THE Cowdenbeath Racewall played host, on Saturday night, to the Unlimited Banger drivers with many making their annual pilgrimage to the fast Fife oval, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

The weather was dry and sunny, although there was a chill in the air, but that didn’t stop the drivers from getting stuck in in true banger fashion.

There were a few drivers over from Northern Ireland, the south east and west of England and the Midlands, who joined a healthy turn out of Scottish drivers.

It was a similar story regarding the Junior Bangers drivers, who were in good form and they weren’t afraid to make contact, with James Slater being involved in a heavy back straight shunt.

However, it was the 2 Litre Saloon drivers who stole the show with Aaryn Triggs getting shunted into the pit bend wall by Luke Grief and rolled spectacularly. Triggs was back out for the Allcomers race where he sent Grief bouncing off the wall. Grief though was using the new car of Tam Rutherford Snr, but will no doubt he busy repairing the car during the week.

There were massive queues at the turnstiles and the start time was delayed 30 minutes to allow them into the stadium.

There were 56 banger drivers at the track after there had been quite few late call offs due to various reasons.

The first heat provided the non seeded drivers with a chance to qualify for the final and whilst there were 18 drivers on the grid only four were to make it onto the World Cup grid.

Almost right away there was a three car shunt on the top bend which ended the race for Willie Starwiarski, Matt Randall and Curtis Rathbone. John Riddell was the early leader but he was moved over by Stephen Boyd. Rob Bugler squeezed Marc Key into the wall with Steve Bugler driving full pelt into the rear of Key’s car taking him out of the race.

Boyd went through to win where he led home Tom Waller and Steven Bolton.

The World Cup qualifiers were given a parade lap where Bolton and Lee Kopacz were presented with the best presented car trophies before the grid was formed. As is usual a few of the front runners were sent to the rear of the grid.

This left Boyd and Ricky Hutton on the front row of the grid and when the green flag dropped the cars set of with Boyd leading in a crescendo of noise.

Almost right away contact was made sending cars spinning and whilst Boyd went straight into the lead he was quickly sent spinning out of the race!

This left Jack Overy in the lead from Jordan Cumming, but with contact being made the number of cars on the sidelines grew with Ricky Maskell slotted into third but by lap four Overy was easing away from the field and lapping some of the drivers recovering from spins.

Charlie Taylor exited the race when his steering broke whilst Kopacz came to grief on the main straight. Maskell was being caught but Nathan Roberts, who was making inroads through the field. Ricki Finney and Liam Lake were running in close order but were adrift of those ahead.

In the end Overy went through to claim his fourth World Cup win from Cumming and Hutton although at this stage the result is provisional.

The first of the Allcomers saw almost 40 cars trundle onto the grid with Stacey Holdsworth going through to win from Overy and Dan Rose. Rathbone earned himself the Entertainer award in this race by putting in some hard hits, including a very big hit on Jack Moore.

Cumming then won the second of the Allcomers races when he led home Lake and Tom Waller but the Destruction Derby was short lived with Rob Bugler coming out on top after giving a massive hit to Roberts.

There was a healthy turnout of 2 Litre Saloon drivers with Luke Grief making his first Racewall appearance and using the Tam Rutherford Snr car. The Saloon drivers were in good form and as a result there was some close and exciting racing with local drivers Andrew and Euan Mathieson (Lochgelly) in action..

The opening heat turned out to be fast with Tam Rutherford Jnr taking the lead from A. Mathieson and then going on to win from Grief and Ian McLaughlin with A. Mathieson in fourth place.

However, heat two was something else with Grief sending the Triggs car crashing heavily into the pit bend wall where it ended up rolling, finally coming to rest on its roof at the pit gate. Happily Triggs crawled out of his upturned car unhurt.

On the restart A. Mathieson led but he lost out to Graeme Shevill who went on to win from Barry Russell and McLaughlin with A. Mathieson in seventh place.

Right at the start to the final Holly Glen was sent into a spin by Chris Carey who also spun but both restarted. A. Mathieson was the early leader with Rutherford Jnr chasing. The latter was caught and dropped down the order as McLaughlin moved into second and then began to close in on the leader. The gap dropped but at the end A. Mathieson was just ahead of McLaughlin and Russell.

Triggs appeared for the Allcomers race where he immediately latched onto the back bumper of Grief and drove him into the wall with both cars pulling out at the turnstile bend. Rutherford Jnr caught A. Mathieson before going through to win from McLaughlin and Shevill with A. Mathieson finishing in sixth place..

There was a good field of Junior Bangers at the track and they certainly were in good form with plenty of pushing and shoving in all of their races.

Ronnie Gillett went on to win the opening heat where he led home Louie Cottrill and Joey Holmes Jnr. In the second heat Holmes Jnr took his car through to win and he was followed across the line by Cottrill and Harry Cobb.

The final was suspended after James Slater (Glenrothes) and Cottrill tangled and crashed heavily on the back straight. Cobb led the field away from William Walmsley Jnr but after a couple of laps they swapped places. There followed an exciting dice for second between Jacob Hampson, Cobb and Jacob Rushton with the drivers swapping places a few times. In the end Walmsley Jnr went on to win from Hampson and Rushton.

This Saturday it looks as if it is going to be yet another busy night with the Formula II drivers returning to the scene with the 1300 Saloons, Ministox and MicroF2 drivers in action. The meeting is scheduled to start at 5.30pm when the Micro F2 drivers head out to race.