Restoration of the Willie Cooke Mk1 Escort

This Saturday's race meeting at Aghadowey Oval sees the Stock Rods contest the William Cooke Memorial Trophy, raced in memory of the expert engine builder and former driver from Kilrea.

The meeting sponsor Darrell Hanna from Limavady was always a great friend of Willie, and used his Motex Race Engines with great success. After Willie's sad passing Darrell acquired an old Mk1 Ford Escort that Willie had raced, and recently this was passed on to another former racer, William Wilson from Cullybackey.

William, alongside his son David who races in the Thunder Rods formula, painstakingly restored the car to its former glory, leaving it as close as possible to how it raced in the Production Cars back in the day. They reckon it was debuted new by Willie Cooke back in 1970, and during the restoration it has received a lot of care and attention, including new arches, tidied bodywork and also a new engine.

William and David have pulled off a fantastic job in restoring the car to allow it to once again grace the Aghadowey circuit this weekend. It will be given a few laps on Saturday night by Darrell Hanna, and will be on display for everyone to admire.

The photos show the car before and during the course of the restoration - we'll keep the finished article under wraps until Saturday!