An Interview with 22 Dave
Vincent
(interview published March 12 2014 in the lead up to the 2014 Unlimited
Banger BBA Supreme Championship)
Age: 38
Home Town: Brandon
Occupation: Builder
Family: Fiancé Lucy
Racing career: Started racing National Bangers aged 16
With around 20 years of competing in championship races like this, do you still look forward to occasions like this?
Yes, very much, I love the big races and enjoy them a lot, especially the unlimited ones although really they are the only ones I do now. I don’t travel around to all the big championship races like I used to so when one comes up it’s always something to look forward to and it’s always nice to race for a championship and even better to win one. I mainly only do unlimited and pre 70 meetings now so this is one of the biggest races of the season for me and I’m looking forward to it again.
Your CV in the sport is a mightily impressive one but you have yet to win the Supreme Championship, despite being one of the few of today’s drivers to race in the first one back in 2000 at Hednesford, is winning this race still important to you?
Yes it is and the fact that I’ve not won it yet is one of the reasons I look forward to it so much because it is a race I still really want to win, if nothing else to prove to myself that I can still do it. You’d think after all these years I wouldn’t have anything to prove or have confidence issues but I do still feel like I need to prove things, if only to myself. There are all these young drivers coming into the sport these days and they are very, very good so you’re always being tested and I want to keep showing that I can do it and be as good as anyone else.
You mention your confidence not being as high at the moment as you would expect, did losing the TSR points championship in 2013 play a part in that?
No, I don’t think it was that so much. It just happens at times, you have a bad run and it shakes you a bit but you have to dig in and battle on and usually it turns itself around and that’s started to happen again as I did well at both the Icebreaker meetings which has helped. Losing the points championship was a disappointment but at the same time it wasn’t, it certainly wasn’t as big of a disappointment as I thought it would be, I think my dad was more gutted than I was (laughs). There was a couple of reasons I think I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be. Firstly I don’t do all the meetings anymore and I don’t do any of the Micro ones and there are more of them than ever now and it’s always going to be very hard to win a points title without doing all the meetings but also I went into the last month of the season with a pretty good lead and at the Nutcracker meeting I had a total disaster and that can happen anytime, it was just one of those things.
Have you decided what car you will be racing in the Supreme Championship?
A Mk2 Granada, what else (laughs)? I know they might not be the strongest cars anymore but at the end of the day I’ve still got plenty of them, I know exactly what I’m doing with them, how to build them right and quickly and get them to go right and I actually find it hard to get the more modern stuff so I just stick to what I know and they are great round Mildenhall and on shale.
You had a race win at the unlimited Icebreaker in a Mk2 Granada, that must show they are still competitive?
Absolutely, the car went really well and I really enjoyed that one, it’s also quite nice to win in a Mk2 against the more modern cars and show that still can be competitive and I think on shale they are as quick as anything else, the main problem now is their strength because they are all old now.
It is looking likely that there could be a big field of cars in this year’s championship, does that suite you?
I actually prefer it is the grids a little more manageable and not just a big blockage, I think if there is a blockage I might struggle but if it is a race then a big grid will help. There was a big field (in 2012) and there wasn’t a track blockage that year so I hope it might be like that again because I do think I’m good in traffic, it’s one of the things I’m best at but when it’s a pile-up it’s not quite the same because then it’s more about luck and I never seem to have much of that these days!
You mention the 2012 championship, the first as an unlimited event at Mildenhall and you finished third, is it a race you still remember now?
Yes, I think I can actually remember most of the race which shows how good it was. I loved it, it was a brilliant race, everything a banger championship should be really and I came from the back to finish third, I think all of the top three did, and that again shows just how good of a race it was. I actually thought I was going to win it, I got up there and then the car just started to slow down and I had to hang on to finish third but I was really chuffed. For me, I know when it’s been a good race and I’ve enjoyed it because the result isn’t as important. Normally I would have been gutted to have not taken the win but I didn’t mind that night, because I enjoyed it so much.
Of course last year’s race was the complete opposite with the snowstorm making for the worst imaginable conditions, having raced on shale for over 20 years how did that rank among your worst racing conditions?
It was pretty bad wasn’t it! I’m sure I’ve raced in worse but I honestly cannot remember when or where but what can you do, if the weather is bad there isn’t much you can do about it, it was just such a shame because it had been so good the year before and had the weather been on side I’m sure last year would have been as well.
You enjoyed a mixed start to the season with the unlimited Icebreaker meetings at King’s Lynn and there was controversy at the unlimited Icebreaker where two members of your team (372 Martin and 572 Paul Scully) didn’t race after issues at scrutineering leaving you and Davey Cox as a two man team. Can we ask your thoughts on that situation?
It was pretty disappointing really because the truth is they knew they couldn’t do what they’d done and they could have easily fixed it if they wanted to. If they didn’t want to race there again, that’s up to them but by not changing the cars and racing I just felt they let me and Davey down which I didn’t like at all so that was pretty disappointing but at least I had a win that day so that was a saving grace but it was a shame to not be in a position to challenge for the title again.
Two weeks later and Team 22 lifted the 1500cc Icebreaker title, that must have been pleasing?
Yes it definitely was, especially because after the unlimited meeting, the (1500cc) team was kind of thrown together at the last minute and I honestly never expected us to do that well but everyone really put the effort in and I think they did a lot better than I thought they would and it just went our way, it was pretty cool and meant a lot to me as captain but I think it meant a lot to the other guys in the team too.
Going back to the subject of the TSR points title, will you be chasing the championship again in 2014?
I doubt it to be honest. The fixtures this year are quite different to recent years. There are a lot less 2litre meetings and more Micro meetings and while I prefer unlimited and rear wheel drive racing I did usually do the 2litre ones but I don’t do Micros so I think by not doing them I would struggle to challenge for the points and if that is the case I think I would be a lot less enthusiastic to do the other front wheel drive meetings but we’ll see how it plays out. I managed to win the points (in 2011 and 2012) without doing every meeting nearly won it last year as well so it might be possible. A lot will depend on the start of the year, if things go well I’ll probably have another go.
One of the big changes at TSR in 2013 was that several meetings, especially the unlimited ones, carried a unique prize fund with all drivers receiving start money and then the prize money was dependent on what was left after the start money was paid out, usually resulting in a lot less prize money than before, did you like this system?
I wasn’t very keen but I guess I might say that because usually I would have good results and win some decent prize money and then I wasn’t getting so much but instead getting pretty much the same as everyone. I understand why they did it and I’m sure someone who doesn’t have much success would see it differently to me. Personally I would prefer there to be more prize money but also to have some start money for those who have come a long way and perhaps give them a little extra.
A recent hot topic has been the announcement of the 2014 ORCi technical rules, what’s your thoughts on these?
I’ve not paid that much attention really but from what I have seen it won’t make any difference to me at all and I’ll still be doing exactly what I’ve been doing before so I’m quite happy, the only difference for me is that with the new tyre rule I might have a bit more of a chance to compete on tarmac. The only time I usually race on tarmac now is the World Final at Spedeworth and even though I was on the pace I kind of knew I had no chance of winning last year and a lot of that was because of the tyres so hopefully now I might have more of a chance.
Is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My mum and dad, Monkey, Richard and Lucy.