2004 race reports archive (by Mike Hogg)

[Catriona]

2004 Season Preview

Winter is over and the clocks have gone forward. The temperature is finally starting to rise and several people's minds are starting to drift to a hill in Fife overlooking the Firth of Forth. Long winters have been spent crawling around under racing cars with spanners and the time is nearly upon us for all these hardy enthusiasts to converge on Knockhill for the first SMRC racing action of 2004.

The Scottish Legends Championship is currently the success story of Scottish Motorsport. From the original field of 6 white legends for the 2000 season, these days we look forward to fields of well over twenty of the nippy beasts and they usually provide the best pure racing action on the bill. No downforce, just 1250cc motorbike engined machines going three wide through corners and producing the sort of racing not usually seen anywhere any more.

2003 champion Jamie Clarke and his father Jim won't be back in their Clarke Energy/Telecom cars as they are venturing down south to compete in the National Championship. Several drivers will be looking to fight for the championship though, with series front-runners Colin Noble, Derek Pierce, Lance Gauld and Ray Davison surely among the favourites. Scottish Legends pioneer Aly Hunter will be back as well with Ian McMurdo, Alex Knight and Malcolm Clark all good bets to be at the front. Gerard McCosh (hopefully with his fabled pig), Caroline McMurdo, Alasdair Thom, Jamie Willis and Steve Reynolds will also be familiar names returning for 2004. 2002 regular Gary Crawford is said to be returning after missing most of 2003. Mini regular Ronnie Klos is stepping up to the Legends for this season, driving a Robin Drysdale car, and Drysdale himself is rumoured to be joining as well.

The Legends are likely to be the greatest source of excitement in 2004 - it's difficult to top the sheer class of racing in these little rockets and the slipstreaming battles into the hairpin have to be seen to be believed. They will enjoy two away rounds this year at Anglesey and Croft and support the British F3 round at Knockhill in May.

The major story as far as the Scottish XR2 Championship is concerned isn't who will be driving this season, more who won't! At time of writing, Sandy Forrest (unknown), Dave Colville (MG Mayflower Cup), Colin Robertson (MG Mayflower Cup) and Derek Pierce (Legends) won't be back and this significantly thins the field at the head of the pack. Ian Forrest will no doubt be the pre-season favourite if he runs as he rumoured to do. The defending champion was difficult enough to catch last year with a large pack of top quality drivers snapping at his heals but with most of his major rivals missing he might find it even easier this year. If Andrew Allan returns he could be a big threat to Forrest whilst Nick Sanderson had some excellent qualifying performances in 2003 and will be hoping that he will be able to keep the improvement going. Worthy of note is the fact that his car is no longer the familiar turquoise we have grown to know well but the car has been resprayed a very bright orange. The future's bright...?

John Swift could also be a major player this year. The Team 69 squad have expanded to two cars for this season and some of Swift's performances in 2003 were pretty stellar. Oliver Mortimer has switched from single seaters to tin-tops for this year and will try his hand in the XR2s. Late season casualties with extremely badly damaged cars in 2003, John Findlay and Barry Holmes will be back - Findlay with a rebuilt car and Holmes with a new one. XR2 "off-track" specialist Charlie Thornton should also make a return during the year.

Beyond that, a lot of the field is something of a mystery. A lot of newcomers are rumoured and no-doubt a lot of old names will make a comeback but it'll be the first race weekend of the season before we can really find out what the entry list really looks like. The XR2s will be travelling to Croft in September and will also be supporting the Knockhill round of the British Formula 3 Championship.

The Scottish Caterhams have always had potential, there was never any doubt about that. Problem was that the grids were barely more than 5 or 6 cars and the varying quality of the cars and drivers tended to lead to some strung out races. Last year, however, saw the field get into double figures for the first time and some of the racing was absolutely top-drawer, with the likes of Champion Andrew Smith, Ian Cowie, Alasdair McCaig, George Brewster and Warren Dunbar having some amazing slip-streaming battles. Steps have been afoot over the winter to keep the momentum going.

