An Interview with English and EA Champion 304 Martyn Parker
(interview published August 19 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 Championship at Mildenhall on August 29)

Age: 51
Home Town: Norwich
Occupation: Owner of skip hire company
Family: Wife Wendy and children Daniel and Stephanie
Racing career: First race was at Hammenfield Dirt Track aged 13 in Boys Bangers, first Saloon Stockcar meeting was aged 18 or 19

You go into this year’s Saloon Stockcar World Final as the current leader of the Mildenhall Track Championship having also won the English and EA Championships at Mildenhall, the latter victory meaning that with the exception of the last chance qualifier on August 29, of everyone else on the World Final grid you will be the most recent Saloon Stockcar race winner at Mildenhall, does any of that give you any kind of advantage?
(laughs) No I don’t think it does unfortunately, I wish it did! It’s been an incredible year for me and I’m just amazed at everything that has happened. For me, at the age I’m at the racing really is just for fun. Don’t get me wrong we do take it seriously to a point and still put the effort in but it’s not for results and championships, the goal is just to have fun and enjoy myself and that’s what I go racing for so to have the success I have had has just been incredible really, especially when you consider I’m racing against so many drivers who are half my age or less so to have this kind of success against those guys is just amazing and I’m so pleased with how it’s been going. I think so much of our racing is about luck and you always need that bit of luck on your side, that’s what stockcar racing is all about sometimes and this is especially the case at Mildenhall where there is usually so much action and so much going on. For me, I think it’s a proper stockcar track so to speak, because you just don’t have time to think, you just have to go for it and do everything on instinct. Sometimes it works better for you because sometimes if you think about things you can hesitate and make mistakes and I like that kind of racing, again for me that is what stockcar racing is all about. I don’t think the results I have had at Mildenhall give me much of an advantage in the World Final but I do hope that doing all the meetings there might as I think the drivers who race more regularly at Mildenhall will have some kind of advantage over those who don’t, just because the style of racing at Mildenhall is quite different to anywhere else and the ones who are used to it will have a bit more an idea of what to expect and I think that could help.

You won both the English and EA Championships in wet conditions, are you hoping for similar conditions on World Final night?
I wouldn’t say that because I think if it was wet it would spoil it for everyone and ruin the night which would be a real shame but at the same time it wouldn’t bother me from a racing standpoint because for whatever reason I do seem to go quite well in the wet and my new car, which I won the EA Championship in, seems to go even better than the old one, which I won the English in. The EA Championship was the first time I’d raced the new car at a wet shale meeting and it just seemed to suite the conditions really well but it was also going really well on the Saturday when the conditions were dry. The EA Championship was also the first race I’d won as English champion and that meant a lot to me because it was the goal I set myself when I won the English, just to win one race from the back and admittedly I started at the front of the EA Championship but I’d qualified starting every race at the back so that was good enough for me (laughs) and I was really pleased with that. It was also really cool to win the EA title again as I won that race back in the 1980s when I was first racing (Saloons) and to win it again after all these years it really special.

All these things considered, how do you rate your chances in the World Final?
I think everyone has a chance don’t they (laughs) so hopefully I do. It’s impossible to say, again luck is going to play a part, it doesn’t matter who you are or how good you are you are going to need a little luck on the night to win it, especially at Mildenhall where I think the races are a little more action packed and unpredictable and you know there is going to plenty of cars in the race so it’s bound to be a lively one and you will need a little luck on your side to get through it all, again I think the Mildenhall regulars might have a small advantage because they will be a little more used to that kind of racing you get at Mildenhall but everyone out there is good so you just cannot tell.

With Steve Webster confirming he is unable to race you have now switched to the inside of row nine, is there an advantage from starting on the inside rather than the outside?
I think there is, especially again at Mildenhall being on the inside will probably be quite helpful. I don’t think being on the outside is the complete end of the world but I think if that’s where you are you have to be prepared to go a little bit backwards at the start. I think if you are on the outside you are likely to lose a few places when the race gets underway and it’s important to stay patient and not panic. It can be easy at the start of a big race to see people passing you and panic and make a mistake which ends your race so if you are on the outside you need to be a little bit more prepared for that, I guess if I’m on the inside now that means (son) Daniel is now on the outside, he’ll be pleased when I tell him that (laughs).

You qualified 19th in the World Rankings, your best ever qualifying position in these points, is that something you are pleased about?
Yes, I’m really chuffed to have qualified as a seeded entry this year having had to go through the last chance race last year. It was a target for me after getting in the World last year, I really enjoyed being in the big race again and was quite disappointed to not finish when I damaged my steering and so I was always kind of hoping I might qualify again, especially with it being at Mildenhall, a track I enjoy racing at and while my target is just to finish, that was honestly be enough for me, it would be brilliant to think I could get a good result and I think I’m capable if I have a bit of luck on my day. I think winning the English has been a massive part of me qualifying and I’m not sure I would have made it without winning that race but it’s fantastic to not only be in the race, but to have qualified ahead of the night, that’s really special for me.

