The 50th Anniversary meeting of the opening stock car meeting at Cowdenbeath was celebrated in style at the Racewall with the Scottish Legends joining in the activities on Saturday night.

There was the World Championship replica of the Gordon McDougall World Championship winning superstox, a mascar plus four classic hot rods – the one of Malky Chesher just being finished on Friday afternoon.

Simon Cranson debuted his new formula II and must have been more than pleased with his debut whilst in the saloons we had English star of the past, Robert George, heading north to race a saloon whilst Gordon Campbell was having a run in Addison Weir’s saloon.

The legends raced in the afternoon in a timed session in production cars and whilst there were a few shunts and spins all left their cars with a big smile on their faces.

At night they raced in speedway style and whilst it was supposed to be four cars at a time as the night wore on there were six and sometimes eight cars on the track. There were 20 formula II cars at the track with the local drivers being Paul Reid (Cowdenbeath), Kieran Howie (Dunfermline) and Simon Cranson (Cowdenbeath).

The opening heat saw Marc Fortune go through to win from Chris Burgoyne and Craig Wallace with Reid in fifth place.

However, in heat two it was Burgoyne who came through to win despite having oil dropping onto his racing boots but he still held on to beat Garry Sime and John Hogg to the chequer with Reid in tenth place.

Brian Hogg Jnr led the cars away when the final started but then lost out to Holly Glen. Her time in the lead only lasted a couple of laps before James Yule took over.

Closing the leaders down quickly was Sime and just around the half distance he took the lead. Once there he eased away but when Burgoyne moved into second the gap began to close. Over the last few laps Sime was still clear and he went on to win from Burgoyne and Liam Rennie with Reid in seventh.

Burgoyne then claimed his second win of the night in the Grand National but the race was suspended after Craig Wallace was shunted heavily into the wall by Fortune. Burgoyne pulled away on the restart to win from Rennie and J. Hogg with Sime finishing in fifth just ahead of Reid with Howie in eighth place.

In the saloons Robert George, who was using Georgie Boult Jnr’s car, was to race in the full meeting and whilst Barry Jones had his car in the pits he had damaged a camshaft and didn’t race. Local drivers in action were Kyle Hegg (Leslie), Kyle Irvine (Glenrothes), Ross Watters (Leven) and Alex Cunningham (Leven).

In the opening heat Jonny Laing was collected by another car and half spun but was then caught by the pack and sent up the wall with his car ending up on its roof. Barry Russell moved into the lead on the restart before winning the opening heat from Paul Honeyman and Colliver with Hegg fourth and just ahead of Irvine. In heat two Luke Grief won and he led home P. Honeyman, Colliver and Watters with Irvine in sixth and Cunningham eighth.

Scott Mitchell led the cars away when the final started and was soon to be closed down by Marc Honeyman who had Watters in close order. Campbell was shunted up the wall but continued and then a couple of laps later was shunted and spun. However, his car stopped and so too was the race. Although M. Honeyman led the cars away within a couple of laps Grief forced his way through into the lead.

Colliver moved into second but was unable to do anything about Grief’s lead as the latter picked up his second win of the night whilst Colliver had Ian McLaughlin in close order as he crossed the finish line with Cunningham in sixth and Irvine eighth.

Grief made it three wins in a row when he won the Allcomers and he led home M. Honeyman and Colliver with Irvine fifth and Watters in sixth place.

Amongst the ministox drivers in action were Chris Cartmel and Charlie Boast who were down from Crimond, Alex Morris was up from Barford and Lewis Gilchrist was making his debut. Local drivers on the grid were John Crawford (Cowdenbeath) and Michael Mitchell (Lochgelly).

Euan Millar went on to win the opening heat from Jamie Connacher and Steven Burgoyne although the latter just got the better of Bryan Lindsay on the run up to the chequer with Crawford in fifth. Millar then won heat two from Charlie Folan and Burgoyne with Crawford in sixth place.

The final saw Millar make inroads through the field and despite Burgoyne closing right up just held on to make it a hat trick of wins with Lindsay in third place, Mitchell fourth and Crawford in seventh place.

Billy Bonnar (Ballingry) won the hot rod challenge but over the closing laps Kenny Ireland had been running side by side with Bonnar.

The classic hot rod replica cars of Mick “Duffy” Collard and Malky Chesher took the fans back in time as they charged around the track.

However, the speedway races at night proved to be a crowd pleaser with four teams battling it out on the track and whilst it was supposed to be non contact when you have banger drivers in the form of Jimbo Riddell and Keith Millar having a run contact was inevitable. Amongst those who won their races were Bill Barrack, Georgie Boult Snr, Gordon Brown, Brian Middlemass, Jimmy Wallace and Alan McHattie.

When the points were totaled it was found that the International team which included Bill Barrack, Boult Snr, Jim Riddell, Eddie Aldous, Steve Monk, Stu Blyth and George were the winners. Bill Pullar at 77 was the oldest driver whilst Bob Jones got the fans favourite trophy.

This Saturday the saloon stock cars are back in action along with the ORCi stock rods, 1300cc saloons, and the Micro banger Scottish Supreme. The meeting starts as usual at 6.00pm.