An Interview with Saloon Stockcar European Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr
(interview published July 13 2016 in the lead up to the 2016 National Championship at Mildenhall on July 23/24)

Age: 28
Home Town: King’s Lynn
Occupation: Plant operator and instructor
Family: Fiancé Kirsty and two children
Racing career: Started racing Ministox aged 10

We are just a couple of weeks away from the National Championship weekend at Mildenhall, is this an event you are looking forward to?
I always look forward to the championship events, I think everyone does to be honest. Most people who race in the formula do so because the racing is so good and that is what everyone enjoys the most and that is a big attraction for a lot of people and the championship events are usually very good, so these are the meetings you really want to be a party of because if nothing else the racing should be really good.

How does a championship event at Mildenhall compare to big races elsewhere?
I think the biggest difference at Mildenhall is that the races are more open and harder to predict. It’s just because of the nature of the track, being so small but still very fast it makes everything so much more unpredictable which I guess makes it a bit more exciting in a way, especially for those watching because you never know what’s going to happen and that I always good for the fans. The other difference at Mildenhall is that I think it’s less important to be 100 per cent perfect because sometimes luck plays a bigger part and sometimes, again because of the kind of track it is, you can get away with not being perfect by driving your way around it. At other tracks, especially tarmac ones, your car has to be spot on and to be honest so do you, one mistake and it’s over. It’s even that way at King’s Lynn to a lesser degree because it’s such a bigger track so there is a think more importance on the car being spot on and it can be very difficult to recover from a mistake there. I’m not saying it’s not important for your car to be right at Mildenhall but if you do get it slightly wrong it is possible that it won’t affect you quite as much as it might elsewhere and as long as you are on the same lap as the leader at Mildenhall you always have a chance.

You will come to the National Championship as European Champion having finally won your first major title at Taunton last month, how big of a deal was that for you and will it help you in the National?
It meant so much, it really was a massive thing to finally win (a major championship), especially after all the near misses and the years where I’ve been leading big races only for it to go all wrong. Funnily enough I started a championship at Taunton in the same place as I did when I won the European, I think it might have been the National there, and I was winning that only to crash out at the end so the European was tough because I was always expecting something to happen. I guess that’s because so many things have gone wrong so many times before in those races that you almost start to expect it and that can make it even harder for you to finally win one. I think that is what will make the biggest difference in championship races in the future now like the European, I know now that I can win these races and something isn’t always going to happen if I’m in the lead or doing well. Hopefully I can keep thinking like that in the National and that will certainly help me, because you have to believe you can do well in any race that you are in. What helped make the European even more special was that it happened on Father’s Day. We’ve always been a very racing orientated family and my dad has put so much in to my racing and it was obvious what it meant to him as well so to do it especially on Father’s Day was really cool. Unfortunately the impact wasn’t quite the same on my kids. They are only four and two (years old) so they don’t quite understand how important it was, they love it when I win any trophy though and being a bigger trophy they were very excited about that (laughs).

How tough was the European and does winning races like that help you prepare for future championships?
It does and it doesn’t. Every race, especially a championship race is different so doing well in one doesn’t exactly help you in the next one but a win like that does boost your confidence and that makes a big difference, again believing you can do well is so important and I think I had become guilty, especially in races like that, of always expecting something to go wrong. It was a tough race to win, but not in the normal sense. Again it was different to most races. The conditions were quite slippery but I managed to find a pretty good line which was working very well for me. I caught Eddie Darby and figured no one knows Taunton better than him so I will stick with him and see what he is doing but I thought what I’d been doing before was better so I went back to that and I started to pull away from him and that is not an easy thing to do at Taunton so that was probably a bit point in the race for me where I thought I had a real chance. Once I got past Deane (Mayes), the biggest issue was trying to avoid the pile-up on the track. It was mostly a matter of just thinking ahead and always covering yourself. You had to either make sure there was no-one immediately behind you or that you was on the inside of someone so if there was a hit they would go into the heap and not you. It was a tricky race but I think that just makes it all the more pleasing to win it.

Your first meeting as European Champion didn’t go quite to plan as you suffered a blown engine at King’s Lynn, that being your shale car, has that effected your plans for the National Championship at all?
The timing wasn’t the best as I’ve been away a lot on work since the Steve Newman memorial meeting so I have had to rely on dad a lot to get the car ready for the UK weekend at Skegness and to get the engine sorted for the shale car. Thankfully there have been a couple of quieter weekends in between which have helped a bit. I’m still using a Pinto engine in the shale car at the moment, I’ve switched to Zetec for the tarmac car but at the moment I simply can’t afford another conversion kit for the shale car which is why I’m still using Pintos even though they keep going bang (laughs). What I’ve been doing is running a standard bottom end which is a little cheaper but unfortunately means they don’t last quite as long. They usually do about three or four meetings and then we have a problem and my hope is to get to the end of the year and have saved enough for another conversion kit. I think the Zetecs are probably better and I have found I have to drive a little differently with the Pinto to stay on the pace but the difference is marginal and to be honest the Zetecs have been a wonderful thing for the formula because it’s giving everyone a chance to be on the pace without having to spend a fortune and that is great, even if it does make it harder for me (laughs). We’ve changed the engine in the shale car and all being well I’ll go to Coventry the weekend before the National which will be good to make sure everything is going how it should be and then hopefully we’ll be on track for the National. I guess in hindsight it was better to have the problems at Lynn the other week than to have had them at a championship meeting.

What are your thoughts on the two day format of the championship?
I like the championships being over two days because it gives everyone a chance to be ready for the big race. If the event is all on one day and you get damage, sometimes it can be so much that you miss the championship and that has happened to me before so having the time Saturday night and Sunday morning to repair any damage and go through the car and make sure it is right is good in my opinion and it means everyone has a chance to make sure their cars are spot on for the championship which will hopefully make the race even better. It does make the championship a bigger challenge I think, especially on shale, because the track changes so much, especially from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon so you can’t just assume that because your car went well on the Saturday that it will go as well on the Sunday, you still have to try and make it better and of course that can be a gamble so it does make it a bigger challenge.

How important will grid positions be?
I think they will help but I don’t think they will matter so much. Again being at Mildenhall where it is so unpredictable and anything can happen, I think you could win from anywhere, luck will be more important than a good grid position.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My mum and dad, brother, Kirsty, the kids and my nan and grandad for all their help and support and all my sponsors, Double Day Group, Beck Row, McDonnell Caravans, Ideal Commercials and JH Butchers.