Jason 'Kewy' Kew

"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."