Competitors arrive at Racewall in ‘fine form’

On a dry and warm evening the stock car drivers were in fine form at the Cowdenbeath Racewall on Saturday night and there were some exciting racing.

James Ellis in the end ran away with the 1300 Saloon Scottish Championship.

Amongst the 22 car field of ORCi stock rods was British Champion Justin Washer who had travelled up from the south west for the Jane Burt Memorial trophy.

Fife drivers were Stuart Wedderburn (Leven), Steve Gunby (Cupar), Kris Simpson (Methil), Liam McGill (Dysart), Dean McGill (East Wemyss), Scott Galbraith (Auchtermuchty), David Dignan (Leven), Craig Haxton (Leven) and Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy).

Galbraith had bought one of Dean McGill’s cars whilst Chris Paul was having a rare outing.

The grid was another public one and had Wedderburn on pole position with Gunby alongside and behind Simpson and Euan Robertson. Washer was on row five, with Bethune and L. McGill sharing row six. D. McGill and Cameron Doak started from row nine whilst Scottish Champion James Gray was on row ten.

When the race started Wedderburn went straight into the lead from Gunby but Simpson was an early spinner.

L. McGill made a good start and quickly worked his way through into second place and then eased up onto the tail of the leader.

However Bethune was going well and he moved into third resulting in the top three running nose to tail. McGill found the inside line to go through into the lead although Bethune slipped through into second.

The leaders ran nose to tail for many laps but towards the closing stages, Bethune retired leaving McGill well clear and he went through to win from Stuart McKinnon and Washer with Wedderburn sixth, Haxton eighth and D. McGill ninth.

Amongst the 2 Litre Saloons were Chris Burgoyne, Andy Ainslie and Adam Cockburn the latter in the ex-Ross Donaldson car. Local driver on the grid was Ross Watters (Leven).

Heat one saw Ian McLaughlin go through to win sending the long time leader Stevie Honeyman spinning at the line although Watters had nipped through to claim second place with Honeyman finishing third. In heat two Colin Savage led the race from start to finish where he led home S. Honeyman and Watters.

Savage led the field away when the final started with S. Honeyman through into second spot after a few laps. McLaughlin, Watters and Barry Glen were running in close order and making their way through the field. S. Honeyman was beginning to eat into Savage’s lead and as the laps dwindled they swapped places before Honeyman went through to win from Savage with Graeme Anderson a clear third and Watters in fourth spot.