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In amongst all the exciting new cars in the 2020 Scalextric catalogue, there's one re-livery that might have slipped under the radar - but it looks fantastic and is steeped in history...

       

The blue Ford Escort RS1600 that raced at Daytona in 1972 was pivotal to the future of John Fitzpatrick's racing career. Fitz had already made his name in Europe as a talented and successful saloon car driver, mostly in partnership with Ralph Broad at Broadspeed. Fitz won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1966 in a Broadspeed Anglia, the team switching to Escorts in 1968 and campaigning in both the British and European championship for the first time. Broad developed the RS1600 for the 1971 British Saloon Car Championship, a car that has already been released by Scalextric...

   

In Europe, the Escorts were used by Ford as 'spoilers' to take points from the Alfa Romeos that ran in the same 2-litre class and so help the bigger Capris win the overall championship. Fitz and Broadspeed won countless class victories and took overall victory (with Jochen Mass) at the season finale at Jarama. As 1971 came to a close, Fitz and Broadspeed were invited to run an RS1600 in the 1972 Daytona and Sebring races, a trip over the Atlantic that would take Fitz's career in a new direction...

       

The 1972 Daytona race was cut from the usual 24 hours down to six because of the fuel crisis. The American Libra Racing team would run the Broadspeed-prepared RS1600 for Fitzpatrick and team-owner John Buffum. It was American Buffum's first serious taste of circuit racing - an interlude in a highly-successful rallying career. The car failed to finish at Daytona (although Fitz and Buffum would win the T2.5 class at Sebring six weeks later), but the Libra Racing pit was right next door to the Porsche Kremer team - Erwin Kremer spent the weekend persuading Fitz to drive his Porsche 911 in the European GT championship, which Fitz won. Fitzpatrick would go on to be one of the most successful GT drivers of his generation, with three class wins at Le Mans and outright wins at Daytona and Sebring. Fitz talks about his career in this short video...



Apart from its history - especially of putting Fitz in the right place at the right time - the Scalextric model does look rather nice. Pictures of the car at Daytona show it both with and without the front splitter. I suspect the US-style splitter was used in the race, but I can't find any video footage showing the #24 Escort. It wouldn't be too hard to add if you wanted to. Inside, the Scalextric Escorts have the FF-050 18k rpm 'slim-can' motor - fine for magnet racing, but often replaced for a lower-revving version by those who run non-mag. A FF-050SH-10200 (14.7k rpm @12volts) from China and some Paul Gage rear tyres work for me. The Escort is Digital Plug Ready.

The car is listed as due Winter 2019-2020, which suggests it is in a warehouse and has escaped the Chinese slowdown following the Coronavirus outbreak. Like most manufacturers, Hornby are remaining tight-lipped about the impact of the situation in China. However, a number of Scalextric moulds are now in Vietnam, so there's a good chance we'll see some of the Spring, Summer and Autumn releases arrive on time.

C4085 Ford Escort Mk1 - Daytona 1972. RRP £40.99. Due Winter 2019-2020 and is available as a Pre-Order at all the usual UK retailers, including Scalextric, Pendles, MRE and Jadlams.