WELL the BriSCA Formula II season maybe over at the Cowdenbeath Racewall but there are still a few important meetings to be run south of the border, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

One is at Belle Vue on Sunday where the destination of the National Series and the right to race with the silver roof on the car will be decided.

It has turned out to be a two driver race with the defending silver roof Gordon Moodie (Windygates) heading into the round 11 with a 76 point advantage over Chris Burgoyne (Airth) and with double points on offer it is not quite a done deal – although almost!

Moodie started off the season just racing on shale with his new RCE chassis which he quickly got set up and made quite a good impression with it.

At the Racewall there were three new faces, Peter Watt (Kirriemuir), Ewan Mackie (Armadale) and ex-Ministox champion Steven Burgoyne. Chris Burgoyne (Airth) made his return on the second week of the season and thankfully had fully recovered from the serious back injury he had sustained down at Bristol when defending his British Championship.

There was a dearth of cars as the season started with quite a few drivers still trying to get their cars ready after some major changes to chassis and as a result it took quite a few weeks to get the numbers back up.

The lack of cars was a bit of a drawback for Watt and Mackie who found themselves more than not in the results and instead of gaining more race time from the white grade saw them move up to the yellow grade at the first grading period. Steven Burgoyne on the other hand quickly found his feet with wins coming along fairly quickly and with final wins under his belt moved from white to yellow then blue in quick succession. However, he was soon racing from the red grade where he was able to hold his own.

The first of the major championship races, the British, was held on the shale at Mildenhall in April. Craig Wallace (Tranent) had won it at Bristol and whilst he hadn’t a lot of experience on shale went down to defend his title. It proved to be a Scottish success with Chris Burgoyne getting his title back whilst Moodie was fourth.

At the Crimond World Championship qualifying round it was Craig Driscoll (Huntingdon) who won where he led home Adam Blacklock (Forth) and Euan Millar (Lockerbie).

Moodie debuted his tarmac car down at Northampton at the beginning of May and had won a Racewall final by the end of the month!

The first of the “big” races at the Racewall was held over the weekend of the 2nd/3rd June when the Scottish Championship was to be decided on the Saturday and the World Championship qualifying round was to be staged on the following day. A Scottish win is important to the drivers as it gives the drivers an automatic entry into the National Series.

There were sufficient cars at the track on Saturday night to run a full BriSCA format with heat wins going to Robbie Dawson (Aberdeen) and Chris Burgoyne with Blacklock winning the consolation race after having rolled his car in the previous heat.

The start to the final was a nervy affair and there were a couple of stoppages before it began in earnest. Once it did Blacklock moved into the lead but Liam Rennie (Dundee) closed him down towards the end of the race with Millar not that far adrift. On the last bend Rennie made his bid for the lead but both he and Blacklock ended up crashing into the wall which allowed Millar to go through become the youngest driver to become the Scottish Championship.

The formula II World Champion qualifying round was another good advert for formula II racing with Wallace, Millar and Rennie winning the heats. Blacklock led the final for a considerable part of the race but this time Rennie took the lead without contact to win.

On the June 16 the Formula I drivers made their annual trek to Scotland with Scottish drivers Lindsay Wilson (Comrie), Millar, Ronnie Ferguson (Edinburgh), John Fortune (Edinburgh) and Stuart Shevill Jnr (Cleland) in their ranks.

It proved to be an exciting night of racing with Karl Hawkins, Tom Harris and Craig Utley taking heat wins whilst Martin Spiers took his new car to a final win where he collected the Scottish Championship and World Championship qualifying points.

Not to be outdone the Formula II drivers served up four action packed races with Chris Burgoyne and Blacklock taking heat wins with Burgoyne winning the final and Moodie the Grand National.

The holiday break at the Racewall saw the drivers head south to Skegness where Moodie won the UK Challenge final but at the European Championship on the Northampton shale there was little success for the Scottish drivers with Steve Mallinson winning.

The Formula II Semi-finals were held at Barford on the 5th August and there were high hopes of good results for the Scottish drivers. Moodie and C. Burgoyne were on the front row for each of the semis and both won but there was also joy for Wallace whilst Rennie and Robbie Dawson both claimed good results despite starting as reserves!

Back at the Racewall Millar won the Chapman trophy and was now challenging Wallace in the race for the track points title.

Rennie went on to win the Turner Trophy after C. Burgoyne and Gregor Turner (Dunfermline) crashed out on the last bend whilst the following week Autospeed headed back to take over the Racewall over the weekend of the September 1/2.

On Saturday the main race of the night was the Geo Mac 100 Memorial Trophy with the drivers racing in a two-thirds format.

Moodie, Stevie Forster (Carluke) and Rennie were the heat winners and when the final got underway there was a series of lead changes until Forster took over. He was being closed down by C. Burgoyne but it wasn’t until the last lap that Burgoyne forced his way through to win from Forster On Sunday the first race was the F2 Nationals with the drivers drawing their start positions out of a hat with white grader Craig Reid (Cowdenbeath) drawing pole position. The leader and Dawson tangled after a restart allowing Ian Thompson (Kennoway) into the lead. However just before the half distance Chris Burgoyne took the lead and despite Gordon Moodie closing fast there was little to chose between them as the crossed the finish line with Millar third.

The National Series began at Skegness on September 14 and after that, basically every fortnight there were three Scottish drivers competing which you could say left the Racewall three drivers short.

Blair Anderson (Brechin) won the white/yellow challenge final at Crimond before Turner did likewise at the Racewall. Millar was now ahead in the track points race but Wallace was not letting him build up too big a lead.

At the penultimate meeting at the Racewall Dawson won both heats as well as the final to win the James Clarke Cochrane Memorial Trophy. Mind you, Thompson had been first home in two of the races but had been penalised for too good a start!

The final meeting of the season was the Racewall round of the National Series and whilst there were six National Series drivers on the grid, three were Scottish. Daniel Ford (Sheffield), Kelvyn Marshall (Maccelsfield) and James Riggall (Skegness) didn’t appear. Moodie was to start the meeting some 67 points clear of C. Burgoyne. The rain started just in time for heat two and was even worse when the final got underway.

The opening race of the night was the Champion of Champions final, a race that is only open to race winners at the Racewall. Turner took the victory by a comfortable margin from C. Burgoyne and Thompson. It was still raining heavily when the cars lined up for their final and despite the dreadful conditions John Hogg (Berwick) went through to win from C. Burgoyne and Moodie with Blacklock sixth. McKinstry then won the Grand National from Millar and Wallace with Moodie sixth and now 74 points ahead.

At Barford in National Series round 10 Moodie’s lead increased to 76 points as they headed to Belle Vue for the last round where 100 points were on offer.

* The National Series concluded on the shale at Belle Vue where it was a two driver race with Gordon Moodie leading Chris Burgoyne by some 76 points. However, that would normally be a winning total but there were double points on offer.

Burgoyne finished sixth in his heat reducing Moodie’s lead to 66 but with Moodie picking up a sixth in the consolation then the gap was up to 68 points.

With tension building up the cars lined up for a 40 point race and not long into the race there was a race suspension. As the race progressed Moodie was forced wide and dropped places with Chris Burgoyne going through to a fifth place finish. It was now impossible for Moodie’s points advantage to be overhauled and as a result he clinched the National Series and will race with the silver roof for the 13th season.