THE early rain shower made track conditions a bit tricky at the Cowdenbeath Racewall on Saturday night during the opening part of the stock car meeting but after the track dried out the racing became faster, writes Jim Turner.

There were 15 banger caravans at the track and they created havoc whilst at the end of the stock rod final both Derek Conner and Stuart McKinnon fell out and the drivers had to be calmed down!

However, the race that the fans had all come to see was the banger caravan race with the cars being paraded around the track before they lined up on the grid. There were caravans of all shapes and sizes and any motorist who has been stuck behind one on a windy road were certainly looking forward to what was about to be served up.

Almost right away there was contact on the pit bend with Arran Lithgow’s caravan quickly becoming separated and immediately wrecked.

The wrecking continued with James Dillon being in a shunt on the pit bend which saw his car end up almost on its side with a wrecked caravan beside.

On the turnstile bend there was another shunt which saw Ross Stewart and his caravan left sitting amongst a group of cars and caravans.

In the end, amid all the wreckage, it was deemed that Bob Moffat and Callum Campbell were adjudged to be the last cars running with any semblance of a trailer still connected!

There was a good field of stock rods at the track including Fife drivers Lee Smart (Leslie), David Dignan (Leven), Mick and Steven Archibald (Leslie), Craig Mason (Dunfermline), Stuart McKinnon (Lochore), Garry Stuart Gilfillan (Kelty) and Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy).

The opening heat saw Siobhan Martin go through to win comfortably from Bethune and Willie Hardie and Smart in tenth. Heat two ended with Hardie winning narrowly from Brett Sneddon and Martin Rankin with McKinnon in fifth place.

When the final started M Archibald took the lead but within a couple of laps Martin Rankin was through but was soon to have James Gray closing him down.

Jonathan Lattka was clipped and spun on the main straight bringing the race into suspension. The cars lined up behind Rankin who led the pack away but had Gray in close order.

Just after the half distance Gray moved into the lead with Conner in third just ahead of Bethune whilst McKinnon was coming through the field and during the closing stages got ahead of Bethune and reeled in Conner. However, Gray was clear taking the chequer ahead of Rankin but there was contact between Conner and McKinnon resulting in both cars ending up against the marker tyres on the back straight. Both drivers were excluded from the results with Chris Lattka being elevated to third just ahead of Bethune with Gilfillan in ninth place.

There was another good turnout of prostox drivers including local drivers Lee Wilson (Comrie), Jazz Moore (Kelty), Bob and Steve Gold (Cowdenbeath), Grady Ross (Lochgelly), Ian Christie (Kirkcaldy), Andrew White (Methil), Aundre Adams (Kelty), Callum McIver (Dunfermline) and Raymond Brown (Kelty).

Heat one ended with Tam Melrose taking the win from Ally McDonald and Ian Walle Jnr with Ross fifth and Brown in tenth place. McDonald got the better of the exchanges during heat two and he led home Melrose, James Letford and Ross, B Gold seventh and S Gold ninth.

Brown led the cars away when the final started and began to build up a useful lead over White and then S. Gold before Duncan Tetstall moved into second place.

With three laps remaining Wilson was shunted into the pit bend wall bringing out a race suspension. The cars lined up behind Brown who then got the race underway and almost immediately began to pull away from the pack.

Tetstall was sent wide as Melrose moved into second place but Brown held on before going on to win by a comfortable margin from Melrose and Tetstall with B. Gold seventh and S Gold in ninth.

There weren’t too many bangers around but the opening heat saw Joe Morgan go through to win after long time leader Bob Moffat hit troubles and was then sent bouncing off the wall. Heat two only lasted a few laps before it was stopped after Neil Naismith demolished the remainder of the runners.

The youngsters were out and about in the MicroF2s and whilst some struggled a bit during the wet opening heat there was plenty of excitement and big smiles from the drivers once they stepped out of their cars.

Teri Linden and Jay Paterson were winners but were never given a moment’s peace from, Kai Gilmour, Jamie Dawson and Leon Muir.

This Saturday the formula IIs are back in action along with the National Hot Rods, Lightning rods and Minis with the meeting starting at 6.00pm as usual.

* At the formula II semi-finals at Mildenhall the first semi-final was won by Barry Goldin who led home Chris Bradbury with George MacMillan Jnr in fourth place.

Semi-final 2 ended with Josh Coleman winning from Rob Speak whilst Gordon Moodie (Windygates) was sixth and Dennis Middler in tenth place.