The Madman Writes - 18th July 2009

Halo. Failte Gu Cowdenbeath, or translated, hello, welcome to Cowdenbeath. The reason of the first introduction is that BBC Alba, the Gaelic channel, are here filming tonight, primarily the Bangers. Any media coverage that the sport receives is always welcome as it spreads the word about the sport to those who have never heard of stock car racing (yes there are such people).

There should be a good turnout of Bangers tonight with drivers getting cars prepared once they heard that the telly was coming as it gives them a chance of 15 minutes of fame. That along with Saloons and F2’s, we should be in for a cracking night of contact racing.

Although he has only been back racing in the F2’s less than a month, Gordon Moodie has already won more races than some drivers do in a lifetime. UK champion at Skegness and last Sunday lifted his second European title down at Northampton when he led Chris Burgoyne across the line. I am sure both will get a rousing reception when they come out onto the track tonight. The last World qualifier was held during the week down at Skegness and we should have news of how the semis have turned out which will be relayed over the PA.

The Saloons should be up on numbers from last week, Chris Carey took and easy hat-trick from the yellow grade and is now showing that he is one of the up and coming stars of the formula. Sometimes, some of the best battles are further down the field and there were some intriguing confrontations between Robbie Burgoyne and Chris Burgoyne who swapped places regularly during the evening. There are plenty of drivers about. It is just a case of getting them all on the track at the one time. Chris Carey won’t be complaining and a blue roof could soon be beckoning.

The Stock Rods are never short of cars or action at the Racewall and such was the case last Saturday when there were 4 different winners. Leon Stewart had a welcome change of luck when he won the Jane Burt Memorial race after the first two home, Kerr Paterson and Peter Henderson were both docked places for contact. The steward always has a tough call when docking drivers but life has been made easier over the past couple of seasons as there is a direct link to the box from cameraman Eddie Paterson, meaning that the majority of incidents can be reviewed before a definite conclusion is reached. Sometimes, drivers don’t realise that the machine is there, such as Jonathon Lattka who came up to protest his innocence at jumping a restart in one of the races last week and left sheepishly having seen the evidence played back to him before his very eyes.

The Stock Rods had their first of 3 meetings up at Crimond last Sunday where Kerr Paterson won the final ahead of double heat winner, Alex Hunter. The turn out of cars was disappointing given that there were National points at stake and therefore a chance of getting onto the World final grid in September. Those who did attend put on a good display which sent the majority of the punters home happy. In hindsight the meeting probably came at the wrong time as the drivers were racing at Cowdenbeath the previous night and had an outing at Knockhill midweek also.

Sometimes, the easiest of phrases fail to come out properly. Such was the case last week in the Ministox when during commentary; I was trying to say that Robert Gamble was on course for his first top three finish of the night. Try saying it as speed and it is as much of a tongue twister as the old favourite she sells seashells on the seashore. Robert achieved his goal and is due an apology from a few people as his name was on the computer as Gemmell instead of Gamble for much of the season and hence was called that the majority of the time and was much too polite to give me a clip round the ear and point out my misgivings. Robert soon turns 16 so it could have been his last visit to the Racewall in a car for a while. He is planning on racing a Spedeworth 2 litre stock car and once the time comes we wish him well.

Looking at the fixtures at the start of the season, next week was one I made a mental note of as it sees the return to Scotland of the GP Midgets. I am looking forward to that one. Now, as you sit back and let the action commence, I am away to swot up on some more Gaelic. Now where did I put that phrasebook?