PRYCE JOINS BELGIAN ESCORT CELEBRATION
Former British Rally Championship frontrunner Osian Pryce will head to Belgium next month to celebrate 50 years of one of rallying’s most iconic cars with the Escort Rally Special.
Pryce elected to spend the early part of 2018 looking for budget for WRC2 outings, and made his historic rally debut competing in an Escort Mk2 on gravel and asphalt.
Now he will use the same car that he steered to second on the Harry Flatters Rally, hired from Rally Extreme, to compete on the one-off event in southern Belgium.
It has attracted a star-studded entry including ex-ford driver Francois Duval and Irish Escort expert Frank Kelly, 24-hour race expert Marc Duez and former European Championship frontrunner Robert Droogmans.
“It’s a last-minute thing. We were looking at Turkey [in WRC2] but we decided against it in the end,” said Pryce, who is working hard to secure backing for a WRC2 entry on Rally GB. “I’m a bit of a Escort fanatic. There’s always been Escorts in my family. My grandfather has two and I have two, I’m passionate about them and it’s a one-off event which should attract a lot of people.”
The event features a modern, historic and demo class for the Escorts, and it will utilise one 15.9-mile stage run four times, with service in Couvin town centre.
After Pryce decided not to back a trip to Turkey for WRC2 on the same weekend as the Belgian event, his usual co-driver Dale Furniss made plans to compete on the Manx – also on the same weekend.
For the Belgium event, Pryce will be co-driven by Jess Hockly.