An Interview with former National Banger World Champion and Saloon Stockcar racer Deano 730 Dean Mayes
(interview published May 28 in the lead up to the 2014 European Championship at Mildenhall on June 7 and 8)

Age: 27
Home Town: Diss
Occupation: Self employed car parts builder
Family: Wife Marie and four children
Racing career: Started racing in Ministox aged 10 at Swaffham

You are now in your second season of racing Saloon Stockcars having made the switch from National Bangers, do you feel you have fully settled into the formula now and feel a part of it?
I do now, yes and a big reason for that is the because the drivers and people associated with the formula are so helpful and friendly that they have made me feel part of the formula and that is probably the main reason why I feel that way. I definitely consider myself a stockcar driver now rather than a banger driver and I must admit that did happen a little quicker than I thought it would, especially given how much I was racing in bangers before I made the move, I thought the feeling of wanting to race bangers would have lasted for a bit longer but honestly now all I think about is racing the stockcar and I’m absolutely loving it. The buzz from racing one is unlike anything I have ever experienced in all my years of racing, it is just an awesome formula to be apart of it and the rush from being in a Saloon Stockcar race is just incredible.

How much work is involved in racing the Stockcar at your level and how does it compare to racing bangers?
I think for me there is probably a bit less work in the stockcars but that is only because when I was racing bangers I was racing every weekend and building a new car almost every week so I think for a lot of drivers who make the switch the Saloons are probably just as much work, if not a bit more but for me it’s a little less which is nice. Having said that we still spend a lot of time on the car. I work from 8am to 5pm five days a week and Tuesday and Thursday nights are Stockcar nights and we just spend as long as it takes. We try and do a bit more on a Tuesday to get ahead of ourselves for the Thursday and a lot of the work is checking everything on the car is ok after a meeting before making any repairs. Honestly the checking part is just as long as the repairs and sometimes even more important but whatever we do we’re usually still doing odd jobs on a Saturday morning before a meeting! Of course if we get a lot of damage then we have to spend more time, but it’s at least two nights a week.

A big change for you this year has seen the addition of a tarmac car, how has that been going?
Really well and I’m really pleased with my tarmac car but unfortunately I’m having a having a complete reversal of the form I was having last year when I was doing well on shale and struggling on tarmac. We decided that if I was to get anywhere on tarmac I would need a car just for the job so that was what we did over the winter and it’s worked well because I feel I’m really making progress racing on tarmac now and a lot more competitive. But unfortunately we have had nothing but problems on shale, mostly with reliability. I’ve actually got two shale cars and the original plan was to have one for Mildenhall and one for King’s Lynn to save some time from changing the set ups between tracks but that’s not worked out because we’ve had nothing but problems. We had a blown engine at the first meeting and this electrical problem that got so bad that in the end we ripped every bit of wiring out of the car and started again from scratch. Hopefully I’ll get some good luck on shale soon (laughs).

With that in mind, are you looking forward to the European Championship at Mildenhall on June 7 and 8 and how do you rate your chances?
I’m looking forward to a weekend of racing at Mildenhall because I love those weekends. You have so many friends at racing but during a meeting you rarely get time to speak and spend time with people and of course you rarely see them outside of racing but something like this is a chance to do that so I’m looking forward to that very much. As for my chances (laughs), well unless there is a massive change in my luck I’ve no chance at all (laughs). At the moment I would be pleased to just qualify and be a part of the race, that really would be enough for me and I’d be happy with that. We’ve got King’s Lynn (on May 24) which is another chance to try the (shale) car and see if the changes have made any difference so hopefully that will go well for me and we’ll go from there.

The World Final is also on shale this year at King’s Lynn on August 30, if that something you have your eye on?
Absolutely, I would love to just qualify for that, that would be amazing. I’ve leapt up the World Rankings recently so I think I’ve a chance of qualifying. I’ll be honest I don’t understand the World Rankings too well but I think after last year’s World Final the (2013) National Championship result came in and I finished in sixth and I went from 50 something to in the top 20. The problem is, because I don’t really understand the system it’s hard for me to know what I need to do to stay in the top 24 so I guess I’ll have to keep doing what I’m doing and hope for the best (laughs). I know I’d only be towards the back of the grid but to qualify in only my second year in the formula would be brilliant.

Having written off your own chances who do you think the main danger men for the European will be?
I say you can never underestimate Willie Skoyles Jnr but the man at the moment is David Aldous, he really is just in incredible form at the moment and I think he will be the man to beat. But having said that, you never know in any race, let alone a Saloon championship. Anyone can get a puncture, anyone can get spun out, especially at Mildenhall so it could be anyone’s race.

This year’s Mildenhall championship event is being held across the weekend rather than on just one day, do you prefer that format?
I really don’t mind. I understand the reasons for having it on one day but it doesn’t really make too much difference to me because I’d race both days whatever. It worked well at Cowdenbeath for the British and I do like the idea that you end the Saturday night with half an idea of where you stand and then have Saturday night and Sunday morning to get the car and yourself ready for whatever you need to do on the Sunday.

We’ve been asking drivers we’ve interviewed this year about their thoughts on race stoppage procedures, what are your thoughts on the use of red flags to stop a race in mid-flow and also on the race restart set ups?
I totally agree that red flags need to be used sometimes, if a driver is in danger you need to stop as quickly as possible. For me, yellow says slow down and red means stop and if someone is in trouble you need to stop, it’s as simple as that. But I do thing the restarts might need looking at. The big problem is if you are the only car a lap down and you’ve just been lapped by the leader, if a yellow flag comes out you’d start behind the leader and still have some chance but with a red flag you’d go right to the back and still be a lap down which I’m not sure is fair so I think it probably would be better to have the same system for both red and yellow flags but I honestly don’t know what that system should be. I don’t think it would be fair to go back to the original way of restarting the cars first to last with everyone back on the lead lap as someone could come from three laps down to win and I don’t think that is right either. Although it might be good for me as I’m usually a lap down (laughs)

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
Everyone who helps me, all my sponsors, the whole of team 730, my dad, Luke and Brandon who come to all the meetings, spend all the nights at the yard on the car and Marie for supporting me so much.