An Interview with former BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Champion and World Final pole position starter 606 Andrew Palmer
(interview published September 7 2016 in the lead up to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship weekend on September 10 and 11)

Age: 35
Home Town: Peterborough
Occupation: Vehicle technician for Honda
Family: Wife Tracy
Racing career: First race was in Minis at Peterborough, debuted in F2s in 1999 at Northampton

You have not only qualified for this year’s World Final but have secured pole position for the race, how are you feeling about the big night?
I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be pretty special whatever happens but hopefully I have a good shot at winning it this year, it would be enough because I’ve had enough years where I’ve crashed so it would be good to do well for a change (laughs).

Does securing pole position ease the pressure for the night or add to it?
I don’t think it changes it really. I felt pretty confident going into the semi-finals at King’s Lynn. I’ve going really well there this year and the two meetings before the semis I had a heat and final and a win at the other one so I knew I was capable of a good result at Lynn. We did everything we could with the car before to make sure it was at 110 per cent and then it was just down to me and thankfully everything went my way. It was a brilliant night as I won the final as well so it was near perfect to be honest. But my Mildenhall form has not been the best this year and certainly not as good as my form at King’s Lynn so I guess that is where the pressure will come from. Also Mildenhall is a lot more unpredictable, being a smaller track a lot more can happen and a lot of it is stuff that is out of your control but at the same time, there is nothing you can do about it so there is no point in worrying about it and that’s how I try and look at it and that makes you a little more relaxed. At the end of the day, what will be, will be, I’ve just got to try and do my bit (laughs).

Mentioning your Mildenhall form, you won the Grand National at the last meeting on August 6, will having won your last race before the World Final give you a boost heading into the World Final?
It will but that was just one race (laughs). While everything went really well in that race, I can’t say the same for the rest of the year but hopefully it will be more like that than the other racing. But for championships, you always go up a level. Not that we don’t take all our racing and every meeting seriously but when it comes to something like this you have to up your game and take it to another level. The preparation is even higher, it’s funny because week to week you spend so much time on the car you honestly think it’s not possible to spend more time on it but when a race like this comes around, you find ways and just like the semi-finals, the car will be 110 per cent, it will be as good as it possibly can be so I am confident the car will do its job, hopefully I can do the same!

Having said that, mechanical issues have cost you on big occasions at Mildenhall in the past, you looked on course to win the World of Shale in both 2010 and 2013 only to be side lined with issues with the car, are you concerned about that again?
You can’t think about it. To be honest, when you are out there, you don’t have time to think about it and it’s especially like that at Mildenhall because everything happens so quickly, if you are thinking about anything other than the race it will bite you so there definitely isn’t time to worry about something that happened three and six years ago (laughs). It was frustrating in 2013 because the World of Shale was never usually 30 laps but that year it was and I led from lap one to lap 27 and had it been 20 or 25 laps or maybe if there hadn’t been the final caution flag I would have won but that was the way it went but it was frustrating at the time wondering what might have been. The time before, the race wasn’t 30 laps but it didn’t matter because my engine blew with three laps to go. I also had a throttle cable snap at Coventry (on August 20) so I guess I was lucky that didn’t happen the week before in the semis, unfortunately you can do as much work as you possibly can but you always need that bit of luck on your side don’t you.

The World Final is also scheduled to be 30 laps, do you agree with it being a bigger race than normal?
It doesn’t really bother me if I’m honest, just so long as we know what we are doing before.

You spoke about caution flags, do you think that will be a feature of the World Final?
It’s funny because most people think being a track the size of Mildenhall and a big grid means you are guaranteed carnage but I’m not sure. At the end of the day the last World Final at Mildenhall went flag to flag and I honestly wouldn’t bet against this one doing the same. I really don’t know but everyone out there is going to want to be there at the end and you can’t do that if you smash yourself up on the first bend so I don’t know, again it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen, especially with a race like the World Final so there is no point trying to guess (laughs).

Does being on the inside have an advantage, especially as being the man who will control the start. Also do you think it is right that the driver on pole position controls the start of a race like this?
I do, but then I would say that wouldn’t I (laughs). I think the trouble when you tell drivers they can’t go until a certain point is that people can interpret it differently which I think is what happened in the semi-finals at King’s Lynn. In my opinion Gordon Moodie jumped the start but putting myself in his shoes for where he was looking at the green tractor tyre which we were told was the starting point, because he was on the outside, I can see why he thought it was time to go. At the end of the day all; the drivers look to the driver at the front for when to, whether it’s the front of the grid or the front of the grade, they don’t look at the starter so it makes sense that the driver decides when to go. It’s hard to say if it will be an advantage starting on the inside. If the race was on tarmac then you’d say yet but being shale it’s harder to say because it depends on how the track is on the night. Again at Lynn in the Semis there seemed to be better drive on the outside, as both races the leader into the first bend was the driver on the outside so you can’t tell.

