I POKED my head round the door of the office at the Cowdenbeath Racewall to see race manager Keith Ramsay pouring over the fixture list for the 2018 season. “Go away” he glowered at me “ I talked to you a couple of years ago and that’s your lot”!, writes our Racewall scribe Jim Turner.

Undaunted and after he had finished his biscuits and coffee I asked what his thoughts were about the season that had just finished.

“It’s been quite a good season overall. One of the pleasing things is that the car numbers have increased and so have the crowds although like everyone else would like to have attracted more people to the track.”

He added: “The 2 litre saloon World Championship was one of the highlights of the season.

"We ran that in conjunction with the Autospeed Promotion, from the South West, and it was a big success. In fact we have agreed to run the ORCi World Final at the Racewall in September with them so we are looking forward to that.

“The banger meetings were generally well attended with the World Cup for the Unlimited bangers attracting most of the top names in the sport and that treated to fans to plenty of wrecking throughout the meeting. The micro bangers turned up in good numbers and again there was a lot of contact.

"The one meeting which surprised us was the 2 Litre bangers Scottish Championship event. There weren’t too many cars booked in and in the end there were double the amount of cars expected. There were so many wrecks that it took too long to clear the track but we will have extra tow trucks for next season.

“We started the prostock basic formulae and whilst only three cars turned up by the end of the season there were twenty drivers who had raced. Basically the cars are 'basic', with only the glass removed and minimal alterations to the vehicles. It was pleasing to see the number of female drivers who raced.

“The formula II had two outstanding meetings. The World Championship semi-finals were exciting races and we ended up with an all Scottish front row for the World Final. The shoot out round was another good meeting although a wee bit disappointed at the car turn out. Still it was a good meeting and dispelled a lot of the talk about formula IIs on tarmac being a follow the leader affairs."

Looking ahead he went on: “This season our first meeting of note is the BBA Unlimited World Cup and again we are trying to target a field of 50+ for that meeting.

"Jack Overy will be back to see if he can make it a hat trick of wins. We are also going to be running the micro bangers Supreme and the 2 litre banger Scottish Championships and having discussed our plans with the drivers at their meeting, hope to be able to do so.

“Our first weekend meeting comes at the start of June and hopefully it will turn out to be as good as is looks on paper.

"The formula II drivers will be racing both days and on the Saturday it is their Scottish Championship and then the following day their World Championship qualifying round. Hopefully we can attract quite a few visitors for this weekend.

"The 2 Litre National saloons have their National Championship and their Raymond Gunn Tribute races whilst the stock rods and ministox have their ORC Championships up for grabs.

“We have the formula I cars back at the Racewall in mid June for their Scottish Championship and this meeting is going to be run in conjunction with Startrax. They are certainly a draw and the number of supporters who head up from England for this meeting is huge. The BriSCA minis and 2 litre saloons will be the backing formula.”

Keith went on: “We are again joining forces with the Autospeed Promotion over the opening weekend in September where the ORCi stock rod World Final tops the bill.

"Gilmour Engineering, from Northern Ireland, are the sponsors for this race. The 2 litre saloons have their National Championship to decide and the inaugural Jim Purdie Saloon Final on the Sunday. The formula IIs will contest their FII National and the George MacMillan Memorial race so it promises to be another cracking weekend's racing. If this sort of partnership is a success then hopefully it will lead to other ventures.

“Our season was going to end over the weekend of the 27/28 October but we have been asked to continue for a further week to host a formula II National Series round on November 3. Over the last week of October we will be hosting as usual the 2 litre National saloon Superbowl and the Gordon Barclay Memorial race on the Sunday but the formula IIs will have their Champion of Champions and James Clarke Memorial Trophy to race for. We have also been asked to host the Cock of the North Trophy for the Classic hot rods, which we are happy to do.

“We hope to have a formula II National Series shoot-out round again although the plans for that series have as yet to be finalised. Luckily we only lost Gordon Moodie to that series last year but he along with Chris Burgoyne, Craig Wallace, Robbie Dawson and Euan Millar had the chance to race or our numbers could have been decimated over the closing weeks of the season. In fact there are rumours that the 2 litre saloons are thinking seriously about staging a National Series to decide the driver who will sport the silver roof rather than the driver who scores the most points over the year.

“We are really pleased with the continued growth in the 1300saloon numbers. There are a few new drivers in the pipeline and they have again been given meetings down at Barford and at Crimond.

"We would like to see this formula grow and it could well be the formula that attracts those who want to step up from the prostock basics. We plan to continue with the running of the Superbowl and the Scottish Open Championships at the end of the season. There are plans to run a Gold Cup series for them and the dates for these rounds will be announced before the start of the season.

“Our ministox have been very entertaining this year with Steven Burgoyne having an excellent final season. Mind you we have also lost Teri Linden whilst Gary Paterson and Luke McCallum are over-age mid way through the year. I believe that he is heading to the 1300 saloons.

"Declan Honeyman looks to be a good prospect and we are hoping to see a few new faces at the start of the year. Lewis Clark Burgoyne is stepping up from the microf2s to the minis and it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

"Speaking of the micros they have been good value. They have turned up in their numbers and there has been a lot of exciting racing from the youngsters. It is interesting to see that some of the youngsters are sons and daughters of past drivers.

"There is now a good progression for the drivers who can start at 7 in the micros, progress to minis and then have the option of a few senior formulae to progress to.

“We are running four meetings for the classic hot rods and hopefully we can continue to attract a few cars from England again. Craig Boyd dominated the last meeting they had and won the Cock of the North Trophy. They certainly have quite an appeal to some of the older spectators who remember them in their heyday.

“The National Hot Rods have their World Championship qualifying rounds and it looks like Robert McDonald is the one they all have to beat. Billy Bonnar is racing down south with his hot rod and it would have been good to see McDonald, Bonnar, Ian Donaldson and James Jamieson Jnr all in action at the one time!

“The Heritage drivers are back up in August but I don’t think that we are hosting the Gold Cup this year although it was a great success last year. Graham Bunter, the promoter at Bristol was the winner and that was his first ever win at the Racewall.

“Most of the Scottish Championships takes place over the latter part of the season and hopefully this year the saloon version will be decided on track rather during post race scrutineering. That is two seasons in a row that that has happened.

“I would like to express my thanks to the sponsors for their contributions and to the volunteers who give up their time to officiate in some manner on a Saturday night. It is really appreciated that they give up their Saturday nights, especially when it is raining, to help to keep GMP at the forefront of stock car racing.”