An Interview with Saloon Stockcar driver 22 Karl Petters
(interview published February 10 2016 in the lead up to round one of the 2016 Mildenhall Track Championship on March 12)

Age: 45
Home Town: Newmarket
Occupation: Saving people’s lives! (Karl’s company fit motorway crash barriers)
Family: Wife Lisa and children Daniel, Katie and Jamie
Racing career: Started racing Saloon Stockcars in 2009

We are now only a few weeks away from the start of the Saloon Stockcar season, are you looking forward to getting racing again and what are your hopes for the 2016 season?
I am (looking forward to the start of the season). But at the same time I’ve really enjoyed the break. It’s a really good thing about the formula that it has a proper closed season and I think it plays a part in how good the formula is because if we were racing every weekend of the year I doubt many would be able to keep it up so having that break is brilliant. Not so much for (son) Daniel as he is bored and dying to get racing again but I’m starting to get the bug again and itching for the season to start but the break has been really nice. We’ve actually been talking a bit about this year me and Daniel and for us our plan is to just try and be a bit more reliable than anything else. I think we are both pretty decent drivers and we’ve kind of got the hang of it now, certainly Daniel, I think he’s a great driver and he’s still so young and still getting better. But we’ve let ourselves down so many times with our reliability issues and problems with the cars and in all honesty it was getting to a point where it was almost embarrassing the amount of time we were spending on the infield so for this year, our aim is for that to stop and at the very least we want to finish more races. In Saloons, so much of doing well in a race is down to luck and you don’t have much control over that. The other parts is how good the driver is and I think that while we might not be the best out there we are ok and certainly capable of doing well on our day as we’ve had some excellent results since we’ve been racing but the only thing you have the most control over is your car and how well it performs. I’m in the process of getting a new truck sorted for the season and I’m hoping that will make a difference because the plan is it will be able to carry all the spares we could ever need so if we have an issue we should be able to fix it and we are both fully intending to spend a lot more time before the meetings checking every bolt and doing all the little bits that make a difference and hopefully it will help.

Last season saw you and Daniel enjoy a spell in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars and you then returned to Saloon Stockcars, are BriSCA F2 Stockcars part of your plans for 2016?
No, we are both back fully committed to the Saloons for 2016 and the F2s are now up for sale. Daniel did pretty well in his but I just couldn’t get on with mine, it is such a different thing to racing a Saloon, a completely different learning curve and I think in part I decided I was too old in the tooth to basically learn how to drive again (laughs). Part of the reason we changed was because I was a little concerned with the amount of drivers who were getting hurt in the Saloons and I felt the contact was perhaps getting a bit too much and I think I wanted me and Daniel to try something different. He was also really keen to give them a go and it would have been quite difficult for him to do that and me to still do the Saloon and I wanted to support him because the racing really is all about him to be honest so I got a (F2) and had a go as well. But it just wasn’t for me and while Daniel did pretty well he also said he enjoyed the Saloons more. I think the injury thing was a bit of a knee jerk reaction really, there was a spate of injuries and it makes you think but after time you realise that any contact formula has risks and I realised that I preferred being in a saloon car rather than an open wheel car as well.

On the subject of driver injuries, a lot of drivers have recently been using more personal safety equipment, is that something you have been doing?
We do. Daniel tried a Simpson Hybrid neck restraint and just didn’t like it at all so we looked for something else and we are now using these solid neck collars. They are like the shoe horn ones which people have been using on their seatbelts for years but instead of being made of foam they are made of plastic and so they keep your neck and head upright and they are truly brilliant. They’ve honestly made crashing more comfortable (laughs) and I was really recommend them to anyone, I would never race without one now.

