THE final World Championship qualifying round took place down at Skegness on Thursday and whilst there were quite a few changes to the line ups all the Scottish drivers survived, writes Racewall reporter Jim Turner.

Gordon Moodie (Windygates) will start the semi-final from pole position in semi 2 with Euan Millar (Lockerbie) behind him.

Further back Chris Burgoyne (Airth) is on row four but he is injured and will not race whilst Robbie Dawson (Aberdeen) starts from row 9.

The British Champion Craig Wallace (Tranent) starts semi-final 1 on row 3 with Dennis Middler (Carnoustie) on row 8. The semi-finals are to be held at the Racewall on the 5th August.

The stock car meeting at the GMP Cowdenbeath Racewall on Saturday evening proved to be a rather wet one.

In the formula IIs Ian Thompson (Windygates) was having his first outing at the Racewall, Ryan Farquhar was back down from Crimond whilst Marc Fortune was having a rare outing but Adam Blacklock was missing after suffering racing damage down south. Other locals on the grid were Kieran Howie (Dunfermline), Paul and Craig Reid (Cowdenbeath) and Gordon Moodie (Windygates).

The opening heat saw a couple of early leader changes before P. Reid took over but no sooner had he done so when Millar and Forbes tangled and suspended the race with both cars coming to rest at the end of the main straight.

Although P. Reid led on the restart Dennis Middler quickly caught then passed him before going through to win from P. Reid and Thompson with Moodie in fifth and Howie in ninth place.

Forbes led the field away when heat two started and whilst P. Reid led for a while he lost out to Thompson. However, Middler had made good time working his way through the field before closing in on the leader. A nudge sent Thompson wide and allowed Middler through into the lead and during the closing stages was hindered when lapping a back marker. This allowed Robbie Dawson to close right up but Middler held on to cross the finish line ahead of Dawson and Thompson with P. Reid in seventh and Howie in tenth place.

Right at the start of the final Middler half spun in front of the red grade drivers but somehow survived without making contact. Forbes led only to loose out to P. Reid although he had Howie running in close order.

A three car tangle saw Millar drop a lot of places whilst Middler bounced off the wall and retired. Fortune got alongside P. Reid and then moved into the lead and whilst he came under pressure as Reid tried to retake the lead eventually pulled away.

Dawson was given a help going into the pit bend, hit the wall and had to retire. Wallace got ahead of Howie to take third but as the laps ran out Fortune took the win from P. Reid with Wallace in third but crossing the line backwards! Howie was classified in fourth with Moodie sixth and C. Reid in tenth place

The 1300 saloons were down on numbers but had Dougie Kidd having his first outing in them at the Racewall. Local drivers in action were Fraser Anderson (Cowdenbeath), Lee Wilson (Comrie) and Arron Hastie (Ceres).

In heat one Fraser Clark made good use of his blue grade start to win the opening heat from Grant McGowan and Kidd with Anderson in fifth and whilst Wilson’s very late lunge on Hastie saw the latter crash heavily into the wall whilst Wilson limped around to grab seventh place. In heat two Kidd went through to win from Clark who snatched second from Stu McCaig on the last lap and then held off his challenge for the second spot whilst Anderson was fourth.

Lisa Freebairn led the cars away when the final started with Clark making a good start and was soon closing in on the cars ahead. McCaig took the lead but then lost out to Clark who then went through to win from Kidd and McGowan with Anderson in fifth, Hastie seventh and Wilson in ninth place.

Amongst the new faces in the Prostox basics were Dougie Ford, Ryan Sher, Connor Jones (Lochgelly), Willie Stewart, Aaron Cuthill (Cardenden) and Scot Rankin and they joined regular drivers Megan Wilson (Comrie) and Jordan Dignan (Leven).

The opening heat saw Jillian Cartmel and Ford coming together resulting in Cartmel hitting a marker tyre, Ford broke a steering arm whilst Cuthill retired with a puncture.

Robert Grant went through to win from John Rankin and Wilson. In heat two J. Rankin went through to win from Ford and Jones with Wilson seventh but Cuthill hit the pit bend wall hard and broke the rear hub on the car.

The final saw Sher and Jones fight over the lead for most of the race with Jones just getting the better of the exchanges to win from Sher and Ian Sutherland with Dignan sixth.

The hot saloons were back down from Crimond and in drawn grids Dave Largue and Mark Farquhar were the heat winner. Largue and Farquhar diced throughout the final, finishing in that order with Mark Mathers third.

The banger drivers were in their usual destructive modes and there was many a car that was left in a very sorry state! Local drivers on the grid were Josh Heeps (Inverkeithing) and Gary Mentoplay (Saline).

Steve Allan sent the Darren Linton car wide to take the lead before going on to win comfortably from Linton and Ryan Scott with Heeps sixth and Mentoplay seventh.

Heat two was suspended almost before it had got going when Scott was dumped into the wall heavily leaving his car stranded across the track. On the restart Allan was spun and then Ryan Martin was sent wide into the wall and as he tried to get across the track hit Heeps. Whilst Darren Linton led it was David Linton who caught and passed him before going on to a comfortable win over Marc Dalgarno and a recovering Allan.

The final saw Darren Linton lead the cars away with David Linton and Heeps tangling almost right away. Darren Linton was sent wide and out of the race allowing Allan back into the lead. Mentoplay was caught up in the action, his car was running sideways anyway and he retired. Heeps was sent spinning by David Linton and towards the end of the race Sean McConnachie was sent spinning by Allan and then hit by David Linton with both cars retiring. In the end Allan went through to win but he was chased all the way to the flag by Dalgarno whilst all the others were sidelined.

This Saturday the formula IIs and 2 litre National saloons are back in action along with the classic hot rods, ministox and microf2s. The microf2s take to the track at 5.45pm for their first race with the meeting starting at 6.00pm as usual.