ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Since completing the build earlier this year, Mark’s wasted no time in using the EsCos doing what it was built for, hammering around a track!
Things have been a bit hectic since my last update in the Fast Fleet. It may have been the closing months of the show season, but that hasn’t meant it’s been any less busy; we took the Escort Cossie to Ford Fest at the end of September to be a part of the Fast Ford stand, and then I was also asked to have my Sierra Cosworth on the mag display at TRAX in October too.
But before we loaded up and headed off to Ford Fest I managed to squeeze in a little track day at my local circuit, Castle Combe. This was the first time I’d really been able to put the car through it’s paces since the build was completed a few weeks before. I did take part in the track sessions at Ford Fair, but as the car’s first ever outing, and me having never driving the Silverstone circuit before, and the fact they are 20 minutes sessions rather than a full track ‘day’, I treated this as more of a shakedown session to make sure everything held together.
But when we were at Combe, and had the full day to adjust things and make tweaks, we were finally able to see what the car was really capable of.
We made good progress with setting the car up, and I was starting to get more and more confident and comfortable in the car, so we booked another track day for early in November. Booking on to a track day in November is always a bit of a gamble as you’re never sure what the weather conditions will be like, but on this occasion, it was a master stroke. The conditions were perfect; nice and cool air temps, but sunny and dry all day long. Plus, as it was a weekday during the off-season, there was only a handful of other cars to share the track with, meaning it felt more like a private test session that a general track day.
The car went really well. It just keeps getting better and better. As my confidence (and ability in the car) grew, the lap times were getting quicker and quicker. My best on the day was a 1m 13s, which I don’t think is too shabby at all, and I’m quite pleased with it. I’m even more pleased that the car ran faultlessly and didn’t miss a beat all day though! Roll on 2019, I can’t wait to get this green machine out on track some more.