THE first half of the season at the Cowdenbeath Racewall has zoomed by and as the first week of the summer break concludes, with all eyes on next weekend's UK Speedweekend at Skegness, here is a quick review of the Scottish season so far, writes our Racewall scribe Jack Watson.
There have been some different front-runners in the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, with some Scottish drivers focusing their efforts on shale racing owing to the World and World Semi-Finals both being held on the loose surface this year.
It wasn't until the end of April that there was a repeat Final winner: Chris Burgoyne, Paul Ford, Graeme Leckie, Kieran Howie (Dunfermline), John Hogg and Reece McIntosh (Glenrothes) all won feature races before Leckie was the first driver to double up.
C. Burgoyne has dominated the Finals since, J. Hogg has added to his tally as well, while Mika Millar added to the winners list last time out when he won the Dennis Middler Snr Memorial, and a couple of races after he took the Scottish Championship.
The one Knockhill date so far also yielded a different winner, when Steven Burgoyne lifted the Supreme Championship.
There have been numerous drivers reach their highest grades so far this year too. Leckie was one of the highest scorers in the UK over the first grading period, while Rebecca Reid and newcomer, Liam Colaluca, reached the yellow grade for the first time.
In the north of Scotland, at Crimond, a pair of Final wins for Rhys Kelly promoted him to the star grade by the end of April having begun the season at yellow.
The Saloon Stock Cars have been entertaining from the word go. Like the Formula IIs, there have been plenty of different Final winners - Stuart Shevill, Gary Paterson, Derek Duff, Grady Ross accounted for the March feature events with Ross' win during a particularly frantic finish.
The race included a roll over for Declan Honeyman, a heavy trip to the wall for Paterson and Kai Gilmour, and a last lap dash where the first two across the line were sixth and seventh going into the last corner!
The Friday night fixture in May included a Dash for Cash race which was popular among both drivers and fans, K. Gilmour taking the win.
The two major events for the Saloons both took place in June. A field of over fifty drivers contested the British Championship, with a chaotic qualifying session on Saturday night featuring rolls for both Duncan Welsh and Harry Darby.
Lee Burden rolled in the title race that went to Ryan Santry ahead of Charlie Burgoyne, who has continued his form from the end of the 2025 season, and Paterson. Diggy Smith won the Raymond Gunn Tribute race.
Then, a fortnight later it was the Scottish Championship with just under thirty drivers on the grid. There was no shortage of action, or race leaders - at least five drivers hit the front at some stage during the race.
In the end it was Barry Russell who took the win ahead of outgoing champion Graeme Shevill and Jordan Cassie.
The ORCi Ministox are enduring something of a transitional phase just now, although the lower car numbers has not detracted from the typical edge-of-the-seat racing.
Oakley Grief and Cody Wilson took the formula by storm in the opening couple of months, but their feature event so far this season, the British Championship, went the way of Stuart Shevill.
Jamie Balfour took the biggest win of his career so far in the Keir Millar Memorial Trophy event the following afternoon. There has also been success for Ollie Sime in an enthralling Scottish Championship race at Crimond at the end of last month.
The ORCi Stock Rods look to be on the up. George White and more regular appearances from Lauren Gray, boosted the field at the start of the year, they have since been joined on the grid by Ross Graham, Connie Anderson and more recently Peter Henderson, Lee Scott, Paul Lovett and Graeme Dignan.
Michael Bethune and Jamie Dawson shared the wins at the outset, with Bethune taking the win in an intriguing European Championship at Knockhill at the end of May.
Bethune and Dawson came to grief in the National Championship at Cowdenbeath the following day, leaving Cameron Doak to take the spoils.
Since then, Doak has also lifted the UK title at Skegness and the ORCi title at Buxton.
White and Anderson have both taken their first wins in the class, and with the competitivity levels increasing with every meeting it should be an excellent second part of the year for the Stock Rods.
Arguably the formula of the season so far at the Racewall, on a domestic level at least, have been the Prostock Basics.
With car counts hovering at around thirty, and getting as high as thirty-eight at Knockhill in May, and more new drivers than there is space to mention, the racing has often been unpredictable and frantic.
Kevin Nicol was the early points leader, and while the likes of Callum Rennie and Joanne Hilditch have been consistently in the top ten, they have found it more difficult to wade through the pack with a lot of fast lower graded drivers.
Norman Moore has rocketed up the points chart, after a steady start to the year has found form since he switched to a Fiesta, and will be in the hunt for the points championship both at Cowdenbeath and nationally.
Harry Wotherspoon, Greg Fraser and Jay Fordyce have all been racking up the points too but with the field so evenly matched and both the Highland and Scottish Championships still to contest, it is anyone's guess as to who will have the silver roof at the end of 2026.
The Micro F2 numbers have been rebuilding after a couple of transitional seasons. Jaxan Moore, Jack McGuire, Jaydyn Wilson, Frankie Dawson and Harley Strachan have all made their debuts and have been picking up speed as the weeks have progressed.
Harry Yule, Ryan Johnstone, Harris Honeyman and Jaxson Watters have done much of the winning, but Evah Adsley has rarely been out of the top three and Amber Watson has been in good form at Crimond.
Cooper Brown recently picked up his first win and will be looking to build on that during the latter part of the season, while Jake Ramage, Lewis McFarlane and Rogan Richards are other drivers who have been in the mix on a regular basis.
The Prostock numbers have maybe not been as high as hoped but the class has served up some decent, fast racing over the opening months of the year.
Kai McNulty and Paul Barron have been the regular winners, Barron making a winning return last time out after a massive roll over at the end of April.
In terms of the new drivers, Marley Montgomery took his first win in May, while Liam Georgeson has come close on more than one occasion.
The highlight of the Banger season, the Unlimited Banger World Cup, featured around thirty drivers from across the UK.
After two years in Scotland, the title returned south of the border with Ricki Finney taking the spoils after years of trying.
The Van Bangers had a good outing in January to kick the year off, another good field of drivers will be hoped for when the Racewall returns on August 1 with caravans also in the mix.
This year has seen the introduction of the Street Stox formula, with cars limited to 1800cc and following similar build rules to those in the Prostock Basics.
The main differences are that light, nudge-and-spin style contact is permitted, and drivers can have any amount of previous experience to race.
The formula is there to encourage drivers on tight budgets back to racing, as well as providing a contact option for those who want to start out without jumping into a national formula.
The Junior Bangers have had a trio of dates at the Racewall so far in 2026, and with one has provided one of the most memorable moments of the year - when Scott Ramsay Jnr took the win in the Racing for Ramsay Trophy.
Tommy Melrose has been the driver to beat the rest of the time, even picking up some good results at the likes of Skegness too.
Dougie Kidd and Kenzie Kopacz have also been right up there while Gabe Scott, Naomi Bain and TJ Summers have all looked promising so far and shouldn't be too far away from taking their first wins.
There have been a trio of visiting classes make the trip north so far this year, and three new Scottish Champions have been crowned.
In the StoxKarts, Liam Powell dominated both day's racing to pick up the Scottish title. The Modstox were full of action on their visit north, and Dan Baker took the Scottish win.
The National Ministox also had a busy weekend, and it was former Micro F2 racer Alfie Smith who took the top honours in their Scottish Championship.
There were also some notable wins in each formula: white tops Ben Trevarthen and Greg Lloyd took victories in the StoxKarts, Heidi Clark won her first race in the Modstox and Lucy Conway won her first race in the National Ministox.
The next Racewall action is on August 1, where the Van Bangers and Caravan Carnage is the feature event. Saloon Stock Cars, Micro F2 and Prostocks are also on the bill.
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