ICR boss Ian Cowie has always been a major exponent of the Caterham series and his stable of cars will no doubt once again make up the majority of the field. While the names of most of the drivers in the series are not known at this time, it is expected that around 11 or 12 Caterham Roadsports plus around 6 of the new Caterham Academy cars will be in action at the first round. Malcolm Johnstone is known to be returning in a two car team which includes Academy class newcomer Ross Taylor. Along with the usual Knockhill races, to drum up further interest in the series, away rounds are also being arranged for Croft and Oulton Park as well as joining the Minis on their Hillclimb rounds at Fintray and Doune.

As for the Minis, few series have drummed up so much controversey in just one season. Whether it be the Championship results almost leading to court action, accusations of there being more interest in the Corporate Entertainment than the racing from some of the people involved and questions over the quality of the racing itself, the series was certainly a talking point. A rumour that the series had been canned for 2004 on the basis of lack of interest even did the rounds but thankfully was proven to simply be a rumour after all. The field size is currently looking a bit lower than in 2003 but there are expected to be in the region of 11 cars with the loss of the better known teams being a bit of a blow but with several cars up for sale the field size will likely increase with time. The Minis will visit Croft, Fintray and Doune as well as Knockhill during the year.

The Scottish Formula Ford Zetec Championship is seemingly another series which will lose a few of its top runners with Champion Alan Kirkaldy struggling to raise the finance for the season, Jonathon Adam and Ryan Cannon are off to Renault Clios and National Formula Ford Zetec respectively and Oliver Mortimer will be trying his hand in an XR2. This could leave the way open for long-time series regulars Stuart Thorburn and Julian Taylor to step up to the top of the pile. Sarah Playfair, George Smith and Charles Glancey will return to the series again while Alastair Morton and Richard Huddart make a welcome return after enforced absenses. The FFords will join the other SMRC classes which will support the British F3 round.

The Scottish Saloons and Sportscars has proven difficult to get much in the way of information on for 2004. Chances are we will see the usual suspects racing the usual cars again this season, though rumours abounded that John Muir's ever present Toyota Starlet was possibly up for sale at the end of last season. The Saravilovic LM3000 has been out in testing and will hopefully make an appearance while Champion Jonathon Young is thought to have tested a Coram sportscar. What else will run is anyone's guess as the series is well known for throwing up all sorts of surprise entries. The Saloons and Sportscars will join the XR2s at Croft in September and will also support the British F3 round in May.

As mentioned a number of times above, the British Formula 3 Championship will be returning to Knockhill, though this time the British GT Championship won't be on the bill. Along with the SMRC support races, TVR Tuscans and Zip Formula will also be present. Having been absent in 2003, the British Touring Car Championship makes a welcome return along with live television coverage on ITV. A strong support bill sees the Seat Cupra Championship (which should feature Knockhill's own Gordon Shedden), Renault Clios, Formula Renault, Formula BMW and Porsche Cup. Various other series will visit the track during the year including British Superbikes, Rallycross, Northern Saloons and Sportscars, Caterham Roadsports, National Legends, Formula Women, Superkarts, Global GT Lights and T-Cars! Add to this the usual Stock Car and F2 classes which will visit on various occasions and you've got a packed schedule. This is going to be another bumper year of racing at Knockhill - just got to hope the good weather we got for most of the 2003 season carries forward to this year!

[Catriona]

April 11th, 2004

The first meeting of a new SMRC season is always an exciting time. Who's driving what this year? What new cars are we going to see? Who's going to be at the front this year? Drivers who have done a bit of testing finally get to see how close they are or aren't to their competitors. Fans who have endured a long winter without motorsport finally get their fix of speed and settle onto the hill overlooking the hairpin with some doughnuts and depending on whether Knockhill's own weather gods are feeling benign or vengeful proceed to either get sunburnt or freeze to death. It used to be that being soaked would be a third option but by the miracle of global warming, that doesn't seem to happen much any more.

***

It's difficult to come up with new ways of saying how much I love the Scottish Legends Championship (now Scottish Anglo Legends apparently) in every single race report I do. The fact of the matter is though that these motorcycle engined "pocket rockets" are exactly what motorsport is supposed to be. Fast, exciting, breath-taking... in this world of Formula One giving motorsport a bad name by being, well, generally dull but the only mass-media motor racing available and therefore what motorsport as a whole is judged on by those not in the know, those who look beneath the surface at some of the grass roots of racing are in for a very pleasant surprise. The racing seen at this meeting upped the bar yet again and was incredible to watch.

