ANDY WICKENS' 2.0 CVH FERRIDAY ESCORT
3rd July 2003.  Well...Andy's had a Ferriday engine for about 2 years now, and both the engine & the rest of the car have been steadily developed until things seem to have fallen into place.  Silverstone a couple of weekends ago saw Andy with 5th overall in the first race, followed by an outright win in the second race.  Well done Andy!!

21st September 2003.  Lydden, In-Gear Motorsport Magazine Saloon Car Championship.  Andy qualified 4th, but made a bad start & immediately lost a place.  Gained 2 places over the next few laps, end result was Fastest Lap in Class, Class Win & Overall Win.  He's 42 points ahead in Championship but will have to drop 2 rounds (=33 points, regs only allow point scores in 10 rounds), so now needs a minimum of 3rd place at Silverstone to win the Class Championship, and will then be 3rd overall (expected Winning Driver is Rod Burley in his Escort Cosworth WRC).  Fingers crossed...

11th October 2003.  Silverstone (Stowe).  After huge brake problems that destroyed both front discs Andy came in 1st in Class & 7th overall.  So at the end of the season Mr Wickens is Class Winner & 3rd overall!!.  Nice one Andy, you're buying the drinks 'til next season.

17th January 2004.  At the BARC South Eastern Centre Awards Evening, Andy was presented with the Sydney Allard Trophy for Racing Driver of the Year.  Past winners of this award include Will Gollop & Jonathon Palmer.

June 2004.  A bit of a late start after some drive-train problems, but straight into an overall win at Silverstone (will post more details soon...)

19th September 2004.  A phone call at midday saw Mike rushing to Mallory Park to replace a broken rocker arm.  The repair didn't take long, but because he didn't turn in a qualifying time, Andy had to start from the back of the grid.  Unfortunately the start got way out of hand, and our car ended up on the grass with a few dents & torn brake pipes.  The race was restarted but Andy had to retire.  This was only the second engine problem in 3 years, and one we managed to get sorted in time for the race, only to see something else go wrong!

February 2005.  Time for an engine rebuild.  It was December 2001 when the engine was last in pieces, and although 3 seasons have taken their toll, nothing (too) disastrous was found on strip-down.  The whole car is going through a an image change and will be ready for this season in Silver.

8th April 2005.  The engine rebuild is now finished, the car is up & running & looks good.  The 1st rolling road session didn't go well, with the car trying to climb out of the rollers, followed by clutch slip, so no results yet.  Back onto the trailer & back into Andy's workshop...

16th May 2005.  Over to Bruntingthorpe for a Track & Race Car Magazine feature.  Top driver Bill Sollis was given the job or evaluating both the car & driver, and Andy came away with some useful tips on how to improve the car.  Although Andy had never driven the Bruntingthorpe circuit before, he managed to get within a second of Bill's times, and the T&RC satellite timing equipment showed exactly where the times and speeds varied between drivers.  The full report can be seen in the July 2005 issue of Track & Race Car, pages 99 to 102.  Thanks to T&RC Editor Luke Woods for organising the event, and to Bill Sollis for giving honest & constructive advice.