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On the eve of the ninth round of the F6 Junior Royale championship at Clay Pigeon Raceway, speedyseth.co.uk’s web editor secured an interview with IMSD Junior’s racing team manager, Stephen Deuchar. This is a transcript of the conversation, recorded at Buckmore Park on 28 August, just after IMSD’s senior squad had won the Lance Yeomans Memorial Intermediate endurance race.
Web Editor (WE): Congratulations on another win, but, turning now to your Junior team, you must be very pleased with Seth’s progress this year. How do you rate his performance as the season enters its final phase?
SD: Well, considering he only took his ARKS test last year, and had only half a dozen rookie cadet races under his belt before coming into Junior Royale at the beginning of the season, I think his performance has been incredible. He’s actually very inexperienced, but I think he’s a very natural and mature driver. To have won twice and to be leading the overall championship is frankly way ahead of our expectations.
WE: It looks as though he has the main championship – the Lightweight class – pretty well secured.
SD: Yes, barring disasters I think he’s going to win the class. Of course it would be a nice bonus if he finished at the top of the overall table, ahead of the Intermediates too. He certainly wants that, if only because there’s so much rivalry between him and his competitors.
WE: Who are his main rivals, and didn’t it all get a bit tense at the last round at Clay Pigeon?
SD: In my view the three top drivers are Ryan Presley, Carla Wellings and Jamie Haines. They’re all incredibly good, quick, experienced drivers – very tough company for a younger novice like Seth. Ryan is really, really determined and achieves great things almost by force of will. Sometimes he overdoes it, and doesn’t use his head: he threw away his championship lead at Clay by over-driving and being too aggressive in every race, finally ending up in the tyre wall, unfortunately taking out two other drivers with him, including Seth. But I have a lot of respect and admiration for him: I think he’ll go on to great things. Carla is one of the most calm and clever of them all: she’s very naturally talented, always looks relaxed in the kart, uses her head and is consistently quick. I’m sure she’ll win at least one race before the season is through. And Jamie has amazing kart control: he’s always sideways, actually, dragging himself up to some great finishing positions, including two wins so far, despite having had a lot of trouble with a down-on-power engine. So it’s tough competition.
WE: Does the rivalry extend to the dads and team managers too?
SD: Well obviously we all want to win, but actually everyone is generally friendly and we try to avoid getting angry with each other on our kids’ behalf. I was guilty of over-reacting after the big shunt at Clay and said some uncomplimentary things to Ryan’s dad, but I won’t make that mistake again. They’re all good guys, and they give me a lot of help and advice, which I need, because I’m a novice when it comes to kart mechanics and set-up. Trevor Taylor, who maintains all the engines, is also a really top man.
WE: So who’s going to win this weekend?
SD: I’d be surprised if we did, actually. A lot of the others will be testing at the circuit the day before the race but we can’t make it, so we’ll maybe start at a slight disadvantage. I think young Dylan will run well again, I think Chris Charlton will do better than of late, but I think Ryan and Carla, who are slugging it out for the Intermediate championship, will be the centre of the action.
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