THE BriSCA formula II season is over and it has been generally a very successful season for the Scottish drivers although there was big disappointment in the World Final where Wim Peeters took the title back to the Netherlands, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner. The World Final was on shale at Mildenhall and on very wet and almost a mud surface the Scottish challenge faltered with first Dennis Middler then Chris Burgoyne succumbing to the conditions.

However, take nothing away from Peeters who mastered the conditions and all but lapped the field. That is the second time that the World Champion has been based in the Netherlands with Wim’s father Willie winning the title at Northampton back in 2005.

In fact both “World” titles went to the Netherlands with Patrick Tersteeg winning the World of Shale at Belle Vue.

With the World Final being raced on shale it wasn’t too high on the agenda of the Scottish drivers with only Burgoyne, Gordon Moodie (Windygates), Dennis Middler and Robbie Dawson making a serious attempt to get a semi place.

Burgoyne and Middler made it through, and whilst Moodie and Dawson were eliminated in their semi final Moodie was on the grid for the last chance semi-final but didn’t qualify.

However, for the Scottish drivers things were good with Moodie winning back the National Points Title from fellow Scot George MacMillan Jnr whilst Chris Burgoyne won the European and the British Championships as well as the Nationals.

Burgoyne won the Racewall track points title, Moodie the Northampton and Skegness titles whilst Craig Wallace won the Barford title on the last meeting by a mere five points.

Mind you it was even closer at Crimond where Robbie Dawson came out on top by a mere 2 points over Wallace.

In the National Points Scotland boasted six drivers in the top ten with Wallace third and just ahead of Burgoyne, Dawson and Middler with Stevie Forster in eighth place.

Other titles won at the Racewall saw Middler win the Scottish Championship, Burgoyne claim the Turner trophy, the Chapman trophy and the Geo Mac Memorial trophy.

Congratulations must go through to Holly Glen and Paul Reid who managed to keep their remarkable record of not having missed a Racewall meeting intact yet again!

On the car front Dennis Middler appeared with a TLF chassis, Moodie with a new RCE whilst Thompson used an RCE hire car until it was sold and he bought the Garry Sime RCE. Burgoyne bought a TLF car for his shale exploits whilst Middler’s shale car was an aged car that had sat in a garage for a few years before being brought back into action. Mind you Moodie resurrected “Lady Mavis” the car that he had won the World Title with at Mildenhall in 2006!

Generally the numbers at the Racewall bucked the trend with larger fields of cars than the previous year although after the World Final the numbers tended to drop away.

Hopefully when 2017 season starts there will be an increase in numbers especially with the formula II semi-finals being staged at the Racewall where there will be at least 56 cars in the pits plus the reserves and the cars for the domestic races.

The first of the major races was the Scottish Championship with Burgoyne the defending Champion. Out early on was Moodie with an oil leak and then Burgoyne who tripped over a back marker and bounced off the wall. Middler was quickly through into the lead and although Wallace chased hard Middler held on to become the 2016 Scottish Champion. Mind you a fortnight or so after winning the championship he was involved in a big shunt which resulted in his car rolling over the marker tyres. It looked back with the Middler car coming to rest on a marker tyre but to everyone’s surprise Dennis stepped out of his car unhurt!

The World Championship qualifying round took place at the end of May and attracted quite a few cars from down south. After some hard racing Burgoyne went through to win the final, and a hefty points haul, from Moodie and John Hogg.

The Scottish contingent headed to Northampton for the European Championship and after some close and fast racing Burgoyne grabbed the win with Moodie finishing in second spot.

Back at the Racewall the Chapman trophy ended up in Burgoyne’s hands and then he went on to retain the Geo Mac Memorial Trophy from Ian Thompson (Kennoway) and David Polley.

Burgoyne then went on to retain his Turner Trophy and then David Sinclair came north to win the white/yellow challenge trophy final.

In the Nationals down at Barford Middler led on a very wet track but broke a half shaft and it was Moodie who went through to win. It didn’t go well though for Burgoyne and Holly Glen who tangled resulting in both injuring their thumbs and at the time of writing both have them in plaster casts.

The season ended with the annual Dash for the Cash sponsored by RS Motorsports with Paul Reid (Cowdenbeath) leading for four laps, Turner for one before Moodie came through to win from Burgoyne and Turner.

Moodie then won the James Clarke Cochrane memorial trophy whilst on Sunday Turner fended off Moodie’s last lap challenge to win the Champion of Champions race by 0.002 sec.

Moodie then brought the season to a close when he won the last final of the season bringing his total final win haul to 42 for the season!

There were wins for P. Reid, Turner and Kieran Howie (Dunfermline) whilst Simon Cranson (Cowdenbeath) moved from white up to the blue grade after a consistent season.

Craig Reid (Cowdenbeath) often led races but dropped away when the faster drivers caught up whilst Dale Burt (Lochgelly) pickled up a few good results although he did suffer a few mechanical problems along the way.

What does 2017 bring for the formula II drivers? The Scottish Championship will be one of the highlights as will the World Championship qualifying round especially as the semi- finals are to take place at the Racewall in August.

That will certainly be a meeting not to miss where drivers who have their eyes set on racing with the gold roof will be in action. The World Final is being held on the shale at Coventry and whilst the track will be graded as and when necessary during the meeting the drivers will be hoping for a dry meeting.

We know of one new driver already with ex-ministox driver Euan Millar using the ex-hire RCE that Ian Thompson used and he should be one of the favourites for the Novice of the Year. Jack McCallum had a run in a formula II at Barford and don’t be surprised to see him racing regularly.

There will be a few new chassis on show with Garry Sime, Dennis Middler and Stevie Forster all expected to have new machines whilst expect to see John Hogg in a different car.

* At Birmingham on Saturday night Luke Wrench won the Shoot Out Final whilst Moodie then won the meeting final and the Wild card race to end another successful seasons racing.