THE YOUNG RACER WHO IS RIPPING UP THE SHORT OVALS
Why Perry Cooke is turning heads in Hot Rod racing
Followers of oval racing with long enough memories who saw Perry Cooke’s first outings in 2016 would have immediately twigged that here was a guy who meant business. The Junior Rod Vauxhall Nova looked the spitting image of his dad Mel’s championship-winning Toyota Starlet Stock Rod of 25 years earlier, was running under the same number and drivers named Cooke who hail from Norwich have never been anything other than committed.
Jump forward two years and the 16-year-old Cooke was lining up for his first National Hot Rod start. He was strapped into the Vauxhall Tigra that had won the World Final four years earlier.
His dues still had to be paid as any rookie entrant has to run their first three meetings from the back of the grid. But, even from there, the potential was obvious; the newbie was more than able to keep up.
Come the day of his first ‘proper’start at Hednesford’s 2019 season opener and the pressure was really on. He could have won the first heat but got taken out on the last lap. Cooke then went out and won heat two.
When the circus moved on to Skegness, a track he had never driven on, two more heat wins were bagged, followed by a fourth in the final. Another win came at the next Hednesford; expectations were definitely being met. But a couple of seasons in Junior Rods were not solely responsible for what was clearly an old head sat on young shoulders.
“It all started when I was eight years old and my dad asked what I wanted to do for my party and recommended karting,” Cooke explains.
“I enjoyed that so much we started racing Cadets at Ellough Park Raceway Beccles and did that for a couple of years. Then my dad suggested we try Super One, which was really good fun. We went all over the UK and finished about 20th in the championship, which was all good experience. But, by the age of 13 I’d really had enough of karting. I got bored! I asked my dad if there was anything else I could do with closer racing, and so he introduced me to oval racing.
“At that time I didn’t know anything about my dad’s history in it. I knew he’d won trophies but I had no idea what for. I think he actually wanted to steer me away from it and down the karting route and maybe into F3. And he had sort-of sworn off oval racing. He explained to me that it’s like a drug; once you start you can’t stop and that’s why he’d turned his back on it to concentrate on work and his family.
“He took me to Swaffham to see a meeting. I couldn’t believe how close they were racing and running side by side. I said, ‘how on earth are you supposed to get past people?’On a circuit, it’s a lot different. People run wide and you can get under them, or you can plan your pass for three or four corners. I couldn’t see how you could pass anyone on an oval. My dad just said, ‘you’ll find a way’.”
Cooke Jr’s stepping-off point was a Junior Rod, built with the help of former racer Carl Pye. After an initial outing at Swaffham, the Spedeworth-run Junior category was his destination. The pace was immediate and he claimed the title in 2017. With his sights set on the stars, Cooke Jr and his dad cooked up a plan to get him straight into National Hot Rods.
The only problem was that at this point, Cooke was not old enough to hold a NHR licence, although this did not stop them laying the foundations for it to happen.
Perry explains: “Jamie [Bryant] of JB Racing Engine told my dad there could be a National [car] coming up for sale that we should have, but he warned us it would only be for sale to ‘the right buyer’. It turned out to be Shane Murphy’s car, a real one-time buy thing. It was very quick then and it still is, and we learnt a lot from Shane.
“We did do quite a lot of testing with it at Swaffham. When I first got in it, it was like, ‘wow, this is quick!’ I was lucky in some ways because, having done karting, I was used to rear-wheel drive. I was used to the tail coming out a bit.”
Finally the day came when Perry was allowed a licence and all that groundwork was put into practice when the team headed to Ipswich for its NHR debut.
“I had to start at the back and I remember hanging on the outside of Shaun Taylor in my first race, and when I came back I was just grinning, and that carried on throughout the whole meeting – I just loved it so much,” remembers Cooke. “There is no way I can express the feeling of going around the outside of somebody in a National. I was just hooked straight away.
“I did progress fairly slowly to start with. I didn’t want to rush things. Right from the outset in oval racing, I said I just wanted to have fun with it. We even try to have a laugh when we crash, because sitting there sulking about it won’t help.”
Despite being forced to start his NHR career part way through a season, Cooke’s early success soon had him on track for a possible World Final qualification at his first attempt. Having got that far he might even have had a shot – however long – at breaking Ian McKellar’s longstanding ‘youngest ever winner’record.
“We never thought we’d make it. We only really did about 10 meetings and only took points from about eight of them. We knew right from the start we were going to struggle to qualify because the season was well underway. If we qualified it’d be a bonus, and if we didn’t, well there was always the last chance races.
“But then we were lucky enough to qualify. We were happy with that, and I was proud of us reaching that stage.
But then I was fifth fastest in first practice and people were saying ‘he’s flying’ and then someone said I’d be the youngest ever World champion. And that all got to my head... and I panicked. I remember overshooting a corner and I ended up
24th on the grid.
