THE COOKE REPORT: A YOUNG HOT ROD DRIVER IN A HURRY
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
