An Interview with former BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale and UK Open Champion 13 Andy Ford
(interview published September 7 2016 in the lead up to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship weekend on September 10 and 11)

Age: 48
Home Town: Sheffield
Occupation: Fabricator
Family: Partner Lynne, two sons (F2 racers Gary and Daniel), two daughter and one grandchild
Racing career: 38 years ago at Long Eaton in Ministox

Congratulations on qualifying for the World Final for the 11th time, having made your debut in 1994, are you looking forward to the big night and at your stage of your career do big races like this still excite you?
Of course, they do, it’s always great to be in a race like this and I’m pleased to be in it again, especially as it was something I never thought would happen. I’ve not chased the World Championship series now for a very long time because to be honest I don’t completely agree with it, especially the semi-finals. You can do all the work and even top the qualifying points and then it all comes down to one race, one race and if it goes wrong you have nothing and that has never sat well with me. Being a shale racer I suppose makes it worse because if the semis have happened to be on shale, then the World would inevitably on tarmac, I qualified on pole for the semis the year it was at Arena and I never made it past the first bend (laughs). As you said I’ve been in 10 World Finals and the best I’ve got to show for it is a 12th and I’d like to think I’m not that bad (laughs), it’s just the system doesn’t work for me but that’s how it is. This is a big reason why I commit more to the World of Shale championship because I think the system for that is much better, you have the qualifying rounds and where you finish in the points is where you start the championship. It also helps that it’s all on shale (laughs). I didn’t think much about the World Championship this year because I missed the start of the season as I was banned and never really thought I would have much of a chance of getting into the semis because of the amount of shale qualifiers I missed.

When did your thoughts about trying to qualify change?
I did really well at the Stoke round and the Mildenhall round was still to come and I scored a few points there so that gave me a chance so I made an effort and borrowed a car to do the Buxton and Skegness rounds as well and even scored a couple of points as well but the attendance points made a big difference and all together it was enough to get me into the top 56 which was good enough, I thought if I was in a semi-final I would have a chance.

That said, do you agree with the introduction of attendance points at the world qualifiers a couple of years ago?
Yeah, I think it’s a good idea and it encourages people to do the meetings and rewards them if they do. If it’d not been being guaranteed those few points I might not have bothered doing those tarmac rounds as I wouldn’t have thought I’d have had much chance of scoring points but knowing I would get a few just for going made the difference. I don’t think it’s a bad idea that someone who does a lot of rounds can pretty much qualify for a semi that way, take Paul Moss the other year when he did all the rounds, he was rewarded with that and got in a semi but it doesn’t guarantee a driver a place in the World Final because they’ve still got to get a top 10 in the semi, they just help a little.

You are set to start on row 11 of the grid, do you think that is a good position?
I’m not sure it matters really. Sure I would have liked to have been a little nearer the front of the grid but I don’t think you ever know what is a good starting position until the race happens and the best place will be the winner starts in (laughs). I started on the 12th row of the semi-final so I feel like I’m already moving forward and to finish eighth in the semi from that far back was encouraging so hopefully I can do the same at Mildenhall. I think at Mildenhall there is more opportunity to gain positions in a race like this. At King’s Lynn, being such a bigger track the cars get a lot more spread out and it can be harder to catch and pass people but at Mildenhall, it’s a smaller track and the World Final will have more cars so everyone is going to be more bunched up and that creates more chances to make something happen. But I don’t think I’m close enough to the front to be in with the greatest chance of winning, unless everyone else gets wiped out (laughs), it’d be nice to get in the top 10 for the first time though.

Much has been said this season of both the semi-finals and World Final both being on shale, what were your thoughts on that?
It did surprise me that so many people reacted like they did given that a tarmac track always features as one of the races, if not both, I just thought it made a nice change for them to be both on shale for the first time. BriSCA F2s is a two surface formula and I understand that if like me, you only race on one the chances of you being able to challenge for the World title are a lot slimmer and that’s fine, it’s why I tend to concentrate more on the World of Shale these days. But tarmac drivers always have a bit of advantage because tarmac has a greater share of the series than shale and I just thought it was good that for once the guys who stick to shale had a really good shot of winning for ones. And then I got banned and missed the start of the year (laughs).