Your return to the grid in 2014 was your first appearance in the race since 1984 and you hold the record for the longest time between World Final appearances, is that something you are proud of and do you think the record will ever be broken?
I am really proud of it as it goes, I don’t know if it will ever be broken, if it is I think it will be a long time away. I know some will think it’s not something to be proud of but back when I was racing the first time I only did the one World Final which was 1984 at Ipswich because the ones before were a long way away and so were the next couple and then I retired in around 1986. To be able to come back to the sport so many years later and be able to be competitive and then get into the big race again meant so much to me as it kind of showed to me that I was still able to do it after all these years and that meant a great deal to me personally and this year is really special again, because I’ve qualified with the rest of the top guys rather than relying on one good race on the night, to now be among the best in the sport is just incredible. I came fifth in 1984 and that was after I got taken out by one of the German drivers. I don’t know if there was any team racing going on but it did happen then when overseas and Scottish drivers came to us and vice versa and I think I was a bit of a marked man as I actually won the EA title the week before so I suppose the next target would be to try and get something like a fifth again and again show to myself I’m still as good as I was in the 80s, I’ve got to finish first though (laughs).

Can you tell us a little about why you retired in 1986?
It was because our business took off and there was just no time for anything else, it was me (brother) Nigel and our dad and we were honestly 24/7 on the business, spending every single second getting it off the ground and it was the right thing really because all that hard work back then has paid off. But I do have regrets when it comes to the racing if I’m honest because I sometimes wonder if I had stuck with it if I might have had more success because I look at what I have done over the years and especially now and you think if I’d carried on racing what else could I have done. But then we wouldn’t have the business we have now and without that we wouldn’t have racing and I also have my family and children and I wouldn’t change that for anything so it’s just how life goes isn’t it. Me and Nigel started racing again in the 1990s at Yarmouth when they first started Rookie Bangers and we kind of got the bug again and contemplated racing Saloons again but decided against it and that is perhaps a bigger regret of mine because I think if we had done then we would have had that kind of success but again we didn’t and we concentrated on the business. Then Nigel decided to go back for about seven years and then his son (Jo) started racing Ministox at Mildenhall which led to Daniel racing and it’s gone from there so it’s all worked out pretty well in the end but I do sometimes think about what could have been had we carried on racing all these years.

The English Championship victory was also a record setting achievement as you became the first father to win the same championship as his son but after the son had won the title first, again is this something you are especially proud of and do you think it will ever be done again?
I am so proud to have won that title, just to win a major title in this formula at my age is something I am so proud of but the fact that Daniel has won it as well does make it more special and being the first son, father combination to win the same major title, is very special to all us of. Again I don’t know if it will be done again. There is a good chance it will because there are a lot of young drivers out there who, as Daniel did for me, could influence their dads to race so it’s possible but again I can’t see it happening for some time. It’s funny now because the amount of times I’ll be out racing and there will be a driver and all I can think it, ‘I used to race with your dad’ (laughs) and some of those dads were incredible drivers. People think David Aldous is tough, but trust me Eddie Aldous was something else, he was a real hard stockcar driver!

This season has seen the introduction of Zetec engines to the sport, is this something you are in favour of and have you made the switch to them?
We have, we basically had problems with our Pintos and decided it was time to stop spending money on them and make the switch which is what I think everyone still using Pintos will do now, they will carry on as long as it’s ok because the engines are still fine and when there is a problem they’ll switch. It’s been a learning curve, like anything that is new, you are experiencing new problems you have never encountered before and having to learn how to deal with them but we are getting there now and it’s coming together and they seem to go well, just as fast as a Pinto anyway. But they are obviously a lot cheaper and we bought ones from Fords in a box and it was still a lot cheaper than doing a Pinto. We decided to have new ones for a few reasons, firstly we didn’t know too much about these engines and thought that using new ones rather than ones from a scrap car might reduce the chance of us having issues with them but also we’d spoken to a few people who had used scrap engines and they could be a little hit and miss with blowing up, some would last a while and others wouldn’t. It’s not the end of the world because it’s only a scrap engine and fairly cheap but the problem we have is the way our engines are fitted in our cars, it’s not the easiest to change them. You are seeing drivers now change engines in between races at a meeting and we could never do that just because of how our engines are fitted in the car so we wanted to try and minimise the chances of having to replace engines if we could. But they are still so much cheaper than what we doing before and they are already bringing more drivers in because the cost of racing (Saloons) has now been reduced and that is a fantastic thing.

Another talking point this season has been the amount of driver injuries, do you think more can be done to make the sport safer and do you use any personal safety equipment which you would recommend to others?
I think that maybe we should be looking at rollcages more and that higher standards of cages should be brought in, it’s probably one of those things where you can never make the sport completely safe, it’s just not possible but I would like to see more done to make bigger and stronger rollcages. As for safety equipment I use a rib cage protector and a kidney belt and they are really helpful and I wouldn’t race without them but one of the things I use now is a different seat. When Daniel was hurt and I started racing his car he used a Kirky seat and it was awful for me. He swears by it and still uses it but for me, every meeting my elbows were black and blue and I could barely lift my arms so I’ve one of these padded seats made from carbon fibre. The great think is the seat is only fitted to the floor so it has a lot more give and flex in it that the seat that Daniel uses and it makes a huge difference to me. But the thing with stuff like that is that different things work for different drivers, you couldn’t just go out and say everyone has to have this as that wouldn’t work but it is important for drivers to look into these things and find what works best for them, ultimately they need to look after themselves.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My brother Nigel and Daniel for everything they do but also to everyone else who helps, they know who they are, I’d better mention P60 this time as I forgot last time (laughs) and he said he might actually come to the World Final! Also David Aldous and his crew who help me and Daniel a lot, especially when we are struggling and Stevie Gusset for all the front corners and metal work he does for us.