sort of problem. It was disappointing (at Northampton) because I think I would have got a good finish and it’d been a tough race. I didn’t have the best of starting places, near the front but on the outside was always going to be hard and I think I went down to around tenth but got back to fifth which was hard because there were so many good drivers that day but it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m glad we’ve got these kind of championships again in Ministox and the National was an exciting meeting so hopefully they will all be the same and I know a lot of drivers enjoyed it so I’m looking forward to the next ones, especially the ORCi at Mildenhall where I hope I will have a chance being on shale, that should be a fantastic meeting.

Your younger brother Charlie is set to join you on track very soon having already got some track time at a recent Mildenhall track day, are you looking forward to having him out there?
Yes I am, he’s got my old car and he was going well at the track day so I’m sure he will do well when he’s old enough to race. We get on pretty well and we both love the racing so it’s something we can share and he’s been helping me a lot lately. I hurt my knee racing earlier this year so at the last Mildenhall meeting (May 10) he was helping me a lot with the car so he’s definitely going to be good with that side of things (laughs).

You come from a very racing orientated family, do you have time for any other hobbies?
I play football but if there is racing on a Sunday, the racing comes first (laughs). It’s a small club a play for, nothing too serious and it’s good fun and I’ve some good friends and it’s nice to do that when I can but the racing is always the most important thing for me.

Have you given any thought to after the Ministox and what racing you might do?
I want to eventually do Saloon Stockcars. Dad has still got the car he won the 2001 World Final in at Mildenhall so it would be pretty cool to try racing that. I’m not sure I would go straight into the Saloons though, it’s such a hard formula so maybe I’ll do something else first and practise a bit with a Saloon, I’m not sure but eventually I want to race them like the rest of the family.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My sponsors, Viking Self Storage and Safebox Document Storage for everything they do for me and my mum, dad, brother and sisters for all their help and support.