THE cars turned up in their numbers at the Cowdenbeath Racewall on Saturday but as they did a drizzle began – not heavy enough to cause the drivers problems initially, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

The ORCi Stock Rod drivers were participating in time trials to determine their starting position on the World Final grid and during the afternoon there was practice for the BriSCA Formula IIs and 2 Litre National Saloons.

There was Scottish delight when home driver Lee McGill brought his car home in first place to win the Gilmore Engineering Stock Rod World Championship after having dominated most of the race.

We were even treated to the pace car driver Keith Ramsay spinning the control car and was presented with a sugar donut shortly afterwards!

On Sunday there was another famous Cowdenbeath Roar when Barry Glen led the McGill Motorsport 2 Litre Saloon ORCi Championship from start to finish but it was the turn of Irish yes to smile when Niall McFerran won the ORCi Stock Rod Scottish Open Championship and Michael Hastie Memorial. It was certainly a great advert for short oval racing.

The time trials for the Stock Rods saw the drivers take to the track in seeded grids with World Champion Stephen McCready the fastest overall so he earned pole position with Jordan Morgan alongside.

Kurtis Reid was quickest in group 2, Jack Kennedy in group 3 and Ian Thompson Snr in group 4. Local drivers were Stuart McKinnon (Kincardine), Lee McGill (Glenrothes), David Dignan (Leven), Stuart Wedderburn (Leven) and Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy).

The best of the Scottish drivers was Bethune who was to start from the inside of row 2 whilst McGill was on the outside of row three.

Wedderburn won the last chance qualifying race from David Dignan and Stuart McKinnon.

The drizzle had made the track greasy and after their parade lap the cars lined up and set off on two warm up laps. As the tension mounted the green flag dropped with McCready going straight into the lead but Bethune was alongside Morgan and slotted into second. Next time around McGill was in third with Morgan fourth. The top four were running nose to tail and then to a Scottish roar Bethune got inside McCready to lead with McGill following through. Bethune came across a spinning David Dignan and in a flash McGill was through into the lead.

With Bethune and McCready fighting over second McGill began to ease away as Morgan began to lose ground. At the half distance McGill was lapping the tenth placed car and was well clear.

Bethune and McCready were still dicing for second but Morgan was being caught by Cameron Doak. Niall McFerran retired and then Jordan Wainwright tangled with Morgan with both retiring. McGill then reeled off the remaining laps to win but McCready managed to get ahead of Bethune to claim the runners-up spot.

There were two heats for the Open Scottish which saw Jon Dunn win from Bethune and Reid whilst in the other McGill and Thompson Snr crashed out as McCready won from McFerran and Justin Washer.

In the formula IIs visitors included Ant Riley, Jon Palmer and Colin Gregg, whilst the front row World finalists, Gordon Moodie and Chris Burgoyne, were both in action whilst local drivers were Kieran Howie (Dunfermline), Paul and Craig Reid (Cowdenbeath), Ian Thompson (Kennoway) and Gordon Moodie (Windygates).

The cars raced in a two thirds format with Moodie winning heat one from Stevie Forster and C. Burgoyne with C. Reid eighth. Heat two saw Forster just fend off Moodie with Liam Rennie third and C. Reid tenth. In heat three Rennie won from Daniel Scrimgeour and Craig Wallace with Thompson fifth, Howie eighth and P. Reid in tenth

There was a drawn grid for the Geo Mac 100 trophy with Pete Davidson leading but he was to lose out to Alex Gault who led for a few laps. Daniel Scrimgeour moved into the lead but had Forster closing him down. Moodie tangled with Gault and lost ground whilst Forster took the lead.

However, C. Burgoyne was finding traction and began to eat into Forsters’ lead and with one to go C. Burgoyne dived into the lead to win from Forster and Robbie Dawson with P. Reid tenth.

Dawson then won the Grand National from Forster and P. Reid with Moodie fourth

Max Stott, the new 2 Litre Saloon World Champion, appeared for the first time with the gold roof on his car whilst other Champions at the track included Graeme Shevill, Deane Mayes and the defending ORCi Champion Michael Allard.

The action in the ORCi qualifying heats were exciting with plenty of contact, sliding into the wall and a few spins thrown in for good measure. Local drivers in action were Kyle Irvine (Glenrothes), Raymond Dick (Glenrothes), Ross Watters (Leven), Euan and Andrew Mathieson (Lochgelly) and Alex Cunningham (Leven).

Michael Allard won the first heat from Irvine and Greg Honeyman. Heat two ended with Cole Atkins being pushed sideways across the finish line winning from Adam O’Dell, Luke Grief and Irvine.

Heat three saw Marc Honeyman win from long time leader Ross Forrest and James Letford. The final heat went to Barry Glen who won from Barry Russell and Mayes.

On Sunday the weather was dry and as a result the racing was faster than the night before.

The main race of the day was the saloon ORCi Championship and from the result of the previous evening the grid looked impressive with Barry Glen on pole but he had Cole Atkins alongside, Shevill and Allard on row 2 with Mayes and Irvine on row 3.Glen got the race underway but on lap two there was a stoppage with debris on the track.

Glen led the field away from Cole and Shevill but then Mayes got in a telling challenge to appear in second. It stayed like this for many lap with Allard third and in touch.

The five lap board appeared with Glen clear but Mayes under pressure from Allard, with Shevill waiting to pick up the pieces. At the start to the last lap Allard got inside Mayes but going into the pit bend Mayes sent him crashing off the wall with the car spinning but failing to reach the finish line, allowing Shevill to claim third.

Glen got out of his car clambered onto the car's roof to take the applause from the fans.

The Formula II drivers had their National Championship up for grabs with the drivers drawing their starting positions out of a hat.

Craig Reid drew pole but had Robbie Dawson alongside and after a false start they tangled and it was Ian Thompson who led,.However, just before the half distance Chris Burgoyne took the lead and despite Moodie closing fast there was little to chose between them as the crossed the finish line with Euan Millar third. Daniel Scrimgeour won the heat, Dawson the final and Moodie the Grand National.

The Stock Rod drivers contested another two heats to determine their grid positions for the Open Scottish where Andrew Morrow and Niall McFerran were the winners but Scottish hope Bethune blew his engine.

McFerran was on pole and it was he who led the field away. Morrow slipped in behind with McCready in third. Morrow got caught up with a spinning car allowing McCready into second. Despite McCready trying every way to get through McFerran held on for an Irish 1-2-3 being followed home by McCready and Reid.

It had been an exciting weekend's racing changing from non contact to light contact to full blooded contact giving the fans what they wanted.

There is no racing at the Racewall this week with the Formula II drivers down at Bristol for their World Final. The front row of the grid has Moodie on pole with Chris Burgoyne alongside. Liam Rennie, Robbie Dawson and Craig Wallace are also on the grid and we wish them well.