OUR Cowdenbeath Racewall reporter, Jim Turner, met up with Gordon Moodie at the family garage in Windygates where he was busy striping out a car and my first comment to him was “Where is this formula I car that you are supposed to have?”

This brought a wide grin to his face and after a shake of his head he told me “it must be hiding! I was looking at doing some formula I meetings – especially both days when they are in Scotland – but we will have to wait and see”.

Scotland has produced many top drivers in stock cars and with out doubt Gordon Moodie is up there with them. To date he has won 1 World Championship, 10 National Points titles 2 lots of batches of 5 at a time, 4 European, 2 British, 8 Scottish,3 English and 1 Irish Championships. Coupled to that he has won the World Cup, which is raced in Holland, 5 times but has as yet to win the Nationals”.

This year Gordon will be defending the UK Challenge, the World Cup and the Ben Fund although the main target is regaining the National Points Title.

He said: “I want to win finals and Championships and hopefully will be attending them all. The only one in doubt is the British which is being held in Northern Ireland.

"My cousin is getting married on the Friday night so I might give it a miss. It’s a pity ‘cos I have a lot of supporters there and it would be good to meet up with them again”.

He added: “I am busy trying to get my RCE chassis ready for the start to the season. It’s well on and should be ready. It looks to be a good car and should be alright. I sold my blue RCE to John Sleeman and whilst there has been a lot of interest in the black RCE I am going to hold onto it as a back up just now.”

I then queried him about the World semi-finals and final which are to be contested on shale. The semi-finals are at King’s Lynn where he came third in the World Final recently, whilst the final is at Mildenhall where he won his World Title in 2006. An omen perhaps!

He said: “I used Lady Mavis then and who knows she might just make her comeback. The car had been christened by its previous owner Bert Finnikin, and she took me to my World Title.

"I managed to get inside Mark Simpson on the last bend and pushed him wide to get my win. The car has all the right design but I will need to do a bit work on it to bring it up to the latest BriSCA spec. I also have the option to buy the Ian Gardner chassis which is up for sale so I will soon have to make a decision. Ian’s car has a Duratec engine and I am not sure whether that would be the right engine to use.

“With my main target being the National Points I will be doing most of my racing on tarmac and hope that my new cars set up is right so that I can start picking up points and wins quickly. I don’t intend to do too many shale races. It would mean that I would have to get a double trailer to transport both cars and I would need double the amount of spares as the RCE spares are different to the Randall. Being based in Scotland makes it hard enough to challenge for the National Points but it would be even more difficult racing on both surfaces”.

He went on: “I missed the opening four months of the season after a coming together with Robbie Dawson so it was the end of June before I could return to the racing. In that time I lost the Scottish Championship to Chris Burgoyne and basically the National Points title.

"My first outing was at Crimond – the day after their World Championship qualifying round and was reasonably pleased with how the car ran.

“I then raced at the UK Challenge at Skegness. It’s a 2 day event and usually attracts around 100 cars. It would give me a good idea just how competitive the car was. There are plenty of heats to qualify for the UK. On the Sunday I made a good start and was lucky enough to win the title. I get to meet quite a few fans down there that I only get to see a couple of times a year.

“However, the following week it was the European Championship at Northampton. I wasn’t feeling too good, great excuse, and I was hopeless.

“We then headed over to Venray in Holland to defend the World Cup. I struggled in the time trials and the practice sessions. However, it started to rain and boy did it rain. I managed to get away well at the start of the race and began to make up ground. Midway through the race there was a change to the conditions which affected my car. I just couldn’t get close enough to Wim Peeters to get in a telling challenge and had to settle for second. I knew in scrutineering that his car wasn’t quite right but it wasn’t up to me to complain. I just hoped that my car was alright, which it turned out to be. About a fortnight later I was told that I had been awarded the race although I haven’t received the trophy. Need to win it again next year!”

Continued Gordon: “The World Final was at Hednesford and whilst the car went alright in practice but we weren’t going into the race full of confidence. I just wasn’t sure that the car was quick enough to win. My recent experiences in World Finals haven’t been too good and I have usually had a coming together with Rob Speak.

"I thought I might have had a good chance of winning at Cowdenbeath a couple of years ago but when getting into a challenging position Rob brake tested me and I dropped well down the order before I could get clear. Whilst there was a race suspension I really needed another one if I was going to catch George MacMillan Jnr, However, everyone maybe guessed my intentions and let me through so in the end I had to settle for second.

“I started the race on the outside of row 2 behind Marshall but right in front of Peeters and within yards of crossing the start line we were both in the fence! That was my race run! It was really disappointing for my fans who had traveled quite a distance to see me. It turned out to be a bit of a farce”

There are a few records that he could easily achieve within the next few years and he told me: “ The late Stuart Smith is credited with 500 formula I wins whilst Billy Batten has around 460 final wins in the formula IIs.

"Billy has now retired and I have around 360 wins to my credit and have managed to overtake Rob Speak’s total. I have a lot of respect for Batten. I watched him racing when I was spectating and now that I am chasing Batten’s record it’s a bit of a strange feeling. Once I have passed Batten’s total then I will think about Smith’s but that is a bit away just now.

"I would like to thank all my sponsors for the assistance I get from them and without them it wouldn’t be possible. I need to thank Dave at RCE for the chassis and help and to Mark at SRD for the engines. I have a host of mechanics who help mainly Dad Jimmy, Tam, Scott, Norv, Stan, Paul, Kev, Jeff and all the others who help me out. My mum Evelyn for dealing with our merchandise and to Alex who videos all my meetings".