An Interview with reigning and defending Supreme Champion 328 Daniel Lathan
(interview published January 27 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship)

Age: 23
Home Town: Attleborough
Occupation: Car breaker
Family: Girlfriend Vicki and daughter Amelia-Lilly
Racing career: Started racing aged 16

We are now less than two months away from the 2015 Supreme Championship where you will be defending champion, have you given any thought to the race or made any plans?
About the only thing I have done so far is decide that I will be racing a (Ford) Scorpio but I’m not even sure at the moment which one I will be using. When I won the race last year I had every intention of racing a Volvo 240 and actually bought a few of them. That was until the rules were changed to allow the (fabricated) drive shafts again in the Scorpios. Although I won the race in a Scorpio last year I think I was quite lucky because I know plenty of people who broke their drive shafts in the race and I then broke one in all the races I did after the championship so I think I was pretty fortunate to finish the championship given how rough it was and I think I was one of only a few drivers in a Scorpio to finish. I would imagine the race will be just as rough this time so that was why I got the Volvos but then the rules changed and since then I made a drive shaft for a Scorpio and I’ve never broken it and I think with that in the Scorpio is a better car so since then I’ve sold the Volvos and switched back to racing Scorpios. The issue I now have is whether to race a used one or build a fresh one. As defending champion I was originally set on building a new car and having it look really good for the race and doing all that but I blew my gear box in my Scorpio at the Icebreaker at King’s Lynn and apart from that there is nothing wrong with the car and I know it is a good car so I’m in two minds what to do right now and probably won’t make a final decision until nearer the time.

You raced a used car last year and won with it, is that factoring in your decision?
It is really. Of course it is nice to race new cars when you can and I guess there will be some who will say that as defending champion I should have a fresh car but the bottom line is I want to give it my best shot at winning, especially as I’ve not managed to successfully defend any of my other championships so this is the last one I have and it would mean everything to me to hang onto it, although I appreciate that’s not going to be easy whatever car I race (laughs). Last year’s car was not only used but it was pretty much scrap and I’d not only completely stripped it out but I’d also filled it with rubbish from the new car I was building for the meeting. If I’m honest finances were an issue in the end and I decided to use the old car one last time. It helped that I knew it was a good car which went well at Mildenhall and so I had confidence in it which helped make the decision easier but ultimately it made a lot more sense for me at that time to race that car and keep the new one for another day and of course looking back I’m kind of glad I made that decision (laughs). We’ll never know how well the new car would have gone in that race but I do know the old one went well (laughs). So I’ve no hesitation in using an old car again, especially one that I know is a good car and is capable of going well round Mildenhall but at the same time I would like to have a new one if I can, again especially as I’m defending so to be honest it will probably depend a lot on my circumstances at the time, money being the main one (laughs)!

You mention the cost of the racing, can you give us an idea of how expensive these cars are to race?
They’re not cheap, let’s say that (laughs). I’m lucky because I get a lot of help, especially from Shayn Winsor with cars and we usually work something out for paying for them where I’ll do some work for him and pay for it that way which works out well for me, hopefully he things the same (laughs)! Complete Scorpios can now cost over £500 and one of the last ones I bought was about £350 and that was without an engine so the cars are ridiculously expensive now. Of course you can get some of your money back but this is why when you can get more than one meeting out of a car you really have to do that because I could never afford to do a car a meeting when they are as expensive as that, if you can get a couple of meetings from them then it’s not quite so bad.

Last year’s championship was a particularly memorable one and one of the most destructive Supreme Championships in history and one of the most destructive championship races in 2014, what are your memories of the race almost a year later?
I remember it being extremely busy. That stands out the most to me. It was definitely one of the busiest races I’ve been in at Mildenhall and even more so with unlimiteds. I’ve been in lots of races at Mildenhall with big grids and unlimited ones as well but usually when you have a grid that big it ends up with a massive pile-up and then the race becomes something of a lottery but that never really happened in that race. There were pile-ups and loads of crashes but no track blockages and things did keep moving so the track was always busy, there was always something to think or worry about. It sounds silly because you always have to be ‘on it’ when you are racing but this time you really had to be ‘on it’. I got taken out early on and I think everyone in the race got taken out at one stage or another but I kept on pushing, originally I was just hoping to finish and then when I realised there wasn’t too many cars left I thought maybe I could get a decent place and it was only in the second half of the race I think I actually realised I was winning. The other thing that stands out for me about the race was how slow it was. Don’t get me wrong it, you still had to be quick but with that many cars and that much going on, it does slow the pace of the race and it really did in that one. I remember thinking at the time that the race seemed to be taking forever and when I watched it back I realised that it took so long because the laps were taking that much longer to do (laughs) so it was pretty draining and one of the toughest races I’ve ever been in, especially towards the end when I knew I was winning and that’s when the worry of making a mistake really starts to creep in, the final few laps were especially difficult especially with a few cars waiting on the pit bend and you had no idea who they were after but as the leader you know you are a target and I was definitely lucky more than once. With the pace of the race that much slower you still had to think a lot, maybe even more than normal and I remember taking it easy round the road bend and back straight because I was looking towards the pit bend and home straight to see what was going on and what way to go, in fact I went so slow at some points that my friends thought I was breaking down (laughs)!

