IT is hard to believe that the first half of the stock car season is basically over already at the Cowdenbeath Racewall, the schools are off and it’s reputed to be summer, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner!

The stock cars are having a three week break this year which allows the formula II drivers to contest the UK Challenge weekend at Skegness and then the European Championship at Northampton.

It has been a very promising time for the Racewall drivers who have up till now managed to win three British Championships!

Chris Burgoyne won the formula II title in Ireland whilst Kyle Irvine (Glenrothes) won the saloon title and Jim Pitcaithly (Kirkcaldy) the ORCi championship. Over and above that the driver numbers are on the increase with the 2 Litre National and 1300cc saloons topping the list.

The introduction of the Zetec engine has certainly been a boon to the 2 Litre saloon drivers and whilst it is allowed in the formula II so far it just hasn’t got the better of the Pinto powered cars.

There have been six newcomers to the 2 Litre saloons and 8 to the 1300cc saloon cars and there are quite a few more building cars for the later in the year.

However, for some drivers there is no break with formula II superstars Robbie Dawson and Craig Wallace, who was the runner-up, racing at Crimond on Saturday with Dawson winning the final and then Wallace heading to Barford on Sunday.

Coupled to that Dennis Middler raced at Buxton on Saturday in a World Championship qualifying round where he won a heat, wasn’t classified in the final, but then brought his car home in fifth place in the Grand National.

There are World Championship qualifying rounds remaining at St. Day, Taunton and the last one at Skegness on the 21st of this month where drivers who are desperate to improve their grid position will head to.

At this stage Burgoyne is sitting in second place in the points race, Gordon Moodie (Windygates) ninth, Dawson 24th. Wallace 38th and whilst Middler was 54th his tally from Buxton will put him well up the order. However with 105 points available there could still be some dramatic changes.

Whilst the Scots seemingly haven’t been too interested in the World Championship this season with both the final and semi-finals being raced on shale both Moodie and Burgoyne have both won on the shale surfaces.

Moodie won his World title on shale at Mildenhall, where the final is to be staged and Burgoyne won a few races on the shale surface last year as he challenged for the National Points title.

Whilst Burgoyne won the British it was Middler who won the Scottish capitalising when both Moodie then Burgoyne had to retire. Middler then had a spectacular rollover when he next appeared wrecking his wing in the process but happily stepping out of his car unhurt.

Newcomers Dale Burt (Lochgelly) and Jason Blacklock are progressing with the latter picking up some really good results.

In the race for the National Points Moodie has already built up a lead of over 430 points from Burgoyne with Wallace in third and Dawson in fifth place.

The 2 litre saloons have had an exciting first half of the season with quite a few spectacular shunts along the way.

Newcomers Jamie Connacher, Kevin and James Letford, Gary Scollen, Davie Sturrock (Saline) and Patrick Calderwood were joined on the rid by James Strath (Cowdenbeath) and Derek Duff (Cupar) whilst Duncan Welsh (Kelty) has just bought the Stuart Drobinski car.

The first of the championship races at the Racewall was the British Championship and as usual it attracted a good turn of cars from England and Northern Ireland.

As usual the Scots were hoping that the title stayed at home and it certainly did but maybe not with the driver they expected!

After the five qualifying heats on Saturday night Irvine was on pole position and he led the race initially, dropped to second then got himself back into the lead. Shortly afterwards he dropped to fourth but didn’t give up and was soon back into the lead. After that no one was going to catch him and he went on to win the race from the Scottish Champion Luke Grief.

Some of the action over the weekend was exceptional, not only was there some close and exciting racing but there were some heavy shunts and spins. World Champion Simon Welton was sent crashing heavily intro the wall by Deane Mayes.

Down at Taunton Willie Skoyles Jnr won the European Championship and things are setting up nicely for the World Championship at Skegness.

The first half of the season came to an end with a joint meeting between GMP and Startrax which brought the mighty formula I drivers north of the border after a space of a couple of years.

The formula Is brought a large following with them and the car park was full of mobile homes of various sizes. The Racewall meeting was the penultimate round in the World Championship qualifying rounds as well as the Scottish Championship.

There was Scottish interest on the grid as well with Paul Ford and Stuart Shevill Jnr on the ranks but most of the top names in the sport had traveled north.

World Champion Rob Speak, who had raced a lot at the Racewall in his formula II days, was looking to pick up as many points as he could but also had his eyes on winning the Scottish Championship. Newly crowned British Champion and five times Scottish Champion Frankie Wainman Jnr and the defending Scottish Champion Tom Harris were others in action whilst Danny van Spijker was over from Holland.

Ford went on to win the opening heat whilst Shevill Jnr was the runner up in the consolation race. However there was a disaster for the Scots in the final with both Shevill Jnr and Ford getting caught out on an oil slick and crashing out whilst Speak crashed out heavily thanks to a bit of a help from Wainman Jnr.

In the end Harris went through to retain his title from Mick Sworder and Michael Steward.

The grid for the formula I final has just been announced with the first being staged at Sheffield and has Mat Newson on pole with Dan Johnson alongside whilst Sworder and Speak are on row 2. The other semi is at Buxton where Frankie Wainman Jnr is on pole with Danny Wainman alongside with Paul Harrison and Lee Fairhurst on row 2 and Harris on the outside of row 3. Shevill Jnr is lucky that he is on the tarmac semi starting the race from row 6. Because of his late start to the season Ford is one of the reserves. The final is on shale at Coventry on September 3rd.