An Interview with 2013 Saloon Stockcar English and Mildenhall Track Champion 306 Daniel Parker
(interview published February 25 2014 in the lead up to the first round of the 2014 Mildenhall Track Championship)

Age: 18
Home Town: Norwich
Occupation: At college studying carpentry
Family: Single
Racing Career: Raced go-karts aged 12, started Ministox aged 13 and Saloon Stockcars at 17.

Much has been said about your incredibly successful first full season in Saloon Stockcars in 2013, looking back at last year, how did you see the year?
It was incredible really. I never dreamt it would go as well as it did. Winning the English Championship and the Mildenhall Track Championship in my first proper season, doing that double at Mildenhall as well as all the other great results I had elsewhere was just fantastic but the only problem now is going to be trying to match it in 2014. I would love to do just as well this year or even better, everyone wants to try and do better but that’s going to be one hell of a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it. The cars are pretty much reader to go for the new season so I’m looking forward to it.

Talking about your major successes, how special was it to win the Mildenhall and English Championships?
Very. Very, very special and again something I never imagined would happen. When you look at both championships and the guys who’ve won them and were in them last year and to know I managed to win is just an amazing feeling and something I’m so proud off, it’s a huge deal. The Mildenhall Championship was really satisfying because we all worked so hard on that one. I had a 100 per cent attendance at Mildenhall last year and there were times that it was tough getting to all the meetings with all the racing we had but we made the effort, put in the time and the work and it paid off and that meant a lot. The English was just an amazing night. It’s still a bit of a blur to me. I remember the last bend (when Jamie Clayton’s last bend lunge on Jamie Sampson took them both out allowing Parker to snatch the title) but apart from that I don’t remember too much about it. After the race finished I still didn’t know I’d won until I saw my dad and uncle on the track celebrating and then it hit me and it was just the best feeling.

Sticking with the English Championship, you were spun out in the opening laps but managed to recover in time to barely stay on the lead lap and then a couple of laps later the race was brought under caution. How important were those two factors in your success?
Very important and looking back I was quite lucky because if I had gone a lap down and the caution flags come out or recovered on the lead lap but there hadn’t have been a caution it’s unlikely I would have been in a position to win. Those two things happening so close together made all the difference but luck is always a big part of our racing and on that night it was on my side.

One of the key elements of your victory in the Mildenhall Track Championship was not only your willingness to race in wet conditions but also thriving in them, winning four finals in diabolical racing conditions in 2013 at Mildenhall. Do you enjoy these conditions and also what are your thoughts on the growing tendency for some drivers to not race in these conditions?
I don’t mind racing on wet shale. I just see it as part of the sport and sometimes it happens and you have to make the most of it. I suppose it helps that I seem to go well in the wet, we’ve worked out a good set up and the car goes well so I guess that makes a big difference. I can understand why people don’t want to race in the wet, especially if they don’t have the facilities to get everything clean when they get home because the mess it can make is unbelievable but when you are at a meeting which starts dry and then starts to rain, I just think you are there and you might as well make the most of it and do your best.

Looking ahead to 2014, have you any special plans or targets?
My main one is I just want to try and progress and try and keep getting better which could be hard given how well last year went! I know it’s a big ask but I would love to win a championship again but you can never expect something like that, especially in a formula like Saloons where there are so many good drivers and the racing is so hard.

You’ll be defending your English Championship at St Day, is that something you are looking forward to?
Yes, I’ve not been there yet so I’m hoping there is a meeting there before the championship we can travel down to so we can try and get the car dialled in. It’s going to be a new experience being a defending champion and also racing at somewhere new and from what I’ve been told St Day is a very unique track so it should be very interesting.

Closer to home the European and World Championships are being held on shale this year at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn, are you looking forward to those?
Definitely. Anytime a championship is on shale it’s something I’ll be looking forward too as I’d like to think I’ll have a chance. It would be amazing to win either of them, especially the World Final because that is the ultimate and the one everyone wants to win. Being on shale this year I do have my eye more on the World Championship and trying to get up the World Ranking points as much as I can to try and give myself a chance of doing well but I know it’s going to be hard. I qualified for the World Final last year in the last chance race which was very special but unfortunately the race didn’t go to plan as I was excluded when I didn’t agree with my position during a caution and that kind of spoiled the weekend and took away from qualifying in the first place which was a real shame so I’m looking forward to forgetting that with this year’s championship.

This year’s European Championship at Mildenhall is being held across two days whereas recent championship events at Mildenhall have been held on a single day, do you prefer that format?
I’m not too worried really, I think having it over two days has advantages and disadvantages. Being a shale track, the track will certainly be different one day to the next which makes it more of a challenge but if there is room for more qualifying heats it gives drivers a better chance to qualify rather than only having one or two chances and I think that is better.

A couple of months into last season you were side lined with a football injury and in the meantime your father Martin raced your car and later in the season he returned with his own car, did you enjoy being on track with him?
I did but it was and still does feel a bit weird. The trouble is whenever we come together on track I am a little reluctant to hit him because I want him to do well and I don’t want to take him out. He’s always telling me to hit him like anyone else but I just find it a little hard, I can’t really explain it. But it’s nice to race against him, I’m not old enough to have seen him race stockcars but apparently I went to some meetings when he raced Rookie Bangers but I don’t really remember so it is nice to see him out there again.

The March 8 meeting at Mildenhall marks 20 years of Ministox racing at Mildenhall and RDC, you came through the Ministox ranks so how important do you think this form of junior racing is and how much did it help you move into Saloons?
It’s definitely important for the sport but I do think there are too many junior formulas now which is ruining things a little because it’s spreading the drivers out too much. I learned a great deal in Ministox which has helped me in the Saloons, especially racing on shale and being a contact formula so you learn how to move cars out of the way, it was a massive help.

Is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My dad and my uncle, my mum and sister for putting up with all of us, Stevie, everyone at Parkers, my nan and Grandad, everyone else I’ve forgotten and all my sponsors.