“So then it became all about getting 75 laps under my belt, just finishing was the goal because the first 10 laps, they’re wild. For the first 50 laps it felt completely OK and then the tail started coming out and I was washing out wide – but I noticed everyone was doing that – all the cars go off at the same time. I did realise that you don’t have to try and win it on the first corner or the first lap. You can sit back a bit and see what happens, that’s the beauty of it [the much longer race].
“I finished 13th; I couldn’t believe
I was right behind Gary Woolsey.”
“I’m not going anywhere: I’m happy” Perry Cooke
A World Final win is one on Cooke’s wish list, but he has ambitions that go way beyond that.
“I would like to win a major title, which hopefully will come with experience,” he explains, “But a faraway goal, which I don’t think would ever happen, would be to win the World Final five times. I should probably show a bit less confidence shouldn’t I? But I want to aim high.
“It’s only really since that World Final onwards that I’ve started to make ground and picked my feet up a bit, and know where I’m going with the car now.”
As a driver who started out driving road courses and has now shown a talent for surviving in close-quarter saloon car racing, one could be forgiven for thinking that Cooke’s long-term ambitions might well lie in something like the British Touring Car Championship.
“I’m not going anywhere, I’m happy,” he declares. “As long as I race this is where I’d like to be. I don’t imagine going into any other formula but if I did, it would probably only be 2.0 Hot Rods, and then I’d do both.”
Cooke’s concentration on the style of driving required to be very good at just the one class is perhaps enhanced by the fact that he is not greatly distracted by considerations about car set-up. As he explained, this is not really his department.
“To begin with, the car was still set up for Shane [Murphy] and Tipperary, which wasn’t a bad place to be starting from,” he explains. “We know that Tipperary is a big track and we soon realised that the car was well suited for Hednesford, Ipswich and the bigger tracks. But now we also have the new car which is better set-up for places like Yarmouth and Aldershot. In fact my first time out with it was at Yarmouth, where I won the final.
“That car is still ‘there’at the end of the race, it does conserve the tyres very well. I know it’s set up to turn right but it just does – it just wants to go round corners. As to how that’s achieved, I wouldn’t know. I don’t have much to do with it as, unfortunately, I don’t know much about the car or how to set it up. I can tell my dad and my mechanic Gary if I think it’s pushing or something and ask if we can adjust it, so at least I know how the car handles. I’m known as the cleaner. After every meeting I come in with the hoover and pick up all the dirt and stones out of the chassis – and they just laugh at me.”
The number of similarities between Perry Cooke and that other much earlier wunderkind of National Hot Rod racing, Ian McKellar Jr, are remarkable.
Twenty five years ago, McKellar
Jr had a car with a great pedigree and substantial backing, but at first really didn’t know much about the technical side of things. Luckily he had a mechanic who did – Bert Taylor. It was a combination that carried McKellar to a World championship; maybe it can do the same for Perry Cooke.
Richard and Sam Neary’s Mercedes AMG GT3 claimed three wins from four amid a record entry in the
GT Cup opener.
Richard led race one from the start, with Michael Igoe’s Lamborghini Huracan taking second from Richard Chamberlain’s Porsche after seven laps.
Grahame Tilley’s Nissan completed the podium and, with
Chamberlain pitting, John Dhillon’s Lamborghini was fourth.
In race two, Igoe ousted Neary from the lead of the first Enduro as they plunged down the Craner Curves on the sixth lap. He pitted with his lead intact to hand over to Phil Keen. Keen claimed victory over Stewart/Lewis Proctor’s McLaren 750S by over 15 seconds. Abbie Eaton in
John Seale’s Lamborghini fended off Will Tregurtha in the Tilley Nissan for third.
The Nearys were victorious again in race three with Sam seeing off an early threat from Igoe, who then pitted to retire. Lucky Khera was a solid third in his John Seale Lamborghini, with Tilley third.
Although Igoe ousted Richard Neary from the lead of race four as they entered the chicane just before the pitstop window, Sam emerged from the pits as the new leader to secure win number three. Keen was a comfortable second and Tregurtha reclaimed third from Phil Quaife at the chicane 10 laps from home.
Steve Dickens made a flying start in the first Clubmans race but lost out to Clive Wood at Redgate on the last lap, while Peter Richings came home in third. Despite Wood’s late charge, Dickens held on to a lights-to-flag win in race two. Alan Cook followed them home a distant third.
Mark McAleer showed a clean pair of heels to rest of the Porsche Club field, with a double win. Peter Morris took a while to escape from the battling Chris Dyer and Simon Clark in race one but, once free, he reduced McAleer’s winning margin considerably.
It was Dyer who headed the chase in race two, while Morris lost third to Clark at the chicane in the final laps.
After clutch failure robbed
Neil Harrison of victory in the first Monoposto F3, 1400, Classic & 1800 race, Lee Fern’s Dallara took the spoils. At the second attempt, Harrison was to the fore when Fern spun at McLeans.
Dan Gore’s Jedi in charge from lights to flag in both races for the Monoposto M1000, 2000 and 1600 pack.