The Madman Writes - 15th August 2009
Welcome to the Racewall where the Scottish Prostox championship is up for grabs. Tam Linden will be trying to hang onto his crown having started out the season holding all the major titles in the formula. He lost the Open Scottish crown earlier in the year and, despite sitting top of the track championship, has struggled to find any sort of consistency that we have come to associate him with. There will be about 40 other drivers looking to stop him tonight including Ian Taylor who usually starts as favourite every time that a championship is up for grabs. He made a low key return to the formula at the last meeting but I am sure that he will have the car more spot on for tonight. Gordon Brown has found great consistence of late as has Tam Melrose. It is one of those races where I could name half the field and still not find the winner. Good luck to everyone out there tonight.
With the Saloons on World final duty down at King’s Lynn it is down to the Hot Rods, Stock Rods, and Ministox to provide the support tonight. One driver who will be out for the foreseeable future in the Hot Rods is Pete McVay who suffered a heart attack a couple of weeks ago but is on the mend. Pete is one of the great characters of racing always cheerful in the pits and milks any lap of honour to its hilt. Get well soon Pete.
I mentioned over the PA last week about the death of Mavis Eaton, a name that might not be familiar to a lot of people but she was instrumental in bring racing to Scotland. She and husband Les, started up Spedeworth in the early 60’s and were at the helm until their retirement in the mid 90’s when they handed over the reins to their sons Roy and Mark. Back in 1965, the Eatons came north and installed Roy and Gwen Cecil in as promoters in Scotland, initially for half a dozen meetings at Cliftonville, home of Albion Rovers football club before moving here to Cowdenbeath. The Spedeworth name disappeared in Scotland at the end of the 80’s before GMP moved from Newtongrange to here in 1989. Mavis was 81 when she died and after her retirement, she and Les attended many stock car events, primarily at Ipswich where they lived a stones throw from. As I said at the start of this paragraph, many people might not recognise the name but we should always pay homage to the people who took the risk in starting off the sport all those years ago.
The fun side of racing was seen last week when we had the Reliant Robins having their annual outing which saw National Hot Rod star, William Hardie, taking the Scottish championship. The winners were hardly significant as the whole aspect was on fun. A few drivers though that they were in a fully ironed up Banger with some of the hits that they were putting in instead of a three wheeler with a piece of fibreglass round them. There would be a few drivers waking up on Sunday morning feeling the effects of what was a hectic session out on the track.
It was a night for the walking wounded as Stevie Triggs was looking sore after a combination of Derek Duff and Stevie Honeyman put him away big time in the final. That all played into the hands of English champion, Luke Grief, who won a classic final but looking as if he deliberately let Chris Lattka past before retaking him on the final bend to take the flag. Ian McLaughlin shown he could live with the big boys with a heat win earlier in the night before splitting Grief and Lattka in the final. Former Ministocker, Ben Newman, made his Racewall debut in the Saloons and took to the formula like a duck to water by winning the whites and yellows event before going from hero to zero in his next race as he ended up pinned up the wall courtesy of a big hit from Ally Strachan. Their World final is tonight at King’s Lynn and any news we get we will bring you over the PA.
Next week is a special night at the Racewall as the two-seater Hot Rod night takes place which gives anyone willing to pay some cash the opportunity to get driven round the track at high speed. All the proceeds will be going to CHAS and a whole host of stars including old friends Dave Richardson and Scott Keith on hand to make it a special night. Don’t forget Crimond tomorrow at 1pm. Now, sit back and let the action commence.