An Interview with 49 Paul Prest

Congratulations on qualifying for the World of Shale Championship for the first time, is qualifying something you are especially pleased about?
Yes I am pretty chuffed to be honest. It's the culmination of a funny story really. I used to race a long time ago, mainly at Barford which is my local track and then one afternoon I got sick and decided that was enough and it was about eight years that I never even went near a stockcar track. When I first raced Charlie Whitfield used to come with us as a kid and a couple of years ago he started racing and he was having trouble so he asked if I could come to Barford and give me a hand so I popped down and one thing led to another and I wound up buying a car and racing again. Getting into shale was another story all together. I bought a Mitchell car and I just could not get it to go right. I had a nightmare with it and a friend suggested I tried his car so eventually I did and it was much better for me so straight away I called Daz Kitson and ordered one and the Mitchell car was banished to the corner of the yard. I have a group of lads who help me and they suggested we could turn the car into a shale car and do some racing on shale. As far as I was concerned the car could have gone in the skip so I told them to do what they want and they set about sorting it out and the next thing I know they go there is your shale car and we went shale racing and the car is great on shale and I'm really enjoying it. But we are pretty clueless when it comes to shale still, I just chuck it in and hope for the best. Nine times out of 10 I crash but the car still drives away and on the one case in 10 we get a win!

It's seems clear that despite painting a picture of a tarmac racer that you are enjoying your shale racing?
Yes very much. When I used to race Skegness was shale and apart from a couple of meetings a year there and the odd King's Lynn I never went near shale, now it's where I get most of my enjoyment from. I still race at Barford but that is because it is local and I like it there, I think it's a good little stockcar track. I qualified for the World Championship Semi Finals but I had little interest in it so I cancelled my place, that would have never happened a few years ago. We had a meeting at Stoke earlier this year where the car was running on three cylinders and one of my wheels was barely hanging on but I still managed to win. You wouldn't get that at a tarmac meeting but shale racing is so different and I'm having a great deal of fun with it.

With that in mind was you surprised to qualify for the championship for the first time?
Well not really because the lads who help me had an eye on the series all year and we made a point of trying to do as many of the rounds as we could. I had a great meeting at the first round at King's Lynn which made a big difference and got my series kick started and even though I struggled a little towards the end I was still pretty confident it would be ok and I would qualify but again I really pleased to have done it and am looking forward the championship now. 

Having said that you have only visited Mildenhall once and it did not bring great success, does this play on your mind heading into the championship?
No not in the slightest. When we visited Mildenhall in April we had never set our eyes on the track before so we travelled four and a half hours there, raced and did the same journey home. I learned a lot that night even though I didn't have the best of results and even strung a few good laps together in the final so I think I could be ok. We now know what we are doing and what we are getting into which will make a big difference and there are some changes we are going to make which I think will help.

With that in mind, do you have any targets or goals heading into the race?
Well I'm not there to just make the numbers up. I want to get stuck in and see how well I can do and that might mean firing a few in on the first bend. I think it will be a lively start to the race because even if the front runners get a good start with that many cars out there they are going to be in the traffic before you know it so it should be pretty hectic.

Who do you think the main danger men are going to be?
I should think it will be one of the guys down the front. There are some really good drivers there and they are going to be hard to catch. 

With your earlier comments about racing on shale and missing the World Semi Finals in August do you think we might see more of you in this event in the future?
I think so. Like I said we are really enjoying our shale racing at the moment. That is what we go racing for, to enjoy ourselves and that is what we are getting so hopefully we'll do more of the same next year and try our luck in this championship again. 

Is there anyone you would to thank or mention?
Ron and Stuart are my main helpers. Without them I would not go racing, I just don't have the time or interest to do it all myself but these guys do so much to get me out on track so I owe them a lot and NYG who help greatly with sponsorship and support and everyone else who helps out.