Cowdenbeath - F2 Review - Season 2011
The 2011 season marked the 23rd season of BriSCA F2 Stock Car racing at the Racewall and with it one that once again produced plenty of excitement. Whilst on paper it was all about one driver and that was 7 Gordon Moodie, with his 23 heat wins and 13 Final victories at the track, it was actually a little bit closer than that.
This takes nothing away from Moodie’s achievements on his home circuit, the nature of the points from the formats that were deployed in the largely weekly meetings at Cowdenbeath meant that consistency could play a very large part in proceedings, and with that Moodie far from ran away with the track championship, with 100 George MacMillan Jnr in his best ever season nationwide keeping the #7 car in his sights almost all the way, as well as 854 Robbie Dawson whilst perhaps on the flip-side of consistency, former World Champion 647 Chris Burgoyne appeared to either be in victory lane or in retirement which ending up with him fourth in the track points when it could have maybe been higher but for some bad luck at times.
The season actually got off to a false start when the opening meeting scheduled for March 12 had to be cancelled/postponed due to the track being covered in snow. A meeting in November was run in its place. So, it was hardly spring to start with but things were up and running a week later, and whilst there was no win for Moodie he was the top scorer for the meeting. First blood for the season actually went to an Englishman with 823 Sam Wagner taking the win whilst 480 Garry Sime was the winner of the first Final. Another winner was 64 Marc Fortune, the son of then World Champion 964 John Fortune, in his first season of BriSCA F2 having come from Ministox - indeed one of several impressive young guns to come on to the scene in 2011. He ultimately came second in the national point’s Novice Of The Year and seventh in the track championship. With a new car coming in the new season, his progress will be watched with interest. It was not until April that Moodie took a win at the Racewall, on April 2, when MacMillan took the Final victory, but Gordon was really into his stride and seldom did he come away without a win and that included a hat-trick of hat-tricks on April 23 and 30 and then May 5.
The highlights of the season included the World Championship qualifying round, on June 11, from which Moodie was actually absent and Burgoyne took the win, which was part of a road that led him to win his Semi Final at Hednesford a couple of months later and start the World Final itself from pole position as a consequence.
The Scottish Championship came on July 23 which was the first meeting back after the summer break. There was a big effort made to ensure as many Scottish (and beyond) drivers as possible were present. Yet, the resistance from some to race at the Racewall was once again met, but nevertheless, there was a good entry and to enhance that the main race was run as the first race of the evening. There was drama very early on when the two hot favourites Moodie and Burgoyne crashed on the first lap in the aftermath of a rollover for 321 Holly Glen. This left the others to fight amongst themselves and after a great duel; it was 795 Alan Kirkaldy who took the win, holding off MacMillan. For Kirkaldy, who was the Novice Of The Year in 2009, and had then sat out the 2010 season, this was his first major race title and thus a new name to add to the illustrious list of Scottish Champions. When interest was being scouted for the Scottish meeting, it did trigger interest in another event, and thus the ‘Take the High Road’ meeting idea was born. Based on the days when north-east England based drivers used to meet and make a pilgrimage in convoy north of the border to Newtongrange in the 1980’s, it was intended to try this again and it proved to be a great success. Joining the like of regular visitors Wagner, 301 Charlie Whitfield and 934 David Parker to name but three, there were several who made their first appearances at Cowdenbeath and it is already hoped that a date can be found to single this out again during 2012. The meeting was dominated by Moodie with a hat-trick of wins.
The latter part of the season did see Burgoyne almost become the one to beat, too late to do much about the track championship but three Finals in a row on October 1, 8 and 15 are noteworthy and then he followed that up with a win in the year’s end Champion of Champions meeting, the traditional support to the Saloon Stock Cars Superbowl.
26 meetings were run in total, and appearing at each of them is a tall order but definitely worth a salute for their 100% attendance are 321 Holly Glen and 854 Robbie Dawson. Robbie lives just outside Aberdeen, so even the (often weekly) visit to Cowdenbeath is a six-seven hour round trip. Impressive stuff from them both whilst Marc Fortune and George MacMillan only missed two each, newcomer 652 Stephen Forster and 810 Ian Forster just three each and Moodie, 391 Gregor Turner and 480 Garry Sime just four.
2012 promises to follow the same pattern as previous years and there are encouraging signs of new drivers and new cars ahead of the start of the new season. An additional highlight will come in May when the British Championship will be contested. Defending title holder will be 401 Barry Goldin, who coincidentally was the victor the last time the race was staged at Cowdenbeath in 2004. Moodie will without doubt be the man to beat around the Racewall during the year, but there will be no shortage of drivers looking and willing to take him on.