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Abbonamento digitale > Blog > Jason 'Kewy' Kew

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Jason 'Kewy' Kew

Inviato martedì 14 aprile 2015 JASON KEW IS a man on a mission. Having been runner up in so many major championship over the years, he is fiercely determined that 2015 will be the year that he finally gets to stand on the top step of the podium.

"I know it's probably the wrong way to look at it, but if I don't win something it's a disappointment to me because I'm not bettering what I've done previously - and who wants to come second?" he says.

The 28-year-old has been a fixture in the rapid National Hot Rods since 2008 and has gradually established himself as one of the leading lights in a very competitive formula. Whenever a title is up for grabs, his name is always in the frame.

"A lot of people are happy to race and have fun but I go out to win," he says. "Hopefully the work we do between now and the start of the year will give me the extra edge I need to win something."

Jason has put together a team of advisers that includes former National Hot Rod World Champion, Malcolm Blackman — "you can't buy his sort of experience" — the legendary Sonny Howard of SHP, and Toovey engines.

"I'm not talking seconds a lap, more like hundredths of a second," he says. "You can't just pinpoint one thing. It's probably 100 things on the car, while I also need to be 100% on form to win something."

The margin between success and failure, he maintains, is narrow and comes down to fine-tuning both the set up and the engine. "We've got all the right bits on the car, it's just a matter of tweaking everything."

He cites last year's World Final as an example of preparation possibly letting him down — on top of the fact that the conditions made the big race something of a Lottery with people split between running on slicks or wets.

"We'd tried a lot of new things with the car and probably made a few mistakes, such as not having the engine dyno tested," he concedes. "We also went for wet tyres but a dry set up and that was the wrong way to go."

In the end he had to settle for fourth place. "A few years ago I wouldn't have dreamt that I'd finish (as high as) that," he points out. "No-one had me down as a top three driver in any championship but now it's expected of me."

Typically, changes made after the race to alter the handling, as well as some fine-tuning of the engine, made a huge difference. "In the next race it was flying," he recalls. "I should have made those changes before the World Final but you've only got one chance to get it right."

A racing journey
It's all a learning curve and it's one that he takes seriously. His rise to the top of the sport has been steady but the years spent honing his race craft in other formulas has helped lift him to where he is today.

After growing up watching his dad, Chris, competing on the ovals, the 10-year-old Jason made his debut in 1997 at the Farringdon track, in a non-contact junior minis class, before going on to become a regular competitor at Standlake.

"I raced them for six years, winning the SEGTO (championship), and then dad got me a 2L hot rod (Peugeot 205) and I went straight in at the deep end with Spedeworth," he recalls. "It was a big jump and took me about two years to get out of white grade."

"The first shock of that weekend was qualifying third on the grid, and the next was leading with five laps to go"

The 205 was replaced with a Vauxhall Nova, but it wasn't until his dad retired from the formula, and he inherited his Vauxhall Corsa, that everything started to click into place. "I jumped from yellow top to super-star and then I was always around there until I swapped the 2L for the Nationals."

After starting off the back at Hednesford in his first meeting - and realising he could keep up with every-one — he went on to record a heat and final double at Ipswich on his next outing. An impressive start, and one he credits to his years in the 2L.

"They are such a good stepping stone for the Nationals," he says. "It is such a competitive formula and everyone's at the same speed that it was actually easy to jump from one to the other."

A Sonny Howard Peugeot 206 was his initial stead but this gave way to a brand new Ludlow SLK Mercedes. This arrived in time for the 2009 World Final and carried the young racer to a finish just outside the top 10.

"The Mercedes got me up to speed but it was probably a bit too big in and out of the traffic," he recalls. "I spent two or three years being a mid pack driver be-fore I got the Tigra and this upped our game."

Some early days in the sport (Jason Kew collection).

Coming so close
Since then his results speak for themselves with second places in the World, Euro-pean, National, and English Points, as well as third places in the British, Thunder 500, and Best in Britain.

That's an awful lot of silverware collected in the space of a relatively few number of years, but frustratingly for Jason, none of them have that all-important word engraved — champion.

However, he believes he's far better mentally equipped to race at the highest level now that he's been there or thereabouts so many times. His experience at the 2013 World Final, where he came second, is an example.

"The first shock of that weekend was qualifying third on the grid, and the next was leading the race with five laps to go," he recalls. "In my mind I was probably happy with a position in the top three but if I had done things slightly differently and made it a bit harder for him (John Chris-tie) I'd have had that gold roof and not him!"

READ the full interview in issue five of Oval Racing Insider.