An Interview with Welly 6 Simon Welton
(interview published August 19 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 Championship at Mildenhall on August 29)

Age: 33
Home Town: Norwich
Occupation: Mechanic
Family: Wife Rachel
Racing career: Started racing in Ministox aged 10

Congratulations on qualifying for the World Final for the fourth time in as many years, does this race still have a special feeling for you and is it something you look forward to?
Absolutely, at the end of the day it’s meetings like this which is the reason I go racing every week, not just the World Final but all the big championship meetings, they are the reasons you battle through the weekends, where it’s a bit rubbish and things don’t go well and you just get on with it for the next weekend, all working towards meetings like this because this is the reason we all race every weekend to try and be in this race and have a go at winning it.

As a former 1300cc Stockcar World Champion, how does the Saloon Stockcar World Final compare for you?
It’s funny because at first they were very similar to me in terms of how special the meetings were but I think now the Saloon World is a bit more special. Up until recently both World Finals were a huge deal but for me, the feeling was almost the same, I was there to do a job and do my best and from that standpoint the feeling was the same and the atmosphere at these big events is always special. However just recently I think I have started to look forward to and enjoy the Saloon World Final a little more, it’s possibly because last year was the first time I’d qualified for the World ahead of the meeting which is the same this year so maybe that’s why but also I think the Saloon World has become a much bigger event over the last couple of years, where the formula has become more and more popular so too has the World Final.

The grid has been shaken up a fair bit with the confirmation that Steve Webster will be unable to race which has changed the positions of many starters, yourself included but your change is a fairly large one as you have moved from the inside of row five to the outside of row three, how do you feel about that?
Row five on the inside was good for me and row three on the outside is as well to be honest. There probably is a bit of an advantage from being on the inside, especially at somewhere like Mildenhall where I think you will see a livelier race but then being a little closer to the front will help as well so either way I’m good, to be completely honest I don’t think there is much difference between the two grid positions.

One difference is you now start in front of the first row of Overseas drivers, could that be an advantage?
I don’t think so really, again I think it will be one of those races, you just don’t know what’s going to happen, especially at the start so it’s impossible to say what’s going to be a good or bad place to start, you just need to see what happens. The start will definitely be important because if you are facing the wrong way at any point in the race then you’re chances of winning are pretty much over and the start is one of the critical points for not getting taken out so that’s the most important thing at the start, just keeping the car in the right direction.

Have you got a plan for the start?
Yes, but I’m not telling you because then everyone will know (laughs).

In order to finish so close to the front you finished eighth in the World Rankings, your best result to date, are you pleased with that position?
I am, because it was something I’ve been working towards and I don’t do the travelling that some guys do. I’ve no desire to travel to Scotland and the west country all the time and I’m more than happy doing the meetings I do, it’s crazy what some of these guys are doing right now and it’s not something I would like to do myself so based on what I’m able and want to do, I’m really pleased with where I finished.

Of the 24 drivers to have qualified via the World Ranking points you are one of just seven to have had a race win this season at Mildenhall and one of just four to have won more than one race this year, do you think this gives you an edge?
(laughs) Absolutely not, it makes no difference, I wish it did! You’ve only got to look at the National Championship, everyone had been saying all year that David Aldous hadn’t won a race at King’s Lynn all year and then bang, he goes and wins the biggest race of the year at the track. And he’s not won a race all year at Mildenhall but there won’t be a single person saying he can’t or won’t win the World Final and if you ask me, he’s the favourite even though he’s not won a race at the track all year so it makes no difference at all. It’s funny because after the National I wanted to try and find him while he was having a beer or something and I had every intention of grabbing his drink and having a mouthful just so I can ‘have some of what he’s drinking’ to see if it works for me (laughs). Typically when I did find him he wasn’t having a drink!

Nonetheless, does your Mildenhall form this season give you added confidence heading into the World Final?
With Mildenhall, I’m always all or nothing, it’s either really good or terribly bad and there is never a middle ground so I kind of guess the World will be the same and either I will be right up there or just do no good at all. In stockcar racing I always think 50 per cent of it is luck and at Mildenhall it’s probably more than that, just because of the track, being so small but still with loads of cars and sometimes luck is more important than anything else and the World will be no different with 34 cars out there you know it’s going to be as hectic as it can get. Take the (One Wild Weekend) meeting, I was second to Timmy Barnes in a heat on the Saturday and I thought my best option was to go for it on the last bend and not give him a chance to come back at me and with a lap to go we went through a pile-up, he made it and just after he cleared it, a car reversed out and clipped me and span me and that was the end of my race. That is how fast it happens at Mildenhall and more often than not there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Do you enjoy that style of racing?
It’s great for the fans, I’m not sure about me or the rest of the drivers (laughs) but it’s definitely good for those watching!

