An Interview with 313 Craig Osborne

Age: 22
Home Town: Red Lodge
Occupation: Waste Operative
Family: Partner Dannii who is expecting their first child
Racing Career: Been racing for five years

This will be your first time on the Supreme Championship grid, is it something you have been aiming to qualify for and are you looking forward to the race?
I’m definitely been looking forward to the race since I found out I qualified (via the RDC Drivers Points Championship as RDCs seeded entry) but it’s not a race I’ve paid the greatest amount of attention to if I’m honest. I’ve done the meeting before but only the heat races or the last chance races and I’ve never really set out to qualify for this one because it’s not something I think you can set out to do exactly. It’s not like the British Championship where there are qualifying rounds and you can concentrate on them and make sure you do your best. It’s much harder to qualify for this so you just take it as it comes and if it happens then it happens. But I’m really pleased to be in it for the first time, especially because there are so many top drivers who have qualified for it and it’s at Mildenhall and I think it’s always a little extra special qualifying for a big race at your home track. 

What do you think your chances are and are you pleased the event is now an unlimited one or would you have preferred it to have still be a National meeting?
I don’t fancy my chances too much really, I think personally I might have had a better chance if it was a (National) meeting but I enjoy racing unlimited (bangers) more than Mondeos and I think a lot of drivers are the same and fans as well so I think it is better that the meeting is now unlimited even if it perhaps isn’t as good for me personally. I’m still learning when it comes to racing (rear wheel drive) cars and trying to get better so I think this race is going to be tough for me but I will be racing a Frog Eye (Scorpio) for the first time and I think that might help my chances. Also if there is a big grid of cars and things get a bit lively that might help me as well because the bigger the grid the slower the race will be and it’ll be more on surviving and getting through the gaps which I think is one of my strong points. If I can finish I’ll be happy.

You mention your planned car choice for the race, previously you’ve tended to stick to more traditional cars for unlimited bangers with a keenness for Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas, why the switch to more modern machines?
I just think the time has come where I need to move on in order to be competitive. I love Mk2 Granadas, I just think they look the nuts where as I hate how a Frog Eye looks, I think they just look ugly. I’ve had them before but have always either sold them on or weighed them in but lately I’ve been getting nowhere with the older Granadas. At the team meeting at Mildenhall I gave (341 Andy Jones) a big revenge hit and snapped my own car doing it and the Mk2 I had at the Suffolk Open was just rubbish. I actually thought that was a pretty good car as well and spent a week doing a proper job on it and after one race it was just broken so the ones I’ve got left will be for Granada meetings now because I think that is the only time a Mk1 or Mk2 is going to be competitive nowadays, just because they are so old and even a good one is no good against a car 10 or 15 years younger. I’m hoping to spend a good bit of time on the Supreme car, because it is my first Frog Eye so I need to make some new kit for the car and the hope is to have it ready so I can take it to Mildenhall for the Track Day and do some laps to try and get the hang of it. If that goes to plan hopefully it will help me in the race. 

2013 was a tremendous season for you finishing second in the Mildenhall points and third in the RDC points, you’ve stated elsewhere that you hope to challenge for the Mildenhall Championship in 2014, is that still the plan?
Yes it is. I’ve told my dad (Craig’s father Tony passed away in January) that I’m going to go for it so that is definitely the plan although it’s pretty hard at the moment because I don’t like being down the yard with him not there. Hopefully that will get better as the season goes on because there is plenty of racing to do. Again the switch to more modern cars is part of that plan. I’ve looked at the meetings where I struggled last year and know they are the ones I need to try and improve on, I didn’t do well at any of the unlimiteds, had a bad night at the van meeting so hopefully having better cars will help. At the end of the day a big part of the racing is the work you do before hand, you only get out what you put in and so I’m hoping that if I put all the work in, try and race the best cars and build them as best I can it will help. But luck is a big part of it as well and you can’t do anything about bad luck and the Supreme is going to be a big example of that because no one will win it without luck being on their side. 

As part of your 2014 campaign you competed in the Winter Series for the first time. Did you enjoy these meetings and were you pleased to finish third?
Yes I was pleased and hopefully it will make a difference at the end of the season but I also enjoyed the meetings. I like racing in the wet if I’m honest, it’s just difficult when you can’t see where you are going. But it is good because it puts a lot of your success in your own hands and you make a lot of your own luck when it’s wet like that. You have to use your head and drive completely different to how you do when it’s dry and you also have to drive half a lap ahead of where you are. It’s a very different challenge to how it is when the track is in good condition and I enjoy that.

Clearly you have a busy 2014 planned, is there anything else in the pipeline?
My main plans are just to concentrate on the Mildenhall meetings but I hope to do the Cortina (,Capri and Sierra) meeting at Swaffham if I can. I was going to do it last year but we ran out of time so hopefully this year but the biggest priority for us will be the pre 70 meeting (which has just been confirmed as a memorial meeting for Craig’s father Tony). Me and Brett are racing again and our other brother Scott is doing it to and we should all have Triumph 2000s, that’s going to be an important night for us and we want to try and make the most of that one.

Is there anyone you would like to thank or mention?
Brett is the main one for everything he does to help me but also Dannii, Simon and my mum for their support.

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