WITH the Cowdenbeath Racewall closed for a week there were some Formula II drivers who headed down to the Buxton Raceway, in Derbyshire, on Saturday for their World Final, writes our Racewall reporter Jim Turner.

Amongst those on the grid was the defending World Champion, Gordon Moodie from Windygates, and he had alongside him Ben Borthwick whilst behind were Andrew Palmer and Luke Wrench. Also on the grid were Robbie Dawson from Aberdeen and Lockerbie’s Euan Millar.

The time trials for the Overseas entrants saw Dutchman Kay Lenssen turn in the fastest lap and he was joined on the third row of the grid by Belgian Jan Bekkers.

The first race of the night was the last chance qualifying race with the first seven drivers home filling the last seven spots at the back of the grid. There were no fewer than six Scottish drivers in action but Liam Rennie’s race was short lived when he was sent crashing out on the opening lap and later to be joined by Dennis Middler. After an exciting race Craig Wallace went on to win from the Burgoyne brothers, Steven and Chris.

After the drivers had been paraded around the track the grid was formed and to the customary command the drivers were told to "start your engine” After the slow warm up lap the green flag dropped and Gordon Moodie went straight into the lead but as the cars crossed the start line Luke Wrench collected another car and ended up rolling.

The race was stopped immediately reformed with this time Bekkers starting alongside Moodie. All drivers got away well but when Palmer made his lunge at Moodie and missed he drove into the path of the oncoming cars resulting in a quite few cars piling into Palmer’s car. The race was again suspended but this time Moodie was starting ahead of Lenssen and when the race restarted Moodie was able to open up a slight gap and after that eased away from the field.

After that Moodie went ahead of the field to score a comfortable win where he led home Wim Peeters and Kelvyn Marshall. Steven Burgoyne came home in sixth place with his brother Chris eighth and Robbie Dawson in ninth place.

Craig Wallace won a consolation race whilst Steven Burgoyne won the Grand National.

There are quite a few World Championships to be decided this month – the first being the Stoxkarts on Sunday but there were no Scottish entrants. The winner was Carl Nunn who survived quite a few early scrimmages before doing so.

On the 14th the BriSCA Formula I drivers have their World Final down at King’s Lynn but again there are no Scottish drivers on the grid and it certainly looks to be quite an interesting race with Tom Harris and Frankie Wainman Jnr amongst the prerace favourites.

Over in Northern Ireland, at Nutts Corner to be precise, the ORCi Stock Rod drivers have their World Final up for grabs. The drivers are seeded into groups where time trials will dictate where they will start the final. There are a good sprinkling of Scottish drivers heading over including the European Champion Stuart McKinnon (Kincardine), Scottish Champion James Gray (Boness), Dean McGill (East Wemyss), Liam McGill (Dysart), Stuart Wedderburn (Leven), Cameron Doak (Lanark), Scott Galbraith) and Michael Bethune (Kirkcaldy). The Scottish drivers have fared well during their visits to Nutts Corner and hopefully it will be close and fast race with the title coming back over the water to Scotland.

At the Racewall there are plenty of exciting meetings to be decided with Scottish Championships to be run for the Stock Rods, 1300 Saloons, Prostock Basics and 2 Litre Bangers.

They will all be exciting in their own ways with James Gray determined to retain his crown. Gray has been in relatively good form of late although he crashed out heavily in the European. However Gray is going to have to be at his best to keep the likes of Bethune, both McGill’s, Doak, McKinnon and John McAllister. The grid draw could determine the outcome of the race but is does have all the excitement of a World Final!

It is going to be an exciting race whether it is wet or dry and it could all be down to tyre choice at the end of the day.

Fraser Clark (Boness) is the defending Scottish Champion and this race should be one that the fans look forward to one of the best races of the season. Clark has been in good form but he has to look out for Kyle Hegg (Glenrothes), Charlie Folan (Perth), Cameron Milne (Brechin) and James Ellis (Cowdenbeath). However, so saying that a lot will depend on the grid draw and if one of the lower grade drivers makes a break then we could well have a surprise winner.

The Prostock Basics had their first ever Scottish Championship last season with Kieran Edgar winning but he will be defending having moved on to the 1300 Saloons. There has been quite an influx of new drivers to this formula which is basically open to new drivers.

It is difficult to predict a winner and this race could well depend on the grid draw. Ben Sher (Edinburgh) might just be favourite but……!

The other races that have attractions are the 2 Litre Saloon Superbowl as well as the National Series round with the final doubling up as the Gordon Barclay Memorial trophy race. The 1300 Saloons also have their Superbowl trophy whilst the Formula II drivers will be racing for their Champion of Champions trophy.

The season ends at the beginning of November when the Formula II drivers will take part in one of their National Series races where hopefully the Scottish drivers will be in the leading positions.

The Racewall roars back into life on the 14th with Taylor Borthwick making her first appearance since her National Championship win in the Ministox whilst the Formula IIs and 2 Litre Saloon drivers are in action. They will be joined by the National Hot Rods, who again have a World Championship Qualifying Round and the Micro F2s.

The meeting starts as usual at 6.00pm but the Micro F2s should be on track at 5.30pm depending on the football.