An Interview with Saloon Stockcar driver 149 Jamie Sampson
(interview published August 12 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 Championship at Mildenhall on August 29)

Age: 26
Home Town: King’s Lynn
Occupation: Kitchen fitter
Family: Girlfriend Becca
Racing career: Started racing in Ministox at King’s Lynn aged 12.

This will be your eighth appearance in the World Final in eight years, is this still something you look forward to and get excited about?
Definitely, this is the big race of the year for all of us and when it starts to get closer it is definitely exciting if you are in the race and know you are going to be in it. It’s a little different if you are racing in the last chance race and I noticed that last year. It’s still exciting but a different feeling to going into the meeting knowing you are in the big race. I think it’s the build-up which makes it so special. With other championships, they are held across one weekend or on one night, you go there, race and then it’s over but the World Final is a build-up of an entire year, you are always working towards it and then when it finally arrives it’s that culmination of all your work for the whole year so if you are in the race, you know you’ve had a good season and then you want to try and make the most of it in the big race. I also think the atmosphere is completely different to other meetings. Not only do you tend to have more people there for the World but you also get more interaction with the fans. The last few years it’s helped because there have been people collecting autographs in their programmes which I think is nice and I’m all in favour of that. People come week in and week out to see us race so I think it’s nice to make some time for them when you can and have a chat, people like to put a face to the name and the World Final is probably the best chance we have to do that and I think it makes a difference to the fans who appreciate that and I enjoy that as a driver. It doesn’t happen so much at other meetings but I think it was at Skegness for the ORCi Championship last year, there was a guy with a son who I think had some kind of disability and he was going round meeting the drivers and asking for autographs and it was really cool to speak to him for a bit because you could see how much he loved the racing and he seemed to really enjoy meeting the drivers so that was great.

You had to wait to find out if you had qualified for the World Final having finished 28th in the World Rankings, was it a relief to hear you had made it onto the grid?
It was if I’m honest. I’d have been (at the World Final) regardless and I would have happily gone from near the front of the last chance and tried to qualify on the night like I did last year but it does take a lot of the pressure off knowing that you are seeded into the race. I was pretty disappointed when I found out I’d missed out, I’ve just had no luck this last year in the big races and that has really hurt me and then because I’ve not raced quite as much as I would like to I’ve not had the track championship points to make up for it so I just missed the top 24. It makes a difference to your mind set I think, last year I went to King’s Lynn thinking about a lot of different things compared to the other years where I’ve been seeded straight in. I think I would have had a good chance if I’d been in the last chance race but it’s definitely so much better being a qualifier. It’s stockcar racing and so you’ve no idea what’s going to happen and it only needs one driver to take you out and that’s it, you’re not going to be in the World Final and also there is no danger of getting any damage now in the last chance race and having to rush to get ready for the main event so it takes a huge amount of pressure off and I think I will enjoy the World Final a lot more now because of that.

That said, you are still set to start the race someway down the grid and are currently set to start on the outside of row 14, how do you feel about your chances from there?
I think Eddie Darby proved that winning from the back can be done when he won at Skegness but at the same time a lot of things went his way and it all depends on the night. I came second the last time the World was at Mildenhall and I think I started 20th or 21st on the grid so it can be done but you can’t tell because no-one knows what’s going to happen. Mildenhall is a very unpredictable track because it’s one of our smaller tracks and this race you know there is going to be plenty of cars so it would be very easy for the top 10 cars to crash out in a pile-up at the start and immediately the middle of the pack becomes the front. But then you can have a race like last year’s World Final at King’s Lynn which didn’t have a stoppage. People expected the race to be chaos and it wasn’t as manic as people expected so you just don’t know, whereas the National (on August 2) had three stoppages I think. It’s hard to see the World Final at Mildenhall not having a stoppage at some point, it’s hard to imagine with that many cars that at least someone will get caught out and get stuck and need a yellow flag or something but again you don’t know. If you get a stoppage then it straight away brings everyone whose still on the lead lap into contention because it bunches you up. That will be important I think, just staying on the lead lap which can be very hard sometimes at Mildenhall, or just on shale where cars are getting taken out all of the time. For me the most important thing at the start is going to keeping your nose clean and trying to stay out of trouble. Surviving will be more important than gaining positions in the first couple of laps and then from there it will be just a matter of trying to pick cars off and moving forward but if you go out at the very start that will be very hard to recover from I think.

You did that very well in your first and only Mildenhall World Final in 2010 where you finished second, again having started quite a way down the grid, do you feel you can replicate that result this year?
I will be happy with a top 10 finish, that is my target and anything more would be a massive bonus, a top five or another podium would be amazing but I’m trying to be realistic as I think I had a lot of luck (in 2010) because even though I was second I was still about half a lap behind the winner (499 Dave Aldous). It’s always the way when I come second, I’m always a long way behind the winner because it was the same the year (brother) Lee won the British and I was second, the result makes it sound like I was a lot closer than I was (laughs). But that underlines the importance of just surviving in a race like this because so many can and probably will get taken out, so if you can make sure you’re not one of them then you have a chance. In 2010 it was just a matter of trying to pick off as many cars as you could and I think for me that will be the same this year, it’s going to be similar plan. Survive the start and then try and pass cars. In 2010 I had no idea where I was and I was honestly amazed when I was told I was second. That’s another thing at Mildenhall, where it’s so small and there are cars everywhere so it’s hard to know exactly where you are in a race like that, especially if you are starting at the back like I was, you just lose track of who is where and in the end you just keep pushing forward because that is all you can do. I remember passing Shaun (Webster) who had a flat tyre at the very end and I knew he would be up there and I hadn’t passed him so I just saw it as picking up another place in the result, I had no idea it was the race for second. If the race gets stopped then things change because you can see where you are and figure out a little better where you need to be, assuming you are still on the lead lap (laughs), but if it doesn’t you just have to keep going and hope for the best.

