An Interview with Pikey 190 Steve Bailey

Age: 32
Home Town: Exeter
Occupation: Builder and ground worker
Family: Girlfriend Diana-Marie and five children
Racing career: Started racing when 16-years-old

Congratulations on qualifying for the Supreme Championship again, you’re no stranger to racing in big races so is this one you look forward to in particular?
I do more so now because the meeting is an unlimited one. It’s always been good the years I have qualified but definitely more so since it became an unlimited race and I was quite pleased when it changed and the first year it was unlimited (2012) was really good so yes it is one of the meetings I tend to look forward to. I always enjoy my meetings on shale as well so to do a big championship meeting on shale is always something special.

Despite being the reigning 2Litre BBA World Champion it seems clear you prefer your racing to be unlimited?
I do, I don’t know if it’s an age thing but I grew up racing rear wheel drive cars so I’ve always enjoyed them more. Don’t get me wrong I still like doing the limited cc meetings and racing front wheel drive cars but an unlimited banger is definitely my favourite. And when I first started racing it was on dirt tracks local to me so I started on the dirt and on the mud and any chance to race an unlimited on shale is one I’ll usually try and do because it very much reminds me of where I started my racing.

You finished third in 2011 which was the last time the event was held as a National Banger meeting, how special would it be for you to win the race, especially now it is an unlimited one?
Any time you are racing for a championship, especially one which carries a roof grade, it’s special and a race you really want to try and win. I think it’s the same for most drivers that the championships with roof grades are the ones everyone wants to win because it is a big thing being able to have the roof grade for a year. As fantastic as it was to win the 2Litre World twice, winning the Autospeed World was particularly special for me for several reasons but one was because it was an unlimited meeting and so to win this as an unlimited event would definitely make it even more of an achievement. 

How do you rate your chances this year?
The thing about shale tracks like Mildenhall and King’s Lynn is it all comes down to what happens on the day. The shale is brilliant and making all drivers more equal before they even start and it’s much more about the driver themselves and the luck they have in any given race rather than anything else and that is one of the reasons why I enjoy racing on it so much. Take last year when I won the RDC RWD Championship. I didn’t have one of my better engines that night and in the big race it was me and Boxer (331 Jason Jackson) and he had a car which had been winning everywhere and on that night and in that race I was able to beat him. That’s the great thing about shale. I’d like to think I’ve got a chance but then everyone out there will have a chance. There are at least 10 to 20 drivers who’ve qualified who straight away you’d think are going to be in the running and then the rest of them shouldn’t be overlooked either. That is the thing about this race is the qualifying process means everyone out there is likely to be in with a shout and it’s happened so many times at Mildenhall before that it just throws up a surprise and someone different comes through and wins.

What kind of race do you think we will see on March 22?
You never know, again with it being on shale it just makes it unpredictable. Hopefully the weather will be good because it’d be a real shame if it was like last year and again I think I’m getting old because I don’t like racing in the wet as much any more. If there is a big grid you would expect it to be very lively and chaotic but at the same time it depends on what the drivers have in their heads on the night. When you’ve got so many good drivers in one race you could have a large number of them decide they are going to go for it or alternatively they could all decide to have a play so you just don’t know what’s going to happen. I think it will be fast though, that’s almost for certain. 

You have a couple of well known rivals among the qualifiers, is that something you give much thought to before a race or just something you have to deal with if and when it happens?
You can never worry about anyone else too much, if you’re spending too much time thinking about someone else then you aren’t paying enough attention to what you are doing and that’s when it all goes wrong. You can never predict how any banger race is going go, let alone something like this so you just have to do the best you can and adapt to whatever happens.

Moving onto the rest of 2014, are you looking forward to the forthcoming season and have you any special plans?
I am as it goes, more so than I have done for a little while. I think a big reason for this is that I managed to go most of 2013 without getting banned (Steve was suspended from October 2012 to late April 2013) and I’m really enjoying my racing again, honestly I feel like I’m 16 again and so because of that I hope to do a lot this year. I’ve had some good weekends recently as well, I won both the finals (2litre and unlimited) at the Winter Open at Taunton and then won the 2Litre UK Open at Ringwood as well so everything is going really well at the moment and when things are like that you are more buzzing to keep going. I’m getting married in the summer though so I might have to take it a bit easier around that but besides that I hope to have as big and as good a year as possible. 

You’re no stranger to being a talking point in the sport and this was again the case at the very end of last season where you and your Team DWO team mates and some of your rivals were the centre of much discussion over the levels of your car preparation, could we ask for your thoughts on this matter?
The comments themselves didn’t bother me in the slightest. I honestly think that the majority of them are made based solely on whether people like me or the team or they don’t and if they don’t it’s just any excuse to have a pop at us. I think the genuine people out there are the ones who actually come and speak to me and the boys in the team at a meeting and ask us about our cars. It’s a shame that more don’t do that because I think they would probably be quite surprised or shocked at some of the answers but again with most of it I don’t think it’s actually an interest in the car preparation but more just a means to have an attack on us. The way I see it is that there are times when in order to compete with the people you are up against you have to do the same thing that they are or even try and be better and we’ve always tried to be better. The bottom line is it is better to do something and then remove it than to not have it and be at a disadvantage because someone else has got it and that is something we have learned that we need to do at some places and when we are against certain people. The fact is that we’ve not had a problem with scrutineering for quite some time now and we’ve always been allowed to race so the scrutineers are happy with our cars and ultimately that is the most important thing. 

On that subject, the ORCi have just released the new construction rules for 2014, is there anything you would like to comment on such as the allowance of free diffs in unlimited bangers and the addition of the Goodyear Eagle to the banned tyre list as you have used them previously?
I’m honestly not bothered about them banning that tyre because I cannot get on with them. We bought a load when they started becoming popular and because we bought a large amount we saved money but I never really liked them but I used them because we had them so I’m not too worried about that. The trouble is though, especially with the internet, they will be something new soon enough so tyres are always going to be a moving goalpost and a very hard thing to control. As for the diffs, again it doesn’t worry me too much. I’ve never welded a diff up because again it just doesn’t suit me but I think it is better that (limited slip diffs) are now allowed because they come in a lot of cars and if you have to change them it just makes more work and I also think it might stop a little of the controversy.

In closing is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My dad and brother, Ash, Brett, Jonesey and Frank and the boys in the team and my girlfriend for being very patient with me and also Leon Fasey Van Sale for all their help.

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