An Interview with new V8 Hotstox European Champion 328 Michael Boswell
(interview published June 10 2015 in the lead up to the V8 Hotstox Supreme Trophy at Mildenhall on July 4)

Age: 30
Home Town: Warwickshire
Occupation: Machine driver
Family: Girlfriend Megan
Racing career: Aged 21 in Bangers at Standlake, started racing V8 Hotstox soon after

The V8 Hotstox are set to return to Mildenhall very shortly on July 4 after their first meeting in over 20 years at the raceway last August, is this a meeting you have been looking forward to?
Yes I have. I was so pleased when we got a date at Mildenhall last year because it is a track I’d wanted the V8 Hotstox to visit for quite some time. I’ve been to Mildenhall to watch many times because my nephews are Rickie and Patxi Beasley and so I’ve been with Ricky many times to watch him in the (National) Bangers and I’ve always felt Mildenhall would be a really good track for the formula and I think that proved to be the case last year and we had a great night and there was a great response from the drivers who raced that night and it’s great that we have a chance to go back, hopefully this time it will be even better.

Can you tell us why you think Mildenhall is so well suited for the formula?
It’s the size and shape of the track mostly. I enjoy my shale racing and it’s what I do more than anything so I like the shale tracks but places like King’s Lynn and Coventry are very different to Mildenhall. Obviously they are much bigger but Mildenhall is so wide as well that it allows us to still be quick even though the track is relatively small and this keeps the cars pretty close together so even though there wasn’t the biggest of entries last time the racing was still really good because it’s quite hard to get away from other cars round there. The trick to Mildenhall I think we found last time was getting into a rhythm and in fact that was more important than being fast so it made for quite a level playing field and that’s always good to have in racing. I think it’s a big thing in V8s anyway, that it is quite an even playing field, especially on shale but that was definitely the case at Mildenhall.

You enjoyed some fine success last year, winning the final at the Mildenhall meeting, were you pleased with that result and does that give you added confidence heading into this year’s meeting?
It was great to get that final win. Any win is always a good thing and a good result for me but to get a final is especially pleasing and then to do it at a track where the formula hadn’t been for so long and the majority of us had never raced at before gave it a little more meaning so it was a great race to win. I suppose it does give you a little edge heading into this year’s meeting, especially over those who’ve not raced at the track yet. Hopefully we will have a bigger entry this time, I know I’ve spoken highly of the Mildenhall meeting to others who didn’t go and there have been plenty of others doing the same and I think we will see some different drivers this time. We’ve also had some excellent turn outs this year, the entry for the British Championship the other week at Northampton was I think the best I’ve ever seen in the formula and while I doubt we would get anything like that hopefully we’ll have a few more than last year at Mildenhall and I think an extra couple of cars could make a massive difference and make for an even better meeting.

Your victory in the final came after some disappointing results in the heats, was the win at the end of the night a result of making changes to the car during the course of the meeting?
(laughs) No, it wasn’t anything like that at all. I struggled quite a bit in the first heat because the race was held in daylight and with the cover at the track half the track was in the sun and the other half in the shade and it really caught me by surprise. I never considered it until I was out there and with the bit of dust I found it a massive challenge to get used to that and it just caught me out so I struggled in the first one a lot and when I got spun out I decided to retire. The second race was much better because the sun had set and it went from there. To be honest I didn’t make too many changes to the car all night but then again there isn’t too much you can actually do with our cars when it comes to that. The suspensions are pretty much the same but you can change the stagger on the car but with the size of Mildenhall I don’t think there was much you could have done there either so everyone was pretty much on the same set up which again is why I think the racing was so close.

This year’s meeting at Mildenhall features the Supreme Trophy, how important would it be for you to win that?
It’d be great but again for me any race win is special, winning a final like I did at Mildenhall last year is a little bit more but to win something with a bit of history or a memorial trophy, something like that is always going to be a bit extra so it would be a great race to win but I suspect it won’t be as easy as that (laughs).

How has your season been going so far?
It’s been a bit indifferent to be honest. I had some difficulties at the start of the season, first with the car and then when we got the car running better and everything was ok there, then I became the problem (laughs) and I just couldn’t do anything right! But as the season has gone along things have got a little bit better and the British Championship at Northampton was a good night especially as it was on tarmac and I don’t consider myself to the best on tarmac, I must prefer my racing on shale. I didn’t expect to do very well at Northampton really but after the heats I qualified on the third row and that was a big achievement for me and I was really pleased about that. I got spun out in the final so I didn’t do well there but again I never expected to really, just to do so well in the heats and qualify that well was good enough for me. It’s another reason why I’m looking forward to going back to Mildenhall because if I could have another night like last year I think that would be a huge boost for my season which would be pretty important right now.

As a driver what is the appeal of the V8 Hotstox formula for you?
(laughing) That’s an easy question that one! It’s basically the costs of the formula as I consider it a cheapish formula to race in. No motorsport is ever going to be cheap but this is definitely one of the cheaper ones. What might be a better way to put it is that you can compete without spending a huge amount of money and for the money which I spend on my car and my racing, the enjoyment and buzz I get from racing the car is just incredible. I absolutely love our racing, I think it is a really good stockcar formula, there is definitely a special buzz from racing a V8 engined car and the contact levels are really good as well, I think you get a really good standard of racing without things ever being too over the top and again all for spending a reasonable amount of money. A big reason for that is because most of the kit on our cars comes from other cars which you can get quite easily, for example a lot of more car’s running gear comes from a Ford Transit and you can get shock absorbers for just £10 whereas with other open wheeled stockcar formulas, especially BriSCA F1 Stockcars the drivers spend a vast amount more money on their cars. And all these means the cars all stay pretty comparable to each other and that is especially the case on shale. I’ve only had two engines now in all the years I‘ve been racing so you don’t need to spend the money to compete, especially on the shale which helps level the playing field a bit more than you get on tarmac. Another great thing for me is the drivers in the formula and the people involved in the formula as the majority are a really great bunch of guys and having that makes racing in the formula very enjoyable as well.

Is there anyone you would like to mention or thank?
All my sponsors and all my friends and family and everyone else who helps, they all know who they are.