THE brother and sister combination of Barry and Holly Glen completed another hard season on the ovals where Barry races a saloon and Holly a formula II, and both feel they have plenty to offer Cowdenbeath Racewall crowds in 2015, writes Jim Turner.

At the start of last season both appeared with new to them cars with Barry starting out with the ex-Graeme Shevill motor, whilst Holly was using a RWT chassis and became the first Lady Outlaw!

The RWT cars always display the face of an Outlaw on their cars stemming back to their days of racing at Newtongrange, under the Fast Light then Skoal Bandits.

It wasn’t surprising that both ended up racing stock cars, especially after their parents, Heather and George, had raced bangers quite a few years ago. Not only that but when their cousin Stevie Nicol started racing minis it was George who was his mechanic.

When Holly, who is the older, reached the ripe old age of 10 it was natural that she wanted a mini and true to form she managed to persuade her parents to get one.

She told me, “I certainly enjoyed my time in the minis. I raced them until I was 16 and my last season was certainly my best.

“I won nearly everything that year, apart from the Scottish Championship – and this championship is still a bogey one for me!

“Barry should then have taken over the driving but held off for a year and by that time I managed to persuade dad to get me a formula II”.

Barry was in the minis a year later and raced it for 18 months before he too reached the ripe old age of 16. He said, “I moved to the stock rods the season after I finished in the minis, but only did four meetings. I struggled with a series of mechanical problems and decided enough was enough and retired. I had a few meetings in bangers and Robins before deciding that I wanted to race saloons”.

Over the years Holly, who is a sheet metal supervisor, progressed well and raced from either the blue or yellow grades, “I started out with a car that Keith Brown had used then picked up an ex-Bryan Forrest car. In 2006 we got a new Burgoyne chassis and raced that until the end of last season.

“I got sponsorship from Warren Taylor who used to be the Hartlepool promoter, in the form of a chassis and then later on in the season, an engine. I have not missed a meeting at the Racewall for over five years, although at times I had to spend a good few hours in the garage to get the car back on the track”.

Holly told me, “I am very much hands on and do all the setting up of my car. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and if any one has to get underneath either the two or the saloon it somehow lands in my lap. I have got quite good at changing a diff as well as removing engines from either of the cars. We work quite well together on the cars and we try to pay attention to get the them set up properly.

“This year both cars were new to us so it was going to be an experience finding out the their limits. The practice sessions for us gave us an insight into how the cars were going to perform”.

Barry recalled, “I started the season as a white grader and during the first grading period did well. I won a heat and final at the opening meeting and felt really good in the car. I managed to pick up enough points at the first grading period to take me to the red grade, but under the saloon rules can only go to blue. The following month I was up to red and stayed there until the closing months when I dropped back to blue.

“Saloon racing is hard and when you get a help into the wall its sore believe me it is! I went through six engines over the year and at the formula II World Final weekend, I blew a motor.

“Mike McCombie said I could borrow his, but that meant driving to Alford, which is about an hour above Aberdeen, then taking the engine out of Mike’s car before setting off back home. It was three in the morning when I got back. I slept for a few hours then was up bright and early to get it back in the car.

“After all that I did about seven laps before I was put in the wall and wrecked one of my brand new tyres! There were eight holes in the sidewall. I didn’t score a point over the three days of the weekend but Holly did.” Earlier in the season Barry was one of the saloon drivers who contested the British saloon Championship at the Racewall, “I did two laps before I was bullied by the Shevill brothers and ended up on my side.

“I got back out but had problems and didn’t qualify for the British. On the Sunday we raced in the Raymond Gunn Memorial but I was sent crashing into the wall by Barry Russell and then spun out after I had bounced off the wall. Later in the year there was the Scottish Championship, but again it didn’t pan out too well and I crashed into the wall after only a handful of laps”.

At that point Holly chipped in, “I have some memories of the formula II Scottish Championships. It was at Crimond this year and my cars have never really gone well there so I gave it a miss. The year prior I managed to finish the race, maybe not in the points, but with my wing intact! That was a big plus for me! The year prior my wing was wrecked when Raymond Dick rolled over my car on the main straight. A couple of years prior I was in a shunt and ended up on my side at the start of one of the ‘Scottish’ races but then Chris Burgoyne and Gordon Moodie had a coming together resulting with Gordon crashing into my car.

“Although I wasn’t hurt, I had skint my knuckles and was glad to get out of my car. When we got to the pits I found out that I had broken a shockie and whilst I would have liked to have gone back out didn’t have a spare.

“At the end of the season I went down to Barford for their white/yellow challenge final and with a bit of bumperwork – yes me!- I got the leader wide on the last bend to snatch the win. I phoned Barry, who was supposed to be racing at Cowdenbeath, but had injured himself on the Saturday night, and he didn’t believe me!

“To end what had been a good season for me I was awarded the Barford formula II driver of the year!” Holly also recalled, “We had a spot of trouble getting to one of the meetings this year when our trailer developed a problem.

“I had to go back home, borrow another trailer before loading up all Barry’s spares. We loaded Barry’s car onto the trailer and then we set off for the Racewall, just managed to get there before the meeting started and there was Barry standing in the pits wondering what was going on”, Barry smiled and told us, “I had been in Edinburgh!” Looking ahead, Barry told me, “I have stripped down the saloon for next year, cut out the roll cage and nearly all the side panels.

“I will be staring to rebuild the car fairly soon and there are quite a few folk who are going to give me a hand to get it ready for the start of the season.

“Mind you Holly’s car is sitting in the garage just waiting to get a bit of TLC for next season. We would like to thank our sponsors for their support. We appreciate their contributions and really without them we might not be able to carry on!”