You have yet to win a major championship in the sport, is that any source of frustration or disappointment to you and therefore does the 2nd place in the 2010 World Final rank as a highlight?
It’s not really a frustration I think. It’s stockcar racing and you never take anything for granted or expect anything to come your way, especially in this formula where every race is so tough because there are so many good driers out there right now. I’ve been close a couple of times and finishing second in 2010 was a big highlight, because it was the World but so was second in the British, especially because Lee won to so have us come one-two meant a great deal to me. I guess it can be disappointing. The (2013) English at Mildenhall where I led to the last bend and didn’t finish, of course that was disappointing but that’s because it means so much, if it didn’t matter you wouldn’t care but then what would be the point. I’ve watched that race on DVD a lot and just one mistake made all the difference. I hesitated when I came to Jacob Downey and that cost me, maybe if I’d ploughed through him like I had everyone else in the race I could have won but it’s another lesson you learn and hopefully if you are ever in that situation again you might be able to put that lesson to good use. Experience makes such a difference. Look at (Dave) Aldous in the National Championship. He caught Carl Waterfield with about three laps to go and I think he had the quicker car but he took his time and waited until the right time and timed it perfectly. That is what experience can do for you and even though I’ve been in the formula now for about a decade you still learn all the time and hopefully one day it’ll pay off, I’d love to win a major championship, that is the ultimate goal for me, I’m not even fussy which one, any will do (laughs).

We’ve seen you a couple of times at Mildenhall this season but the results have not been the strongest, a seventh in the recent EA Championship perhaps your best, is that a cause for concern heading into the World Final?
No, not really. Especially with shale racing I don’t think your results are the best guide because so much of it can be down to that little bit of luck and just being in the right place at the right time and that’s not happened to me so much this year but the car was going well (on July 26) and that’s the most important thing and it went well again at the National Championship weekend, if the car is on the pace and handling well that’s what you want because sometimes the actual race results are a little less out of your control but the car is going well and that’s good enough for me. I was actually a little surprised at how well it went (at Mildenhall on July 26) in the wet but I would prefer the conditions to be better for the World Final, I think everyone would.

You are one of the many drivers in the sport to switch to the Zetec engine for 2015, presumably you are in support of the new engine?
I think it’s been good but only as long as it stays how it is and drivers are not allowed to do any work to the engine, it needs to stay a standard engine without any work being allowed on it and the controlled ECU. What we have is fine right now and I just hope nothing happens to make the engines and cars any faster or anything is allowed where drivers are able to start spending money on these engines because reducing the costs by using a standard engine is a massive advantage. I blew my engine up (at the National Championship) but I’ve done seven or eight meetings with it and it only cost me £150 so I wasn’t worried at all but if I had been a Pinto which could have cost around £2,500 you would not feel the same at all. The other advantage is that with a Zetec if you have one blow up, you can be back racing much quicker. We had a spare at Lynn and had there not been only one race left we’d have changed it and been back racing that day but with a Pinto, if you blew it, chances are you would have to send it to an engine builder and you’d probably be out of racing for a couple of weekends.

At Mildenhall, red flags are used much more frequently than other Saloon Stockcar venues, are you happy for them to be used in certain situations and are you pleased with the changes to lap sheet order restarts where back markers stay in position among the cars on the lead lap regardless of whether a red or yellow flag is used?
I think with the flags it depends on the situation but again with Mildenhall being that bit smaller and often more chaotic I’ve no problem with red flags being used if it’s felt they are needed, I think I personally react to them a little quicker than waved yellows because you immediately think something is wrong and slow down and again with Mildenhall being a bit smaller than can be important and I think the changes for the restarts are right and back markers should stay where you are. If you are the leader and you’ve worked hard to pass a load of back markers I don’t think it is right that they should be moved to the back and the guy in second place be put behind you without having passed any of those cars.

Another talking point this season has been the number of incidents resulting in driver injuries, do you use any personal kind of safety equipment and if there anything you would like to see changed to help make the sport even safer?
Me and (brother) Lee have been using Hans devices for about three or four years now and I think they are brilliant and I would encourage them to anyone. The great thing about them as well is they are brilliant value for money. I think we paid £400 for them and they are still just as good now, so already they are averaging about £100 a year which I don’t think it too much and you can get them for a lot cheaper now and if you damage or break a part you can get replacements, at the end of the day it’s down to you to look after yourself and for me, that’s part of how I do that. As for the sport as a whole the only thing I would say about is the tyres we use on shale. They don’t have as much grip and at King’s Lynn where the track is a bit faster and usually slicker I think it can be a problem and I think that’s part of why we’ve seen a lot of rollovers this year. I don’t think the accidents are caused so much by speed but more by the lack of control drivers have at times, I appreciate the tyres we use on tarmac are fasters but if you are more in control of your car then I think that is better but it’s a hard issue and I appreciate everyone has a different opinion but that’s mine (laughs)!

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
Just everyone. Me and Lee could never do the racing if it wasn’t for so many people, there’s too many to name them all but they know who they are but especially the sponsors, mum and dad and everyone who comes and helps in the week and at the weekend.