Looking beyond the Supreme Championship, have you made any plans for 2015, especially as we saw you at the wheel of a Saloon Stockcar again at Mildenhall in January.
If I’m completely honest I’m not sure what my plans are at the moment but the Saloon (Stockcar) will be a part of them. The truth is my enthusiasm for Bangers is in a bit of a lull at the minute and a lot of that I think is down to being banned for three months that year and the effect it had on my season. I wasn’t able to defend my (TSR) World title at King’s Lynn and I think the ban probably cost me the Mildenhall Track Championship and the truth is losing these titles has kind of hit me a bit harder than I thought it would and as much as I would love to win the Supreme again, I know the chances are pretty tall and I suspect if I lose that as well it will be another blow. There are a few problems with this. The first is that since I started Bangers I’ve done well enough so that each year I could see I was getting better and that was a huge motivator for the next season and gave me a big reason to keep pushing hard because you could see the results. But last year was the first year where I don’t think the improvement was there, except for winning the Supreme obviously, and it’s been a hard one for me to take. Some people might think I’m being daft because I still had a good year all things considered but it’s definitely effected my motivation for bangers and my enthusiasm and that is so important because that is so important in the formula. The other thing is that at the end of (2013) I got a (Saloon) Stockcar. The plan was to do bits on it when I could and het it ready over time but as time has gone on I want to race it more and more and the thought of it sitting in the yard staring at me for another 12 months is a bit much to take so I definitely want to race it this year and the plan at the moment is to have it ready for the season opener at King’s Lynn at the end of February and then Mildenhall the week after. I realise that it would not be possible for me to do both Saloons and Bangers but at the moment I am really torn about what to do. My intention for the Saloon for this year at least is just to race at King’s Lynn and Mildenhall, I’ve no intention of racing on tarmac just yet and having the two shale tracks local to me is just perfect but at the same time I really want to at least do the RWD Banger meetings at Mildenhall because these are the ones I enjoy the most. It’s the FWD meetings, especially the smaller cars where my enthusiasm is at a bit of a low but I definitely want to do the RWD ones at the very least. Having said that I do have a car built for the first British Qualifier because I would still love to win that championship and my intention is to do the first round and see how it goes and go from there.

If we can speak about the stockcars briefly, January 3 was your second time in the formula but your first at Mildenhall, despite the challenging conditions, did you enjoy it?
Yes, very much and it’s a big reason why I want to race the car more this year rather than having it sat there again until the winter meeting next year while I race Bangers all year. If I could do both full time I would, but I know it’s not possible and so I need to make a decision or a compromise but it doesn’t help that (girlfriend) Vicki loves the bangers and wants me to keep going with them (laughs). The January meeting was good for me, I know it wasn’t the best of stockcar meetings with the track so wet but I enjoyed it, especially when the track started to improve and I got a good finish in the first heat and the car was going really well until the engine starting knocking which meant I couldn’t do the final. It was a shame really because the races I’d done had done a lot for my confidence and I’m looking forward to racing it again.

You mentioned losing your hold on the Mildenhall Track Championship, was you more disappointed to lose the title or pleased to come such a close second despite missing several meetings while you were banned from racing?
I was more disappointed, I think it would have honestly helped more if I’d lost by a bigger margin in the end (laughs) because coming so close was really disappointing but now I’ve had some time to take it all in the fact that I nearly held on and won again despite missing quite a lot of meetings is a little bit of a comfort. Having said that I was really pleased that Craig (Osborne) won. He’s a good friend and I know how much it meant to him to win it, he told me about talking to his dad after he passed away and saying that he was going to try and win the championship for him and for him to do it is brilliant for him and if anyone else was going to win I’m really pleased it was him because he deserved it. I lost my dad when I was young so I have some experience in that situation and it’s really not easy so I can only imagine how pleased he must have been to win the points after all that. I know that had I not been banned it might have been different for me but the bottom line is that when I came back from (suspension) I had one meeting (the all Granada meeting) and was back in the lead and honestly thought I was going to be ok but from that point on he beat me at pretty much every meeting so in those final few months of the season he really won that title.

One part of that was at Halloween Havoc where you two had a titanic battle for the honours in the first DD, was that a memorable part of the year for you?
Yes it was, it was a hell of a battle and to be honest I was kind of glad when it was over because I gave myself a proper head ache having all those hits with Craig (Osborne). The car let me down just a little bit because I’d done a couple of hits before it got down to me and Craig and I’d bent my throttle pedal so I was struggling to get complete control of the car which made it pretty tough and eventually the car just couldn’t take any more but it was a great battle and the cheer we got from the crowd when we got out of the cars was just awesome. It’s not often you get to be a part of a reaction like that and that was one of the best reactions I’ve ever had from any crowd after a race so that made everything so worth while, even all the aching the next day (laughs). I’ll never forget that DD.