You used to race on tarmac, winning the UK Open at Skegness over a decade ago, why do you now stick to shale?
There are a lot of reasons but the biggest is I simply don’t have the time or money to do both. I always believed when I raced on both surfaces that you really needed two cars, one for tarmac and one for shale because it would take so much time to switch the set-up from one to the other on one car and the wear and tear on one car was just too much but obviously that takes a lot of time and money. And to be honest at this stage of my life, I’m not sure how much longer I will continue racing. Don’t get me wrong I still love it but it takes me too long to recover now (laughs). At the two day meeting (at Mildenhall) in July I took a hit, it really wasn’t anything that bad at all, and I ached so much I couldn’t race the next day and there has to come a point where enough is enough and I know that day is coming soon but I’m not sure when. I’m just enjoying what time I have left on the track which I guess makes being in the World Final again this year so special. I’m sure I would never not be around the sport completely, my boys still race so I think I’ll always be around but I’m not sure it will be racing quite as much.

That said, much has been said about the state of the formula in 2016 and the moves to improve it, how do you think this is going?
I think there is an improvement, especially on tarmac which is getting a little better and compared to a couple of years ago where it was all doom and gloom, I think there is definitely an improvement and it’s good to see the drivers being listened to more now, that alone is a big difference.

You are starting the race on the inside, will that be an advantage?
I think it is a better place to be. In the World Final at Arena I was on the outside and just got rail-roaded into the fence at the start. I think on shale it might make less of a difference being on the outside because sometimes there can be more grip there so you never know but being on the inside does give you a bit more room at the start which will help because it’s bound to be a lively, especially at the start.

Who do you think the leading contenders for the race are?
Based on how he went in the semis you have to say Andrew Palmer has a great chance, he’s on pole and he goes as well round Mildenhall than almost anyone so he stand a great chance but I think the winner will most likely come from the front few rows of the grid. There are some brilliant drivers up there and I suspect at least one of them will get away but it could be anyone’s. You just don’t know, especially with it being at Mildenhall, it’s unpredictable there in any race, let alone one like that. I think the first few laps will be very crash and bash and it will be a matter of surviving them. You won’t have a chance of doing anything unless you survive the first few laps but if you can and you can get into a rhythm then anyone could do well.

Do you think the Mildenhall regulars will have an advantage?
Not necessarily, simply because everyone who is in the race is so good. You can’t be in it unless you are good and with the semis being at King’s Lynn, everyone who’s in it will have proven themselves on shale, either in the semis at Lynn or the consolation semi-final before the World. The only exceptions are the overseas drivers and the Dutch certainly are just as good as anyone on shale now. But having said that, Mildenhall is so different to any other track and it can be so easy to get something wrong and you really struggle so if you race there a lot I guess you might have a little more confidence which won’t hurt. But then I’ve raced there for loads of years and at the weekend meeting I really struggled because something was a little wrong on the car and the difference it made was shocking. With the World being our first race you have to hope you have the set-up bang on but just because you have raced at Mildenhall before doesn’t guarantee you will get that right. Another thing which is different at Mildenhall is that because the track is usually so busy it can be very easy to lose time and if you are not used to that it could cause someone to panic about trying to get back into contention but the regulars at the track know it’s just as easy to make up time as it is to lose time so that knowledge might help, especially if you get into trouble in the race.

There are talks of introducing a shootout style series to the National Points Championship much like BriSCA F1 Stockcars has, is that something you’d like to see?
I wouldn’t like to see the silver roof decided like that, I think that should always go to the driver who has been the most dedicated and scored the most points but I think a shootout series for something else could be good for the formula to help keeps things interesting after the World Final as that has definitely worked in F1s and it might help spice things up to have something for the top drivers to race for at a number of tracks in the final couple of months in the season.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My mechanic Steve, Gary, Martin, Lynne, Emma, Gemma, my dad for all the tyres I convince him to buy for me and anyone else who’s ever helped.