THE second practice meeting at the Cowdenbeath Racewall was held in dry and fine conditions on Sunday afternoon and attracted a good turn out of drivers from all over.

With the Racewall season fast approaching they were there to practice hard, with Catherine Grant bringing her stock rod up from Darlington whilst Edwin Middleton brought his formula II down from Peterhead.

One driver who certainly chalked up the laps was NHRPA driver Billy Bonnar (Ballingry) who is looking to get off to a flying start to the second part of the hot rod season as he tries to qualify for the World Final at Ipswich.

Billy’s car looked immaculate and it certainly went well as he chalked up stints of 25 laps making minor adjustments to his car in between runs.

There were certainly plenty of formula II drivers at the track and it was a bit strange to see Gordon Moodie (Windygates) racing with a red roof instead of the silver one he has had for the past five years.

Still, using his last season’s car Gordon chalked up some very impressive laps clocking just under 13.9 seconds on more than one occasion.

Moodie’s new car is almost ready but will have to wait for its first outing as next week Moodie is racing down at Birmingham.

Dennis Middler (Carnoustie) brought out his shale car for a shake down and it has a new almost dayglo red colour scheme! Middler encountered a few problems with the car but was quite happy with its handling at the close.

Middler, like Moodie, will not be at the Racewall for the next practice session – he is heading down to King’s Lynn for the first of the World Championship qualifying rounds.

Garry Sime (Dundee) had his new car running well and should he manage to get it sign written he too will head to Birmingham.

Superstar Craig Wallace (Tranent) had a pleasing session with his car and will be looking forward to the start to the season along with Marc Fortune (Edinburgh) who is returning after serving his suspension. Stevie Forster (Carluke) was another going well and taking the opportunity to make some minor adjustments to the set up.

Back after missing a couple of seasons is Alex Hamilton (Airth) and he was quickly into his stride and posted some good times which augers well.

Ryan Walker (Dunfermline) was having a run in Gregor Turner’s car and whilst he posted some really quick times after altering the car’s settings after each run. Middleton took the opportunity to shake down his car whilst Simon Cranson (Cowdenbeath) was again running strongly

Chris Davidson (Perth) and newcomers Jason Blacklock (Forth) and Dale Burt (Lochgelly) both had the odd patch of troubles but in between used the time to get used to their cars.

The fans got their opportunity to see the new Grief built saloon of Barry Glen (Dundee) and whilst the car ran well he didn’t have his troubles to seek and in one run his car shed a wheel!

Glen Heeps (Linlithgow) struggled with a mechanical problem as did Dave Sturrock (Saline) which curtailed their time on the track but both will be back next week no doubt with their cars running smoothly.

David Hughes (Inverurie) was down with his saloon and going well whilst an interested on looker was James Strath (Aberdeen) who has his saloon al ready to go.

Robin Copland (Edinburgh) was running well in his car whilst Gemma Russell (Kirkcaldy) and Barry Russell (Brechin) looked reasonably quick when they were in action.

There were plenty of eye catching stock rods at the track and most went as quick as they looked.

World Champion Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy) has a new paint scheme and whilst it is basically the same colours the style is different. His roof is certainly interesting with the gold of the World Championship taking pride of place along with many other colours signifying the championships he has won,

Michael was only out once before putting the car back onto the trailer.

The new cars of James Matson (Glenrothes) and Jim Pitcaithly (Kirkcaldy) were quick and they took the opportunity to get as many laps in as possible to make sure that the set up was right and to their liking.

Trevor Calvin (Lanark) and Cameron Doak (Lanark) ran well as did Craig Tosh (Glenalmond) although the latter had a problem during one of his runs.

Leon Stewart (Ratho) proved to be quick and looks to be heading for a good season and once Steven Archibald (Glenrothes) got onto the track he did well.

Simon Laing (St Andrews) had a good session and should be picking up some good results once the season begins.

Grant, who had a few alterations to do to her car to get it running looked to be pretty quick and hopes to travel north to the Racewall as often as she can.

Bryan Lindsay (Forfar) has had a difficult time of it and he hasn’t even started racing finding a problem with the car on Saturday night and didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Things didn’t get much better at the track where he encountered a couple of problems which curtailed his time on the track to a minimum.

Robyn and Logan Bruce (Brechin) showed up well with Robyn turning in some very quick laps. Sean Naismith (Stepps) was another who ran well and he must surely be climbing the grades once the racing commences.

Mika Millar (Gorebridge) may start the season as a white grader but shouldn’t be there for too long as he continues to improve.

Newcomers Lauren Ford (Earlston) and Ryan Borthwick (Armadale) were improving at each outing.

Rebecca Reid (Cowdenbeath) was the quickest in the microF2s but Leon Muir (Thornton) wasn’t that far adrift whilst newcomer Ross McLaughlin (Bridge of Earn) did well on his debut.

Grant McGowan (Grangemouth) was quick in his 1300cc saloon whilst Lee Wilson (Comrie) had a good outing in his car. Brian Allan (Tillycoultry) was busy setting up another 1300cc saloon for his girlfriend Jordan Hornall (Banknock) and she will be a welcome addition to their ranks.

Aaron Hastie (Ceres) may just make the first meeting but if his foot injury hasn’t cleared up then father Brian is determined that he will be racing the car.

Next Sunday the practice is open to all formulae and whilst some of the formula IIs and saloons could head south of the border there could well be a few other cars on show. As usual it is a 1.00pm start.