THE stock cars returned to the Cowdenbeath Racewall on Saturday night and whilst it didn’t rain during the meeting, the drivers had to contend with a wet and greasy track.

Just out of the ministox Euan Millar dominated the formula II racing winning four out of the five races he contested.

Craig Wallace and Stevie Forster debuted their brand new chassis whilst Robbie Dawson was using the ex-Adcroft RCE chassis. Newcomers Mark Somerville and Chris Chance had good first outings but Holly Glen crashed out heavily after her throttle jammed open.

Greg Honeyman missed out on a hat trick of saloon wins when he upset the steward at the start to the final and was dropped to third spot.

Grant McGowan won two of the 1300 saloon races whilst Fraser Anderson won the other.

The Rookie Bangers were in good form and there was plenty of contact with the cars of Douglas Ashell and Dayle Ashell wrecked and these had to be towed from the track.

Amongst the formula II drivers in action were Chris Chance, John Broatch and Richie Brunton from the North East of England, whilst the local driver was Paul Reid (Cowdenbeath).

The first formula II race was one of the white/yellow challenge races with Euan Millar going through for an easy win over Ryan Farquhar and Chris Davidson.

Heat one saw Millar go straight into lead at the start of the race and was never in any danger of being caught.

In the end he crossed the finish line clear of Chris Burgoyne and Robbie Dawson but Reid wasn’t classified. Millar, by winning his heat, had to start the remaining races from the back of his grade and it took him a few laps before taking the lead and quickly easing away from the pack.

Burgoyne made light of getting through the field into second but just couldn’t close the gap and he ended crossing the line in second with Dawson again third whilst Reid again finished out with the top ten

Chris Davidson led the field away when the final started but within a couple of laps Millar was leading.

However, when Farquhar was clipped and spun he was collected by Pete Davidson and John Hogg. The field had now lined up behind Millar who made a good re-start but within a couple of laps had Burgoyne, Dawson and Forster closing.

The gap between the leading cars dwindled with Burgoyne squeezing past Millar on the penultimate lap who now had Dawson to contend with. In the end Burgoyne held on to win from Millar and Dawson with Reid in eighth place.

Millar then went on to win the Grand National by a substantial margin where he led home Forster and Broatch with Reid seventh and Burgoyne in tenth place.

Amongst the 2 litre National saloons were new faces Callum McIvor and Tam Rutherford Jnr whilst James Strath debuted his new Grief built car.

Duncan Welsh was back in the saloons after an absence of a few years. Local drivers in action were Kyle Irvine (Glenrothes), Derek Duff (Cupar), Duncan Welsh (Cowdenbeath), James Strath (Cellardykes), Ross Watters (Leven) and Callum McIvor (Inverkeithing)

Heat one saw Barry Glen go through for a narrow win over Graeme Shevill and Watters with McIvor in fifth and just ahead of Irvine and Strath with Duff in ninth place. It looked as if Glen was in with a chance of winning heat two but he was then sent wide and retired. Greg Honeyman moved into an early lead before winning from Watters and Ian McLaughlin with Duff sixth and ahead of Irvine, Welsh and McIvor.

McIvor led initially when the final started but lost out early on to G. Honeyman with Derek Duff and Glen running in close order.

McIvor spun as Glen was sent wide with Watters making inroads through the pack to appear in second. Duff was under pressure from Shevill and McLaughlin but lost out during the closing stages after being sent wide. Although G. Honeyman was first home he was penalised by the steward handing the win to Watters with Shevill second and the penalised G. Honeyman third with Irvine in sixth and ahead of Duff with Welsh in ninth place.

G. Honeyman was back out for the Allcomers race and promptly went on to win from Shevill and Watters with McIvor fifth.

There were a few 1300saloon drivers missing but they still were entertaining with Fraser Clark the only new face in action.

Local drivers in action included Fraser Anderson (Cowdenbeath), Jeff Cosans (Dunfermline), Michael Byers (Methil), Michael Moye (Cowdenbeath) and Arron Hastie (Ceres)

Grant McGowan got the proceedings under way as he went through to win heat one from Clark and Anderson with Hastie in fifth and just ahead of Cosans. It was Anderson who made light of the field in heat two and he scored an easy win over Clark and Derek Campbell with Hastie fifth, Cosans seventh and Moye ninth

Ross Forrest led the field away when the final started from Michael Moye whilst Hastie and Byers were again running nose to tail. Anderson lost ground at the start to the race but was soon making up ground. Clark forced his way through into the lead but was struggling to keep McGowan at bay.

The lead changed hands and McGowan began to pull away but on the last lap Clark’s engine began to misfire and he lost second spot to Campbell but just managed to hang onto third place.

McGowan got the better of the exchanges to go on to pick up his second win of the night when he won the final from Campbell and Clark with Anderson ending up in fourth after being delayed at the start. Hastie picked up his third successive fifth spot with Cosans eighth and Byers in ninth place.

There was a good turn out of Rookie Bangers and they were not afraid to make contact resulting in a few wrecked cars and plenty of spins and shunts. Amongst those in action were Josh Heeps (Rosyth) who had an eventful meeting losing a tyre in heat two and then being involved in a shunt in the final.

Ross Stewart ran away with the opening heat winning from Finlay Davidson and Sean McConnachie. Heat two ended with Davidson coming out on top from Scott Paterson and McConnachie.

At the start to the final McConnachie, Davidson and Josh Heeps were in a shunt entering the main straight but there were quite a few cars wrecked including those of the Ashell brothers. Paterson was running well and he managed to pull away from the pack. Tam Melrose retired from third with Paterson going on to win from Marc Dalgarno and Stevie Allan.

This Saturday the BriSCA formula II return to the scene along with the 2 Litre National saloons and they are backed by the National Hot Rods, the ministox and microf2s.

The hot rods are taking part in a World Championship qualifying round which will bring Billy Bonnar and Ian Donaldson into action as they chase places on the World Final grid whilst the ministox are competing for the Let the Sparks Fly Trophy. It all gets underway at 6pm