IT was wet at the practice meeting at the GMP Cowdenbeath Racewall on Sunday afternoon and whilst the drivers were able to shake down their cars it was only a wet set up that they were able to work on, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

There were a couple of new faces with Alex Gault and Chris Chance bringing their formula IIs out, although the latter has raced stock rods over the past few years.

Chance brought his car up from Darlington for the practice whilst there were four cars down from the North of Scotland.

The BriSCA formula II season starts next Saturday with the drivers having a choice of meetings, either a shale meeting at King’s Lynn or a tarmac one at Birmingham whilst on Sunday they can race at either Stoke or Skegness.

There are three Scottish drivers booked into King’s Lynn and Stoke and they include Gordon Moodie (Windygates), Dennis Middler and George MacMillan Jnr.

Moodie will probably be using the Randall chassis he used last year whilst the IG chassis is being readied. Middler will use the Randall chassis be obtained last year and will be hoping that he scores well during the first World Championship qualifying round.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Euan Millar, Stevie Forster, Marc Fortune and Adam Blacklock down at Birmingham for the Saturday night meeting. Millar will be looking to get his season underway quickly and will be looking to score as heavily as possible as he looks to get his challenge for the Novice off the Year trophy off to a good start.

At the practice Stevie Forster brought out his new TLF chassis and very smart it looks. Whilst he did a few runs with the car it was basically a shake down outing to make sure things were alright. Mind you he was soon setting reasonable times although there was never a dry line for them to run on.

The fastest driver at the start was without doubt Marc Fortune who was using the car he raced last year and he was quickly running fastest although quite a bit slower than what he would have in the dry. If Fortune does a full season’s racing then I could see him qualifying for the National Series at the end of the year but to do so he will have to race at a few of the shale tracks.

Craig Wallace, who finished in third place in the National points last year, took the opportunity to make sure his wet set up was to his liking and he must have been pleased with how his car ran. In the end Wallace put in the fastest lap but there wasn’t much differ3ence between his and Fortune’s laps

Adam Blacklock was another who made sure that his car was running as it should and he will be looking forward to getting his season off to a good start.

Ryan Adamson (Freuchie) continued to impress as he got to grips with the wet conditions whilst Chance had to cope with the change from front wheel to rear wheel drive. However, whilst he did spin on a couple of occasions he was getting faster each time he was out!

Gault, who has bought the ex-Meikle chassis, gave the car a few explority laps as he found out what formula II racing is all about!

Paul Reid (Cowdenbeath) still has his finger bandaged but is hoping to get started on building up his old car with the new one put to the side at present.

John Fortune continues to work on his formula I chassis and is still hoping for a may appearance.

The 2 Litre National saloons season starts next week and they have the choice of racing at either King’s Lynn or at Wimbledon and there will probably be one or tow of the Scottish cars starting their season there.

At the Racewall the quickest there was the British Champion Kyle Irvine (Glenrothes) and he looked quite happy with how his car was performing in the wet conditions. Irvine will be defending his British title over the weekend of the 24/25 June on the shale at King’s Lynn.

Both Marc and Greg Honeyman were in action with re-panelled cars. Both cars looked very smart and seemed to be handling quite well in the conditions. G. Honeyman ended up with the fastest saloon lap and will be keen to see the season starting.

Scott Jamieson and Kes Watson were down from Crimond and put in quite a few consistent laps as did Barry Russell in his car.

Newcomers Callum McIvor (Inverkeithing) and Tam Rutherford Jnr continued to impress with consistent laps and they are surely going to pick up some good results when the season starts.

In the 1300saloons the Scottish champion Fraser Anderson (Cowdenbeath) was without doubt the fastest and he must be looking forward to the start of the season where he will be looking to challenge for the track points title.

Grant McGowan and Aaron Hastie (Ceres) took time to get used to the conditions and once they did they lapped quickly which augers well.

Stuart MacDonald was back after setting up his car last week and quickly got to grips with the wet conditions.

Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy) had both of his ORCi stock rods at the track and was just that bit slower than Jim Pitcaithly (Kirkcaldy) although he wasn’t that far adrift.

Cameron Doak ran strongly as did Leon Stewart in their last season cars whilst Simon Laing (Springfield) brought out his new Corsa and soon had it running to his liking. The paint scheme is a change from last years offering and is eye catching.

With the Racewall hosting the ORCi European Championship, which Bethune is defending, the home drivers will be looking to get their cars set up for the occasion as soon as possible.

Max Walker was back down from Crimond with his mini and he showed up well but it was Mika Millar who was the quickest making light of the conditions. Millar should be moving up the grades this season as well as visiting the winners circle.

Declan Honeyman showed up well in his mini and once he gets used to the hustle and bustle of the minis will soon make his mark.

It will be a similar story with Hannah Borthwick who used the time to get as many laps under her belt as she could as she makes the transition from microf2s to the minis.

There were quite a few microf2s at the track with the fastest being Jamie Dawson who on this showing is going to be difficult to beat.

However, Rebecca Reid (Cowdenbeath) did her best and her times weren’t that far adrift whilst Ross McLaughlin and Leon Muir (Thornton) were just a shade slower.

Of the newcomers Rhys Anderson, Freyda Lovett and Karra Russell all fared well and coped with the wet conditions well. Mind you Russell did have a shunt and whilst she had the medics attended she was soon out of her car.

This week there is another practice session, the last prior to the start to the season and hopefully there will be quite a few cars in attendance as they try to get their cars set up for the start to the season. Again the session starts at 1.00pm and runs through until 4.00pm. Let’s hope that it is dry for a change!