Sticking with the subject of safety there have been some who have questioned whether the tyres being used in the sport are a factor, have you any thoughts on the tyre rule at present?
I’m actually quite happy with things how they are because while it is awkward having to have two different types of tyre, one for tarmac and one for shale, they both work well on each surface and do the job intended. My concern is that while having one tyre for both surfaces would be beneficially because we’d only need to have the one tyre whenever we raced I do have concerns, mostly from what might happen if the conditions were a little wet. My biggest concern is that if we used the tarmac tyre on both surfaces, that would probably be fine on shale when the shale was dry but I think it would be awful if it was wet. What could be even worse is if you had a meeting where it started wet and then dried out you would have a good inside line and a bad outside line and if you came off the line I think it could end in an accident so that is something that would concern me if the formula went with one tyre and it was the current tarmac tyre. Again I think we should leave it how it is right now.

You were a somewhat late starter to the sport, how did you get involved?
Well everything has been because of Daniel really. He has always been interested in cars and racing and when he was old enough we started to take him go-karting at Red Lodge and when he started I started racing myself. The problem was that Daniel has always been quite a large lad and in go-karting that can be a huge disadvantage so it came to a point where I felt he would never reach his full potential because of his size and that was something we couldn’t do much about so we started to think about other things and my wife had been to Mildenhall to watch the racing there years before and she suggested Ministox. I had very little knowledge in the sport at the time so we looked into it and got him a car and it went from there. Again, just like the karting when he started racing I wanted to try it myself and I felt my best options were Saloons or Bangers and somewhat foolishly I decided to get a stockcar thinking it wouldn’t be as much work (laughs) but of course it’s just as much, sometimes even more! The first meeting I did was the Mildenhall weekend meeting in 2009 and I basically drove the car off the lorry and straight on the track and that was the first time I raced it! My youngest son is starting soon and should be in a Ninja Kart this year so that will be another one of us.

Mentioning your wife, she as well as your mum competed in the ladies race at King’s Lynn in December, did they enjoy it and did you enjoy watching them?
They did. I won’t say old my mum is but she was possibly the oldest driver in the race and she, and my wife, had a great time although my mum managed to wreck my car when she span and Jodie Grief collected her head-on. She says her foot still hurts now but at the time she was laughing to the medic who came to check on her that she wasn’t sure what was hurting the most. Lisa was doing well and at one point I thought she was getting the hang of drifting it round the bend but the back of the car kept on going and she span out instead (laughs). But she did managed to parallel park very neatly between the infield tyres! It was good fun watching them, a bit concerning at times but still fun, they are both huge supporters of our racing, they love it almost as much as I do so it was great for them to have a go and enjoy it.

We’ve arranged this interview so you can go and play darts when it’s finished, is this a regular hobby of yours?
Playing pool is actually my main hobby I guess outside of racing. I have been playing pool for 24 years now and you have two seasons a year and I’d say I’ve only missed a couple in that time and it’s something I have always enjoyed. I used to play darts years ago but just stopped for some reason and my brother recently started playing for a local pub team and that got me interested again and I wanted to see if I could still do it and I could so I’ve been playing again for a little while now so between the stockcar, pool and darts there is plenty to keep me busy (laughs).

A big talking point of last season was the introduction of Zetec engines into the sport, was this something you are in favour of?
Absolutely and I think they have been brilliant for the formula and will continue to be. It’s reduced the costs of racing so much, even with me and Daniel using new engines from Fords, it’s still cheaper than getting a built Pinto engine. We decided to get new engines in the hope it would help our reliability issues and the engines have been fine, it’s everything else that’s been a problem (laughs). I think it’s helping to bring a lot of new drivers into the sport and I think it will continue to do so because when drivers start selling cars, possibly with the (Zetec conversion kit) included it will make coming into the formula even more appealing for new drivers so I think it’s been a huge boost for the formula.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My wife, Daniel and Mum for all their support, we are very much a racing family now and their support makes a big difference, I’ve always said if your partner loves the racing that is 75 per cent of the battle and Lisa loves it every bit as much as me and Daniel do. There are so many people who help us, I must mention Ryan Santry, Neil Payne, Kev Hook and Roy Elbourn but there are plenty more, they know who they are and we are very grateful to them all.