Malcolm Wise, chairman of Green Belt Motor Club in Potters Bar, has started another season of motor racing in positive style by coming second in the first of two races in this year’s prestigious Modified Ford Series, racing in his Ford Escort Cosworth.

This series, for which drivers compete in 10-year-old Ford saloon cars, kicked off with a pair of 15 minute races at the one-mile long Lydden Hill track in Kent, which is the shortest road racing circuit in the United Kingdom.

In his white and yellow Chandu Tailor & Son sponsored car, which is powered by a turbocharged engine that kicks out over 550 horsepower, Wise managed to notch up two finishes in second place in both of these fiercely contested races.

In both events he was only headed, by a couple of seconds, by his arch rival Rod Birley who drives a similar Ford Escort that has been built to World Rally Championship specifications.

As well as being a super-fast racing driver, Wise does most of his own car preparation too, including putting together its ultra-powerful 2000cc turbocharged engine.