Another memorable moment you were involved in last year was the epic wrecking train which concluded the DD at the all Granada meeting, was that a standout moment?
Definitely although I never intended to do the DD or wreck the car. The story was that I had actually promised Sausage (210 Steve Hayward) the car for the RWD Championship as he’d qualified but didn’t have a car and I had another one already for it so I told him that as long as the car was ok he could have it for that. I was doing the Accumulator race and was fully intending that when the race finished I would pull off and save the car so he could have it but at the same time I was thinking about the (Mildenhall) points championship because it was my first meeting back from the ban and I was still hopeful I could win. I saw Shayn (Winsor) and a couple of others pull off and I honestly thought there was only me, Andy (Battle) and Kingy (Dave King) left so when Andy buried Kingy I thought if I could finish Andy then it would only me and Kingy and I thought I had a good chance of beating him because his car wasn’t in the best of shape. So when Andy and Kingy went in the fence I blitzed Andy as hard as I could because my plan was to write him off there and then. Well I managed that but I got myself stuck on him (laughs). Again I thought it would be ok because I thought Kingy was the only car running. Then I heard (Taylor) Sowter coming in and figured it was game over. It was a pretty cool thing to be in because you could feel every hit coming in and honestly when Callum Reed blitzed Sowter, it actually felt like he was hitting me. That car cost me £325 and honestly it was worth every penny but my brother was stood with Steve (Hayward) and apparently the second Taylor blitzed me he just said ‘I won’t be racing that then’ (laughs). I think he’s forgiven me now!

Speaking of points titles and your plans for 2015, given your intention to at least race in the RWD meetings at Mildenhall this season, could trying to recapture the RDC RWD Points Championship which you won in 2013 be a target?
To be honest it is actually. I think with the fact that I want to race my (Saloon) Stockcar it means that whatever I do I won’t be able to commit to a full season of bangers and that would make winning the Mildenhall points quite difficult because I think being committed to all the meetings is a large part of the battle but the RWD series is obviously a lot less meetings and I’m hoping to do most of them so that is something I’ve got my eye on and fancy having another crack at that. It would be great to get a silver roof again this year and the RWD points is probably my best chance of that. It would also be really great to win that again because when I won it the first time I didn’t really feel that I deserved it completely because I was still learning in the RWD stuff and again I thing a big part of me winning was because I had committed to all the meetings. I think I’m better in RWD stuff now so to win it again in 2015 would mean a lot because I don’t think it would be a complete fluke like it was the first time (laughs)!

Sticking with the subject of success and you had a good night at the Spedeworth World Final in October where you won your Allcomers race, your first RWD win on tarmac, was that another highlight of 2015?
It was actually my first win on tarmac in any car so it was really special, it would have been special at any meeting but to do it at the biggest meeting of the year was just something else. It had never really worried me too much not winning on tarmac but getting that win at that meeting was just amazing. I’d always believed that a big reason why I had struggled so much on tarmac so much but always done better on shale was because I was reluctant to spend the money on things like tyres and engines which unfortunately you really do need to get the results on tarmac but for this year’s World Final race I did bite the bullet in places. I didn’t have an engine done, I drew the line at that but I did spend some money on a set of tyres and had someone work on the car to set it up and the difference it made was incredible. I was actually doing really well in the World Final and I think I was lying third but I got a puncture. It was disappointing on one hand because had it not happened I may have been able to have hung with the leaders and been somewhere at the end but it was the best I’d done in the race by far so that was good enough for me and then to win the race afterwards was just incredible. It was also a huge boost for me because I think it showed that where I had struggled for so long wasn’t all because of me because having something like a good set of tyres made a massive difference.

The race you won at the World Final meeting may be remembered more as the race where Team DWO left a path of destruction with their Chrysler Imperials, these cars have since been banned by the ORCi, having raced against them what are your thoughts?
Well the truth is that during that race one of them, I can’t remember which one, was having a nibble at me and my honest plan was to try and win the race and I was telling myself that if I did I would celebrate by giving the Yank the biggest head-on I could. Well I won the race and the plan was still to have the head-on but as honestly as I came to do it I thought better of it and turned out of it which allowed them to get in the rear wheel. My concern was that when I looked at it for the head-on it dawned on me just how big it was and I figured the car would go over the top of me so I didn’t think it was a good idea. I know you could say that all Yanks can be like that but they were just so big and so strong that I think it was probably the best thing to ban them, they are just a bit too much.

Anyone you would like to thank or mention?
My misses, the whole Motorbitz team, Ben Smith who helps me with cars and all the boys who came and help out.