THE first of the Cowdenbeath Racewall speedweekends takes place over Saturday and Sunday and it promises to be an exciting two days of racing, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

Topping the bill are the BriSCA Formula IIs, who have their Scottish Championship and Challenge Trophy to contest, the ORCi Stock Rods their European Championship and the Ministox their East of Scotland Championship.

The Formula II drivers list will be headed by the World Champion Gordon Moodie, who has just recently won the Ben Fund Trophy at Taunton and the British Champion Chris Burgoyne.

The defending champion Euan Millar will not be giving up his title without a fight and he certainly cannot be ruled out of the equation. When you add in Craig Wallace, Liam Rennie, Steven Burgoyne and Robbie Dawson then anyone of these drivers could easily win.

The first of the BriSCA Championships took place in 1981, at Newtongrange, which was won by the legendary Bill Batten but the following year the late George MacMillan came out on top. MacMillan was robbed of a retaining his title when he got hooked up on another car and it was fellow Scot John Gilchrist who won.

When the Racewall opened it was Allister King who won and the following season it was Alistair Forsyth who led home three other cars in one of the most destructive Scottish Championships.

One strange fact was that up until 2004 no driver had managed to retain his title but then in stepped Fifer Gordon Moodie who did so and then recorded a hat trick of wins between 2012 and 2014. To date Moodie is the only driver to have retained the trophy and has managed to win the title on 8 occasions.

Last season Adam Blacklock led the race for most of the time but had Liam Rennie in close order. On the very last bend Rennie made his bid for glory but whilst he made contact both drivers were sidelined and that allowed Euan Millar through to win and in doing so he became the youngest driver to win.

The 'Scottish' takes on even more importance with the winner being seeded into the National Series.

On Sunday the II Challenge Trophy is the drivers' target although unfortunately the defending champion Ian Thompson won’t be able to defend his title.

There promises to be a big turnout of Stock Rods at the track for their European Championship with Raymond Harper defending his title.

The home challenge with be led by the World Champion Lee McGill, GMP National Points Champion Cameron Doak, the Scottish Champion James Gray plus the ORCi Champion John McAllister. However Michael Bethune, Stuart McKinnon, Liam and Dean McGill have proved to be more than competitive over the opening months of the season but whilst Scott Galbraith will be starting from further back the grid he could be a surprise package.

There promises to be quite a few visiting drivers from over the Border with Harper leading a five-car team from Northern Ireland.

The drivers will be racing in a series of qualifying rounds on Saturday to determine their grid positions for Sundays Championship race.

The Ministox drivers are racing for their East of Scotland Championship on Sunday and that promises to be quite a race and their will be no shortage of action as the youngsters fight it out for the title.

Taylor Borthwick, Ross Lawrence and Declan Honeyman could well be the drivers to watch but there will be quite a few visiting drivers in action with Aaron Richards hoping to give the local drivers a run for their money. Mika Millar and Ryan Borthwick could also be in the running should they get a break from further forward in the field.

The 1300 Saloon drivers are racing both days as are the Stoxkarts who are making their annual visit to the Racewall and they have their Scottish Championship on Sunday.

Saturdays meeting starts at 5.00pm with the usual 1.00pm start on Sunday afternoon.