How critical is the first bend?
It’s important but then it’s important in any race. It’d not necessarily about getting out of the first bend in the lead but it’s definitely about getting out of the first bend with all four wheels on the car and not hanging off the fence because if you are you’re not going to be winning. Even if you lose some places as long as you stay in one piece, that’s what matters, especially with it being such a long race, there is plenty of time to make up any ground you lose at the start. Again being at the front might help. Yes you have everyone behind looking to push you out of the way but if you can get a car length in front, even half a car length in front of the rest into that first bend it will help, especially when you have guys like Rob Speak and Dave Polley behind who like to use their bumper (laughs). But getting even a small advantage like that won’t be easy because the straights are so short at Mildenhall. Again when you talk about King’s Lynn and the semi-finals you have those long straights into the first bend and more of a chance to create some breathing space for yourself.

While you said your Mildenhall form might not have been the best this season you are still very experienced at the track, do you think the shale regulars and especially the Mildenhall regulars have an advantage in this race?
To be honest, I don’t think it works like that anymore. These days drivers have such brilliant cars and equipment and the drivers are incredibly talented that I think everyone is capable of doing well anywhere and everywhere and I don’t think there is so much of an advantage from being a regular at a track or on a surface so much anymore. Years ago I think there was a time when at a shale or a Mildenhall meeting you would have guys like myself, Bert Finnikin, Mark Simpson and Carl Issit and there’d be a good chance that one of us would win but now most races can have up to 20 drivers who are more than capable of winning and it’s impossible to predict a winner and I think the World Final is the same.

That said, who do you see as your biggest rivals in the race?
I think everyone out there has a chance. They are in the race for a reason and everyone is good and if the race is 30 years that is a long time where anything can happen. You’ve also got such a mix of people, the big hitters like Polley and Speak, the experienced drivers like Carl Issit and Mark Simpson, because he’ll be in it after the consolation semi-final and I would also put Rob Mitchell in that bracket because I think people forget how long he’s been racing and you have people Sam Wagner who are at the top of their game right now. There are so many good drivers and so many different types of drivers who will approach the race in different ways so you just have no idea what is going to happen.

You mention Mark Simpson who is among those in the consolation semi-final race, can the World Final be won by a driver from that race?
It’s possible but personally I don’t think it will be. In 2006 I qualified on the night, started the race 34th on the grid and I managed to get to fourth and then my gearbox broke with three laps to go. Funnily enough I had a gearbox break in the exact same place at the two day meeting at Mildenhall in July so hopefully I’ve got that out of my system for the year (laughs). I think you will see someone from the consolation-semi final get up the order and get a good result, there are so many good drivers in that race someone will do it but I’m not sure they’ll be able to win, not with so many good drivers up the front, one of them it likely to get away but if there are enough stoppages and crashes then who knows.

How do you rate the overseas entries?
They are going to be strong. I think the Irish guys might struggle a little with a lack of shale experience but it’s like I said, the drivers are so good you cannot count them out but I think the Dutch will be strong. I fully expect to see Michael Schutter and Wim Peeters on the third row, Michael was really quick at the weekend meeting in July and I’ve worked a lot with Wim on his shale racing and he is very, very good. But for some reason, which I can’t quite explain I’m not convinced an overseas driver will win the race but I think someone will get a very good finish.

Much has been said about the state of BriSCA F2s in 2016 with several steps to try and improve things, what are your thoughts on the formula at present?
The shale scene is booming at the moment but then with the year having the World and Semi-Finals on shale I guess it was always likely to be and hopefully it will carry on next year but tarmac has a mixture of good and bad meetings. I think one of the biggest issues is the general feeling a lot of people have that they can’t win and that there is then no point in racing at all which I don’t think we have so much on shale and I don’t really know what can be done about that. I think the biggest problem is the amount of meetings. On shale there is never more than one meeting a day and rarely more than one a weekend whereas with tarmac there can be two or three a day and there just isn’t enough drivers to support that amount of meetings.

There are suggestions of introducing a shootout system to the National Points Championship like BriSCA F1 Stockcars, is that something you are in favour of?
I don’t know really, I can see both sides of it and I honestly don’t know what would be for the best, I guess it might make the end of the season a bit more interesting if nothing else.

There has also been a lot of talk about whether the formula’s grading system needs tweaking especially with concern over some shale only racers being under graded by the current system, do you have any thoughts on that?
Again I honestly don’t know. I think it probably does need a little adjusting but at the same time I don’t know what and I think whatever you do there will always be someone who is unhappy with it. I do like what they did this year where they reduced the number of drivers in each grade to avoid meetings being top heavy with star drivers and I think that worked well.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My wife and my mum and dad who are also my biggest sponsors (laughs) but also Redline Engines, TLF and Jamie Davidson Scrapyards for their support and everyone else who helps.