THE banger drivers were in good form this year at the Racewall and their numbers were on the increase, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

The action was as good as ever and there were plenty of hair raising escapades along the way, .

Who could forget Mark Morrison (Huntley) and James McLean (Huntley) tangling resulting in both cars rolling and not only that they were team mates!

Luckily they scrambled out unhurt and unphased at the proceedings.

Don Lineham (Newcastle) and Barry Rennie (Edinburgh) both had double rollovers but whilst they had opportunity to go for a hat trick neither managed to do so!

There were fires as well with driver baling out of their cars in double quick time although generally they extinguished speedily. Callum Campbell (Dalkeith) and Marc Dalgarno (Brechin) were but two whose cars retired in flames!

The holiday meeting saw van bangers in action with saloon driver Barry Glen (Dundee) winning the first heat, but got wrecked in heat two as Ian Christie (Kirkcaldy) came out on top. However, it was formula II driver Holly Glen (Inchture) who won the final sending a couple of vans spinning as she did so!

The microbanger team races saw Tam Melrose (Mayfield), Callum Campbell (Dalkeith) and formula II driver Chris Burgoyne (Airth) win the heats before Burgoyne won the final and on to a team win.

The BBA Unlimited banger drivers turned up in good numbers for their World Cup in April with Gary Khan (Crimond) winning the last chance qualifying heat.

Jack Overy (Peterborough) was defending the World Cup and almost as soon as the race started the cars were piling into each other much to the fans delight. Norman Moore (Hill of Beath) had his limo wrecked as did team mate Willie Starwiarski (Cowdenbeath) who was spun exiting the top bend. This left Overy to work his way through the field to retain his title in style.

The Rookie bangers made their first appearance of the season at the end of April where wins went to Finlay Davidson (Crimond) and Mark Dalgarno (Brechin) with the latter going on to win the final.

There were a few hard shunts during the Destruction Derby with Dalgarno sending a few cars out of the race. However, when John Riddell (Cornhill) hit his car head on, fire erupted from under the bonnet and he made a speedy exit. The fire was quickly extinguished with John Riddell being declared as the winner.

At the next meeting Barry Rennie rolled his car going down the main straight and then in the next heat he rolled it on the pit bend, although to be fair he was shunted into another car on the second occasion. Whilst we were all hoping for a hat trick it was Dayle Ashall (Edinburgh) who rolled his car during the final. The Destruction Darby ended in flames when Campbell’s car erupted after a head on shunt with the marshals attending to it in quick fashion.

Allan and Dayle Ashall picked up wins but during the final Allan sent Dalgarno spinning at the start to the race before going through to win. Not long after the DD had started Dayle Ashall rolled his car on the pit bend. On the restart Campbell crashed head on with another car and burst into flames leaving Tam Melrose (Mayfield) as the last car running.

The microbanger Supreme Championship attracted another good turn out of drivers at the beginning of June with a handful of drivers heading north from the Barford track in the North East of England. Linehman was one and he had the dubious honour of being able to roll his car not once but twice during the meeting.

The first came in the Scottish Supreme race where he was clipped and his car rolled in slow motion ending up on its roof and then during the Destruction Darby he was again clipped on the pit bend and again rolled his car.

The Scottish Supreme was the first race of the night and was suspended early on after Lineham rolled his car. Gary Chambers (Dalkeith) was the first to show when the race started but he lost out to Callum Campbell (Mayfield) and he was caught and spun by Stevie Allan (Gorebridge). Allan began to pull away from the pack but then retired in a cloud of smoke. However, after Mark Scollon (Lauder) was in a shunt the race was again suspended. Campbell led the field away and then eased away before going through to win from Chambers and Ryan Thomson (Dumfries).

David Linton went on to an easy second heat win and in a hectic Destruction Darby Darren Linton barrel rolling his car and after some heavy head on shunts Pete McVay Jnr (Edinburgh) was the sole survivor and the winner.

The 2 litre banger drivers were in their usual destructive modes on July 22 and there was many a car that was left in a very sorry state!

Allan was the first heat winner with David Linton coming out on top in heat two although he had to get the better of Darren Linton early on.

The final saw the Linton’s fight it out for the lead at the start of the race although David Linton was to tangle with Josh Heeps (Inverkeithing) and then Darren Linton was sent wide. There was a lot of contact and spins before Allan went through to win.

Next time they raced David Linton won both heats but the final ended with Darren Linton leading home Dalgarno and David Linton.

There was a good turn out for the 2 litre banger Scottish Championship at the end of September with a good sprinkling of visiting drivers from both Crimond and south of the border.

Jak Denikiewicz (Manchester) started the race from pole position and when the green flag dropped he shot straight into the lead from Allan.

It didn’t take long for the carnage to start with James Dillon (Mayfield) sidelined with a misfire whilst on the top bend cars piled into each other although quite a few restarted. Ben Gaitskell (Durham) tangled with Joe Morgan (Warton) resulting in both retiring but wherever you looked there were retired cars.

Brian Youngson (Fraserburgh) spun and crashed into Morgan’s car whilst James Dillon Jnr (Mayfield) was running with a flat rear tyre. However, Denikiewicz was clear of the field with Jon Taylor (Cornhill) in second with Dillon Jnr getting ahead of Ryan Martin – the only remaining runners. Denikiewicz then reeled off the remaining laps to win from Taylor and Dillon Jnr.

The heat which followed the Scottish was every bit as with Lee Kopacz (Edinburgh) winning with McVay Jnr going through to win the final.

At the New Year meeting the Van bangers are back in action along with the microbangers and this year a 10 man strong team from the Racewall are taking on their counterparts from Barford in the first of a home and away series. Now we are going to see plenty of hard hits and wrecked cars.