Turners Talk 26th March 2011

NEW FACES AND CARS

There were quite a few new faces last week, mainly in the formula IIs and they all fared pretty well. In the formula IIs the long awaited and talked about debut of Marc Fortune arrived and he certainly didn’t disappoint whilst Kenny Mitchell, John Hogg and Stephen Forster all fared well. Alan Kirkaldy was back with a new RCE along with Barry Folan, both being missing for a year whilst Wullie Draeger was back after a gap of around 20 years! In the saloons Gordon Alexander returned to the scene whilst Willie McCombie was having his Racewall debut.

SIME TO RED

Garry Sime is hunting for his red paint after his convincing win in the formula II final. Sime had earlier won a heat and then during the final moved into the lead around the half distance. However during the closing stages he had Gordon Moodie chasing but held on to win. The week previous Sime had done well down at Birmingham picking up good results before winning the GN.

FORTUNE SMILES!

Both the Fortune cars appeared in a new paint livery with the cars looking very smart indeed. However whilst John, the World Champion, scored heavily, he was outshone by son Marc who went on to win heat three.

McLAUGHLIN TASTES SUCCESS

It looked as if the saloon final was heading the way of Derek Duff but then during the closing stages of the race his engine began to misfire! That allowed Ian McLaughlin to make up ground rapidly and once in his sights sailed through into the lead. Once there he went on to a comfortable win over Stuart Shevill Jnr and whilst Duff managed to hold onto third he was shoved across the finish line and almost spun!

WALKER BY A WHISKER

There were only 8 national hot rods on show but the racing proved to be fast and furious and not a black cross to be seen! Ian Donaldson and Stuart Walker were heat winners and whilst Walker led the final for most of the time there was some exciting dicing behind involving Donaldson, Billy Bonnar, Graeme Callender and Gary Black. In the end it proved to be oh so close with Walker just holding Bonnar off by a mere whisker to pick up his second win of the night.

STOCK RODS

The stock rods make their first Racewall appearance tonight and hopefully there will be a few new faces and plenty of close action. Kerr Paterson and Robert McDonald should be the drivers to beat but look out for Siobhan Martin giving them a run for their money. 

MINI MAYHEM!

Whilst a lot of mini drivers are now overage there are some new faces expected on the grid tonight including Arron McGowan, Colin Thomson and Jamie Connacher.The leading lights this year should be Camie McGowan, Liam Rennie and Gemma Russell but look out for Dale Buchan after his win in the CHAS trophy.