An Interview with former Saloon Stockcar English and Mildenhall Track Champion 306 Daniel Parker
(interview published August 25 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 Championship at Mildenhall on August 29)

Age: 20
Home Town: Norwich
Occupation: Work for family business
Family: Girlfriend Georgie
Racing Career: Raced go-karts aged 12, started Ministox aged 13 and Saloon Stockcars at 17.

This year’s World Final is somewhat special as while you and your father both raced in the World Final for the first time together in 2014 that was as a result of your dad qualifying in the last chance race, this time you will head to the meeting knowing you are both in the race, does that make this year extra special for you?
I guess it does really. Last year was brilliant when he qualified and it did make the night so special. It means so much to be in this race, it means you are among the best in the sport and that’s a great thing to be, so to be in a position where we are now both in that group is really, really cool, especially because we both put so much effort into our racing now. It’s twice as hard now because while both me and dad are now racing we still only have really the same group of people who work on the cars and it’s still me, dad and my uncle (Nigel) who do the majority of it but now there is almost twice as much so it’s tough, it’s a lot of work and when you have nights like this and we are both a part of the biggest race is the year, it’s what it’s all about so it’s very special.

You made your debut in the World Final in 2013 where you yourself qualified in the last chance race, how different was last year being a seeded entry for the first time?
It was very special for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is because it was my first World Final on shale and I consider Mildenhall and King’s Lynn to be my home tracks so to be in a World Final on home turf was very cool and I was very proud to qualify as a seeded entry for the first time. Again if you are one of the top 24 in the World Rankings it means you are among the top drivers in the formula and that is no easy task and just being in that group of drivers means a lot.

This will be your third consecutive World Final appearance, is this race still a highlight of the year for you and something you want to achieve each season?
It is the highlight of the year isn’t it. It’s the race every driver wants to be in and every driver wants to win and it’s what we all go racing, week in and week out for, all the smaller meetings every weekend build towards this and it is a massive motivation to go racing every weekend because you know you are working towards the World Final and it’s something that you always want to be a part of, because again the World Final is the race where all the top drivers are in and you want to be one of them.

What makes the World Final different to the other championship races in the season?
Again I think it’s because it’s the one that everyone wants to win more than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, you would like to win any championship you get to race in, of course you do but the dream for everyone is to win the World, if you could pick one to win, this is the one, that’s why it’s the biggest race of the year so I guess that’s what makes it so special because everyone in the race wants it that big more. The other big difference is that with any other championship you qualify on the night or on the weekend and going into the meeting you don’t know whose going to qualify, let along where you are going to start, that’s if you make it at all (laughs). But with the World Final, you know at least a month or so before if you are in or not, and sometimes you know for even longer than that if you are going to be in it or not. Take me, I’ve known for most of the year that I was on course to qualify, it was able to trying to get as good a qualifying spot as possible. But for a month you know exactly where you are going to start and that is the difference because there isn’t another championship like it in the season and honestly it changes everything.

You are set to start the race on the outside of row six, are you happy with that grid position and also going back to your comment about knowing your grid position ahead of the race, is that an advantage or disadvantage?
I’m quite happy with where I am on the grid. I’ve finished 12th in the World Rankings this year which is my best finishing place yet and an improvement on last year so that is something I am really pleased about because for me that is my goal all the time, just to keep improving and seeing that I am getting better so to have finished higher in the World Ranking points I guess shows that I’ve done better in the last year and that’s great. I was a little higher at one point in the season and was in the top 10 but I dropped back a little towards the end which was a little bit of a shame and I guess now that will be the target for next season. I guess I would have preferred to have started on the inside, only because you have a car to lean on which can be especially important at the start of the race and I suppose it would have been nice to have been a little closer to the front, only because the closer you are to the front, the less cars you have to pass but at the same time I don’t think it will make too much difference where you start with the race at Mildenhall. I’m not sure there is such a thing as a good or a bad place to start and if there is you won’t know where it until the race starts and it could be anywhere (laughs). Take the year I won the English at Mildenhall, yes I started on the front but you also had Carl Waterfield who started at the back and he got up into the lead and had things gone a little differently he could have won so I think the winner could come from anywhere on the grid, especially as I can’t see the race going without a stoppage and that can also change everything and gets people who weren’t in contention back in the mix, again like it did to me when I won in the English.

Does being a Mildenhall regular give you an advantage in the race and also you are one of only eight qualifiers who have won at Mildenhall this season, does that give you added confidence?
I think the drivers who race at Mildenhall regularly will have a bit of an advantage because Mildenhall isn’t like any other track we race at. The biggest difference is that because of the size of the track, there is never any time to think. At most other tracks you a have a second or two to try and plan and look ahead and you don’t have that at Mildenhall, especially when there is 30 cars on the track. I also think it is relatively speaking one of the fast paced tracks we race at, because no sooner are you out of one bend, you are into the next one, so everything happens so much quicker there. But I really like that and that’s why I enjoy racing there so much but I think when you are used to that, it gives you an advantage over those who don’t. As for getting my first time of the year at Mildenhall last time out there, it I a boost. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you can count out a driver just because they’ve not won at Mildenhall this year or that those who have are any more of a favourite than others but it has given me a boost to know that the last time I raced there I had a win and perhaps more importantly that the car was competitive and on the pace, that gives you a lot of confidence and that will help, even though I understand the race I won (at One Wild Weekend) wasn’t quite of the same standard as the World Final will be , although it was still a tough one and a good one to win.

