• last year
AutoRacingDigest.com's Dylan Spaulding interviews Stuart Wiltshire.
Transcript
00:00 What's good everybody, thank you so much for joining us here with Auto Racing Digest.
00:03 My name is Dylan Spaulding and I am the IMSA columnist and sports car writer for Auto Racing
00:07 Digest and we are joined today with one of the drivers here this weekend in the HSR series
00:13 for Aira Motorsports.
00:14 We're joined with Stuart Wiltshire.
00:16 Stuart, thanks so much for taking some time and we're in the Aira Motorsports trailer
00:20 here so a little bit of a cool setup we got here and thanks so much for taking some time
00:24 to talk today.
00:25 No problem.
00:26 You're in the where it all happens, this is the nerve centre and I'm pleased to be here
00:33 today for you.
00:34 It's an exciting weekend, 24 hours of racing, obviously you guys won't race the entirety
00:39 of the 24 hours, there's going to be different groups and different classes if you will for
00:44 this race weekend but to be a part of this weekend, you mentioned you were here last
00:48 season for this race weekend, it's really a special race weekend just kind of encapsulating
00:53 racing and sports car racing specifically as a whole.
00:56 How excited are you to be a part of it again and be able to be here with Aira Motorsports
01:00 this weekend?
01:01 To be honest, this was, I did this last year for the first time and I had to do it again
01:08 this year.
01:09 It was the first thing that we booked with Aira to do both the Daytona and the C-Ring
01:15 weekend which corresponds in about a month's time.
01:18 I couldn't wait to get back over it.
01:19 I thoroughly enjoyed it.
01:20 It was a new experience.
01:22 The last time I'd been to America was Disneyland in 2005 to come over here and sample the burgers,
01:31 the beer and this wonderful stadium was just fantastic for me.
01:36 I'm absolutely in awe of the stadium.
01:40 We subsequently came back here to watch the Daytona 24 with Aira as well as a guest, maybe
01:47 one day, who knows, we might manage to do one of the Pro-Am attempts at this.
01:54 For now, loving it.
01:56 It's really a special weekend and for any racer getting involved in racing, there's
02:01 always that kind of beginning, there's always that kind of back story if you will.
02:05 For you, what was that kind of beginning like, man, I really love this racing stuff, I really
02:10 want to make this my career?
02:14 I'm an amateur driver, I call myself a fat-am.
02:20 It's just something that I have always wanted to do and as it turns out, I'm not too bad
02:26 at it.
02:27 My story is that I picked up driving Formula 3 in the UK around 2012 and I graduated into
02:38 sports cars literally last year and thoroughly enjoyed my time in a sports car.
02:46 The LMP2 is very similar to the dynamic of an F3 and my spiritual advisor and helmet
02:54 polisher Richard Bradley has been advising me ever since.
03:00 To come to Daytona, to come to America to race, I'm absolutely buzzing for it.
03:05 You mentioned your spiritual advisor Richard Bradley, obviously you mentioned he's been
03:09 a big help with your process in this transition over to sports car racing and over to prototype
03:16 racing.
03:17 What advice has he been able to give you?
03:19 How much have you been able to learn and pick up from Richard so far in your time with sports
03:23 cars?
03:24 First of all, Richard is a Le Mans winner.
03:27 He won in 2015 in LMP2 so he knows this machinery.
03:34 When I was exiting F3, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next.
03:40 I was kind of beginning to lose my love for racing and we met for the first time.
03:46 He advised me on the first car to buy and I bought a Ligier LMP2 last year, a JSP2 1.5
03:54 which was run in period at the same time as around the time Richard won and it took me
04:02 through my rookie season and we were very successful in Masters in Endurance in the
04:07 UK.
04:10 As it turns out, we live six miles from each other and we're very good friends now.
04:16 Again, his relationship with Kyle from Era brought me to a deal with Era for last year
04:25 and again I'm keen to do next year again.
04:30 This is just something I look forward to on a calendar.
04:34 He's doing these 24 hour events.
04:37 It does put you under a bit of pressure but I'm able to do it.
04:42 These endurance races are really truly special and I think it's one of the cool things about
04:47 sports car racing and something that I think a lot of people gravitate towards.
04:52 For you, what makes this type of racing special?
04:56 What is something exciting about this?
04:58 I think that sprint racing is the stuff that I was doing in F3 and it literally was just
05:05 as fast as you can.