Do you think having experience of Mildenhall will give a driver an edge in the World Final?
I think those with shale experience will have an advantage and will all the respect to the drivers who don’t race on shale so much I can’t see them winning myself, I think it will be a shale driver. It is such a craft now to race on each of the surfaces and if you don’t race on shale I think it will be very hard to win a race like this.

You’re big race form has been impressive in the last year or so with podium finishes in the UK and English this year and National last year, are you pleased with those results or is there any frustration building at not taking a title yet?
It’s impossible to be frustrated at not winning in this formula, if you do then you’re in the wrong game. When you are in such a hard and competitive formula you can never expect anything to go your way so for me to have those results that I do is really special and I’m really pleased with them. Of course I would love to win a major title in the formula, I think that is the goal of everyone out there right now and I’ll be going for in the World as best I can as will everyone else but you cannot expect anything to go your way, the formula and the drivers in it are just far too good for that.

This season has seen a big improvement in your tarmac form this year, is that something you are pleased about?
Yes I am. I’ve built a car for tarmac and that’s made the difference. You can try doing it with one car but having done it myself for a while I learned that the only way I was really going to get better was to have a car specifically for the job. When you use one car, you swap from tarmac to shale set up and in the first race you are never quite right, the second race is better and for the final you might be right but the most important thing is you never get any better. With two cars I’ve been able to continue to try and make the cars better and that’s been the case this year and I’m getting the results which is fantastic and made the work worthwhile.

A lot has been said of the tyres in the sport between the surfaces, do you think if the same tyre was used on both surfaces that we would see more driver’s race on shale and tarmac?
Absolutely and I wish that was the case, I really do. For me, tyres is a bit of an issue for me. We race stockcars, with the word being stock and yet we race on quite expensive tyres and we have to have different ones for shale and tarmac which only adds to the cost which I find crazy. Personally I think we should be racing on Remould tyres on both surfaces. They are cheap and if everyone was on the same tyre then everyone would be in the same boat so there’d be no advantage. You could use new ones on shale and when they go bald, you’d use them on tarmac and when they were worn out you’d throw them away. Given the life I get out of the tyres we use now, I reckon you could get up to 10 meetings out of a remould using them like that and so that would mean a tyre could cost about £2 a meeting which would be brilliant and I really think if that were the case more would race on tarmac and shale and it would make everyone’s life so much easier. At the moment, a huge amount of the time I spend preparing for meetings is on getting tyres ready for tarmac, the work we have to do on them is crazy.

With that in mind, can we ask how much time on average you spend working on your car and will you do anything extra for World Final week?
I always spend two or three days on the cars in the evening. I’m not saying what nights because people might come to see me and I’ll get no work done (laughs). I never work on the car during the day, that’s work hours and that is for work unless I have absolutely nothing to do which thankfully isn’t too often and like I said if we are racing on tarmac at the weekend, then quite often one of those nights is spent just doing tyres but thankfully I have a lot of help and without it I could never do the racing like I do. I guess World Final week will be extra busy, I suspect we’ll wind up working on the car every night that week and check every nut and bolt three or four times instead of once or twice. I don’t think it makes much of a difference, certainly not to the car but it does in your head and that’s why you do it.

This season has seen the introduction of the Zetec engines, is that something you are in favour of?
Well I was one of the first to switch to them so I guess that means I am (laughs). No, I’m completely in favour of them, they are absolutely brilliant and it’s been a fantastic thing for the formula. There are so many positives from using them, they are more available, so much cheaper and I think there is less problems with them too, certainly have an electronic ignition has a lot of advantages I think and it’s definitely helping to bring more new drivers into the formula so yes, I think it’s been a brilliant thing.

Unfortunately another talking point this season has been the amount of driver injuries this season, do you believe more can be done to improve driver safety and do you use any personal safety equipment which you would recommend to others?
The things I would like to see changed, is changes to the rules regarding rollcages to make then stronger and safer because I think more can be done with this and also I want to see races stopped more when a driver is in a dangerous position so more prevention if you like to try and stop the accidents before they happen and I think to allow that to happen marshals should have more power to make quicker decisions that they do right now because sometimes a small delay can make a big difference but when a driver is stuck on the track the race should be stopped before they get hurt, but also it needs to be the same everywhere because we are a National formula and so it should be the same from track to track. At the moment I use a back support and I’ve started using a Hans device which I would recommend to anyone, I think they are brilliant and to be honest I think they should be made compulsory in the sport. The other thing I think is really important is wearing good shoes, or in my case boots. At King’s Lynn recent I got my boots out and the soles had fallen off one! I’m a bit tight so I tried to superglue them back together but when I couldn’t I decided to wear my good Timberland ones instead of trainers and pretty much ruined one of my expensive pairs of boots that night. But then, that night my ankles got jabbed by the pedals so it was probably money well spent (laughs).

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My wife, mum and dad for all their support and all my mechanics for all their help, I couldn’t do all this without them so I’m extremely grateful to all of them for everything they do for me.