Do you have any goals or targets for this race especially as you are yet to get a top 10 finish in a World Final?
It would be brilliant to get a top 10, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t love to at least get that, it would be a great achievement but I’m trying not to think like that or make any plans or try and overthink the race in any way, I’m just trying to treat it like any other race and see how it plays out. It’s like I said about knowing the grid for so long in advance, it’s great on the one hand because you know you are in the biggest race of the year but it has the disadvantage that you can think about it too much and that’s what I think happened to me last year. It was my first World Final so maybe it was natural but I think I did think about it too much and this year I’m trying something different to see how that works for me (laughs). Hopefully I will do ok, it’s on shale which is obviously good for me, I think I have it in me to do well, it’s just how it goes on the night.

You have just returned from a short holiday which means the World Final will be your first meeting since King’s Lynn on August 8, does this break help or hinder you?
It could do both. Obviously having a short break before the World Final might not be the best as it really helps, racing each and every weekend, it keeps you sharp and you keep on improving and getting better and better hopefully so there is a chance that having a couple of weekends off could make a difference, especially at the start of the race and it might take a lap or two to get back into it. But you would hope I’ve been racing long enough now to know what I’m doing (laughs). Having said that, having a break has been great and I feel a lot better for it. When you are working every day and working on the cars every night it is a lot and sometimes you need a break and I honestly feel a lot better for it so hopefully that will help me on the big night. What also helps me is that the last time I raced (at King’s Lynn on August 8), I took the chequered flag in the final (Daniel was docked places for jumping the start) and while I didn’t win, I did take the flag so again it’s knowing you and the car performed well the last time you raced and that does give you some confidence. I think we might get to the track early and do a couple of practise laps, again having not raced for a couple of weekends, that could help just to get me back into the swing of things and it would definitely for my first laps for a couple of weeks to be in practise rather than in the World Final (laughs).

You’ve mentioned the start of the race a couple of times, what is more important, a good start or surviving?
It’s a bit of both really. Of course you want to have a good start, that’s almost stating the obvious but you need to survive as well and I think if you can survive you have a chance. The good thing about Mildenhall is that even if you get spun out, if you can get back in the race pretty quick you should still be in with a chance. Admittedly it is easier to go a lap down at Mildenhall because the track is smaller than most but it’s harder for leaders to get away at Mildenhall and with the traffic it’s much more likely for leaders to get taken out so just because you get spun out it doesn’t mean it’s over which isn’t the case elsewhere. Take the World Final last year, I made a mistake at the start and the field got spread out straight away and that was it, I was out of contention.

You’ve mentioned the time and effort you put into your racing, can you tell us more about this and will you spend extra time on the car in the week leading up to the World Final?
We usually have Monday off, usually because we are all shattered from the weekend’s racing (laughs) but then it’s usually every night of the week after work until the cars are ready for the next meeting. It’s especially hard now that my dad is racing because there is twice as much work but we’ve still the same amount of people and help to do it (laughs). But I think having dad racing now, and doing well has motivated all of us a bit more and we are enjoying it all so much more that we enjoy the extra work as well. World Final week, I guess we might try and do a bit more but I’m not sure that is always a good thing, again it’s easy to overthink things and sometimes you can spend so long worrying about one thing you miss another and that’s what costs you the race so I think we will try to just do what we normally do and just be as good as we try to usually be.

On the subject of work, can you tell us about the week at the end of June where you repaired your heavily wrecked car from Coventry in time for the July 4 meeting at Mildenhall.
(laughs) To be honest that was more down to Stevie Gusset! He’s a great help for us, especially with work like that and we just let him get on with it for a couple of days where he was cutting and welding and he got the car back together and then we had to try and get it back to how it was, it was tough and it was a long week but it wasn’t so bad with him helping.

A big talking point this season has been the introduction of Zetec engines, how do you feel about them?
I think it’s been a pretty good move and me and dad are running them and so far they are going well but there have been some teething problems. I’m not expert on the work which went on before they were brought in but I wonder if it was a little rushed because again we’ve had some problems which I wonder if they should have been addressed before the engines were brought in. It’s been a little frustrating because while we have been spending time trying to get on top of this we’ve not been able to spend time on other things which is hard but I do think the engines are going to be good for the formula, we just need to get on top of the various issues we’ve been having.

The tyre rule in the formula has been another talking point, have you any thoughts on this?
It’s difficult because everyone has a different opinion but I do think if we ran on shale and tarmac on one tyre and the same size rim it would make a big difference and be better and I think you would see more drivers racing on both surfaces and it would bring a lot more diversity into the formula but I think the most important thing which should be happening is that drivers should be more involved in the decisions, especially the ones who have been racing for a number of years because at the moment I don’t think they are (involved enough in decisions on rules) and I think that is wrong and I think the formula would benefit if the drivers had a greater say in things like this.

Another talking point this season has been the number of injuries drivers have unfortunately suffered this season, do you think there is anything which should be changed or improved to address this and do you think drivers can do more to protect themselves?
To be honest I think a big part of the problem is simply because of how good the racing is right now. I know my dad is saying that unfortunately there have always been accidents and injuries and that is just part of the risk of racing like ours but I think where we now have so many more cars and the racing is so tough that sadly it’s going to happen sometimes and I’m not sure there is much that can be done to avoid it completely. But of course you can do more to protect yourself but I think a lot of that should be down to the driver although I admit I’ve not been the best at this myself. My dad recently changed his seat and it’s made a big difference for him but I’ve continued to use my old seat when really I should have probably got one like his but I guess while I’m not having any problems you don’t see a need to change. Personally I don’t think any more safety equipment should be made mandatory because not everything works to the same for everyone but I do think it’s important for drivers to take extra steps to make themselves feel comfortable and confident in their car and while I appreciate it might be easier said than done, I think it would be good if longer could be spent scrutineering cars at every meeting to make sure everything is how it should be.

Is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My dad and uncle especially but also Steve, P60, Georgie for her support with the racing, everyone at Parkers, my mum and sister and everyone else who helps.