05:06 I think there's a little bit more of a sensible pill that you take when you get into a sports
05:11 car because there's an old cliche that you can never win a race on the first corner but
05:18 you can lose it.
05:21 My philosophy is to settle down, make sure the tyres are warm and the first priority
05:26 is to bring the car home.
05:28 After that, if you can get in some racing, it's fantastic.
05:34 It's endurance and to that you need to apply yourself.
05:38 It's not sprint race.
05:41 It's not qualifying every lap.
05:43 Although we want to go as fast as we can but we need to understand the limitations as well.
05:48 So obviously mentioning you obviously have a background beginning wise in terms of open
05:53 wheel racing, doing some Euro formula, then you transition over to prototype racing and
05:57 sports car racing as of last season.
05:59 What has that transition been like for you?
06:01 Obviously it is a little bit different.
06:03 Handling of the cars can be a little bit different.
06:05 I know you mentioned there are some similarities and stuff but what is the challenge?
06:11 I didn't know what to expect.
06:12 I did some simulated stuff to try GTs, to try some LMP cuts.
06:20 I felt that although the LMP cars, the prototype cars are twice as heavy, the characteristics
06:29 are very same.
06:31 So you've got aero which I was used to, you've got mechanical grip, you've got carbon brakes.
06:36 Everything was very much a similar experience.
06:41 It translated and I became competitive quite early on in this transition.
06:50 Now it may be because I'm just racing against old men but I'm happy to race against old
06:56 men if I can beat them.
06:57 I don't care, I can beat anyone.
07:00 I'm happy to beat anyone.
07:01 It doesn't matter who it is.
07:02 It's about respectful racing.
07:04 The sort of things I was unhappy about in F3 is that I'm racing kids and they see you
07:12 on the grass rather than allow you past them.
07:14 So very much it's a respectful type of racing but at the same time it's very fast.
07:20 No definitely for sure.
07:22 I want to talk a little bit about Aeromotorsports and the relationship that you have with this
07:25 team.
07:26 Walking in here and already seeing you obviously with Richard and it seems like there's a lot
07:31 of close bond with this team and with the group and it seems like it translates throughout
07:36 everybody with this team.
07:38 What makes Aeromotorsports special?
07:40 What makes this team really a family?
07:42 The key thing here is Kyle is English, he's behind you.
07:48 He was a racer himself, he knows.
07:50 This is for a game magazine.
07:57 This is for games.
07:58 You're on there.
07:59 So that's the bus there just showing off his belly.
08:06 Straight away there was a good bond.
08:09 He's English and we were able to easily transition into this team as like minded people.
08:20 It's been good.
08:21 We've got some good results.
08:24 And for people who haven't came out to an HSR race or haven't came out to a sports car
08:30 race in general, what should people expect?
08:33 Why should people come out to these races in the future going forward?
08:36 Why should people come out and support sports car racing?
08:39 What makes it something that fans should really grab at the H&R?
08:41 I've got no idea what goes through people's heads when they want to come and watch old
08:45 men run around in tracks.
08:47 No seriously, it generally can provide some really, really exciting racing.
08:53 It's side by side racing.
08:55 I'm racing a guy, Dwight Merriman, who's been doing sports car racing for the last five
08:59 or six years.
09:02 There's healthy respect, but it's about us racing, wanting to beat each other.
09:08 But ultimately, it's a spectacle.
09:10 We want to give the crowd a bit of pleasure as well.
09:13 Stuart, I want to close out by asking you what's next on the docket for you?
09:16 Obviously, you mentioned HSR.
09:18 Sebring is coming up here soon.
09:20 What is next for you and where can people find you and follow you on social media?
09:26 So I am doing Masters Endurance.
09:29 I'm going to be doing Peter Alto next year.
09:31 I'm going to be coming back doing HSR racing next year as well.
09:35 If anyone really is interested in this 58-year-old fat ham, then you need to be looking me up
09:43 on Instagram on SWF3racer.
09:47 That's where I am.
09:49 I'm sure you'll take great pleasure and check it out my Instagram.
09:53 Well, guys, go follow Stuart Wilshire on Instagram, on Twitter, whatever the case may be.
09:58 Go follow him on social media.
09:59 Thanks again for your time and good luck this weekend.
10:02 - Thank you so much.
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