An Interview with V8 Hotstox driver 222 Guy Jolley
(interview published August 13 2014 in the lead up to the V8 Hotstox World Qualifier at Mildenhall on August 23)

Age: 23
Home Town: Huntington
Occupation: Warehouse manager
Family: Girlfriend Melissa
Racing career: Started racing in 2008 aged 17 in V8 Hotstox at Skegness

August 23 will see the V8 Hotstox race at Mildenhall for the first time in over 25 years, as the most local driver in the formula to Mildenhall are you looking forward to the meeting?
I am and I honestly believe I am right in saying that I am not the only one as there are a good few drivers in the formula who are looking forward to the meeting as well and have been ever since it was confirmed on the fixture list and now it’s getting closer people are starting to talk about it more and more. The only drawback is that the majority of the driver base in the formula as based in the north which is where most of our racing is and so for a lot of the drivers Mildenhall is quite a trip which would be the only reason why we wouldn’t get a really big turnout. As it is, I still think there will be a good showing and more than enough for a good meeting but the long distance might unfortunately put a few off. For me though, it’s great and really nice to have a meeting pretty much on my doorstep. The travelling involved for me is tough at times, I’m lucky that I have a sponsor who helps me a lot with that but even so when you have meetings at Belle Vue on a Sunday which start at 4pm and work on Monday morning that is hard, so it will be great to do a meeting that bit closer to home.

What was your reaction when you heard about the Mildenhall fixture?
I was really pleased. For the last three or four years at our AGM the question has been asked about Mildenhall and the committee has always said it would try but it’s never happened. I suppose being our 30th anniversary season has helped this year but whatever the reason, I was really pleased when I saw the date there and it’s one of the meetings I’ve been especially looking forward to this season and being a new track and something of a one off there are a lot of others who feel the same. It also helps that we are on at a big meeting which I think makes it better for everyone as well. We all know there will be people there that night who’ve not seen us before so it’s a chance for us to try and put on a show and maybe win a few new fans and I think everyone will be up for it.

The general feeling from those involved in the formula is that the V8s will be well suited to Mildenhall, do you think that will be the case?
I think so. I much prefer my racing on shale so I would say the shale tracks are better but I think our racing is definitely better at the smaller tracks and so I think Mildenhall will be ideal for the formula and being almost an enclosed stadium I think the noise from the engines will be fantastic as well. I’m confident there will be enough for us to feel the track so the racing should be really lively as well. It could be interesting though because no-one has any real experience of the track so everyone will be starting the night on the same footing and trying to learn. I’ve been asking some (BriSCA F2 Stockcar) drivers for some help with the gearing but of course we have very different engines so we are all going to stabbing in the dark at the start so to speak but I reckon by the end of the night we will have got it sussed out and by then the racing will be pretty fast, we just need to hope the weather is on side.

You are one of the most dedicated drivers in the formula, is that something you are especially keen to maintain?
It is I suppose. The amount of meetings each season was one of the reasons which attracted me to the formula in the first place and with a meeting usually every couple of weeks it is ideal for me to try and do all the meetings. Admittedly there are some that are less ideal than others but I always make the effort to try and do every meeting if I can, I think it’s important to do that because if everyone had the attitude of only doing the best ones or the ones which are best for them then the meetings would struggle for cars and we’d have no formula.

You are currently just outside of the top 10 in the points championship, are you pleased with your 2014 form at the moment?
If I’m completely honest, I’m not too happy with how the season has gone so far as I have had an awful lot of problems with reliability and have struggled at times. When the car has been going well it’s being going really well and I had a heat and final at Sheffield and won the Supreme Championship which was my first final win in the formula so that was one of the best bits this season but my form has not been as good as I would like it to have been and we are still working on improving our reliability issues.

Sticking with the points theme and you are just inside the top 20 in the world qualifying points, is trying to improve that position a target at Mildenhall which is a world qualifying round?
It is, I’ve had a lot of my problems at the qualifying rounds and I’ve struggled a lot at those meetings so I hope to have a much better meeting this time around so fingers crossed it goes well for me as I could do with a good night.

You started your racing career in V8 Hotstox, what attracted you to the formula in the first place and what has kept you in the formula since 2008?
I went for the V8s mainly because of costs. I was looking at a BriSCA F2 Stockcar especially because there were a few tracks more local to me like Mildenhall, King’s Lynn and Northampton and even Coventry but the problem for me was the F2s looked a little fragile and I was concerned about wrecking one. Being a new driver the last think I wanted was for the car to fall to bits when I hit the fence, as that was quite a likely thing to happen (laughs). The V8s are a lot more robust because they are essentially a basic BriSCA F1 Stockcar. We use the same chassis buy our set up and equipment is a lot more basic and we run Rover V8 engines while the F1s run Chevys. The amount of racing is a big reason why I’ve stayed in the formula. We have around 25 meetings a year which is roughly one every other week and that is ideal for me and allows me to do most of the meeting and because there are less meetings I’m able to travel around to most of the tracks so it suites me well.

Who are the drivers you think we should watch for at Mildenhall?
Well (131) Kevin Sutchbury is the on form man at the moment and he is leading the points with (175) Karl Hawkins and you can never count either of them out, they are always the front runners. I don’t know if we will see World Champion (1) Chris Bracher, he’s not done much this season but he might race as it’s somewhere new and he’ll be there if he does. But there are always around four or five drivers in the formula who are always in contention which is one of the good things about the formula and being a new track it will be wide open here so it could be anyone doing the winning.

What about yourself, how do you rate your chances?
I’d like to think I’ve a chance of doing well, again if the car performs ok then I think I should be ok, we’ll just have to see how it all goes.

Is there anyone else you would like to thank or mention?
My dad who puts a lot into the car and the racing and my mum and girlfriend for all their support, Jamie and Jaffa who are my mechanics, all my sponsors, Billingham Removals, Tony Smith at BMS Autos, Johnny Brothers Transport, Andy and Hayley Williams, Johnny and John for all their help behind the scenes, Hi-Spec Race Engines for everything they do, CIP Densiphalt and Keith Organ for everything he does for the formula and for me in the past.