Word to the Wise

Surely Malcolm Wise, who competes in the BARC Modified Saloon Car Championship, was well worthy of inclusion in last week’s National Racing’s Top Underdogs feature ( Motorsport News, January 2, 2019).

He drives a 20-year-old 525bhp Ford Escort Cosworth but is usually beaten by Rod Birley in his Wrc-specification Escort.

Despite being unable to match the very high level of professionalism of Birley’s squad, he has nevertheless notched up five class wins and has been the only other driver in this series to consistently finish within a couple of seconds behind Birley’s usually winning car.

And on one memorable occasion, at the championship’s fifth round at Brands Hatch Indy last year, he scored his only overall win of the season – whilst Birley limped across the line in a lowly eighth place.

This hard-trying Enfield based racer, who is chairman of the Green Belt Motor Club, does most of his own car preparation. He builds his engines at Dave Wild’s DTW Engines workshops in Harlow and benefits from race day assistance from occasional Ford Sapphire Cosworth racer Nigel Hutton.

With this valuable help he finished in third place overall, and second in class, in last year’s championship. Robert Taylor Via email