The first heat signalled the first SMRC race of 2004 but it only lasted as far as Duffus Dip on lap 1 when Ross Marshall catapulted through the gravel with disasterous consequences for his car, reports indicating that at the top of his flight, he was level with the top of the catch-fencing! Marshall was unhurt but his car was mortally injured and could be viewed on the back of a flatbed in the paddock for the rest of the day. The restart saw Ray Davison pull out a lead which he would keep to the flag. The action was behind him, with Lance Gauld, Derek Pierce and Robin Drysdale battling it out, joined soon after by Colin Noble. Pierce and Drysdale pulled slightly ahead of Gauld and Noble but contact on the last lap at Clark saw both cars spin wildly in front of their pursuers, leaving Gauld to "close my eyes and aim for the gap". Thankfully no contact was made and Gauld finished 2 seconds behind Davison and 2 seconds ahead of Noble. Scottish Legends Godfather Aly Hunter finished next up ahead of Ben Mason and a recovering Pierce.

The second heat was more of the same dicing with Colin Noble assuming the lead but having to fend off Pierce and Ben Mason who impressed all day in his first race outside the rookie class. The lead group was soon joined by Drysdale, Gauld, Hunter and Davison and a massive battle erupted, coming to a head at the hairpin on the final lap when four legends entered the turn as one, Noble, Pierce, Drysdale and Mason crossing the line covered by one second ahead of Hunter, Gauld and Davison.

The final was brilliant - a lead pack of 8 cars developing towards the end to make a grandstand finish. Drysdale had initially led ahead of Pierce with Davison, Noble and Hunter running three wide through the hairpin behind them on lap 1. Ben Mason and Lance Gauld joined this group later and towards the end they were also joined by Gerard McCosh. The group battled hard but extremely fairly to the end with Drysdale clinching the win from Davison, Pierce, Noble and Mason, with Gauld passing Hunter on the run to the line. The dicing in the race was very hard but also very fair as a number of drivers commented afterwards. Another top showing.

***

Formula Ford Zetec was next out and over the winter a number of drivers towards the front of the field have wandered off to do other things (among them Jonathon Adam who qualified second and took second and fifth place race finishes in the TOCA supporting Renault Clio Championship at Thruxton on Sunday, so well done to him). This was a double header meeting for the single seaters and the two remaining real front-runners from last year in Stuart Thorburn and Julian Taylor were looking to get off to a winning start. As it was, both would come away with a race win apiece.

The first round started with Thorburn bogging down a little off the grid, allowing Taylor to take the lead before Duffus. A passing move on the outside of the hairpin on lap 3 saw Thorburn back to the front and a furious lead battle erupted, with Taylor all over the gearbox of Thorburn's car which was proving to be a very wide car indeed, Thorburn defending aggresively. The battle slowed the two down so much that the following pack of Derek Butcher, Sarah Playfair and Richard Huddart caught them to make a fascinating five car lead battle. Playfair was on fire, a well timed move into the hairpin getting her inside of Butcher who refused to give up the place and ran wide on the exit, dropping to fifth. Huddart then also dived down the inside of her into the hairpin on the last lap but a well timed switch back allowed her to dive past him again on the exit to take third on the run to the line. Thorburn took the win with Taylor a little unhappy at being denied the win, describing the race as a "Thorburn weave-fest".

The second race started in the same way as the first, with Thorburn failing to get away from pole, but it was even worse this time and he dropped all the way to seventh. Taylor took a lead that he would keep to the end while Thorburn started to make up the places again, being helped by a spin for Derek Butcher which dropped him to the back. Playfair continued her good day by passing Huddart for second, but a similar attempt by Thorburn at the hairpin ended with himself and Huddart locked together. In the time it took them to get going again they had lost a huge amount of ground to Playfair and Robert Mitchell had also managed to get between them. Taylor eventually won the race by three seconds from his team-mate, Playfair having by far her best race weekend in Formula Fords. Thorburn, Mitchell and Huddart finished a long way back covered by just over a second.

***

The Scottish Mini Cooper Challenge saw wins in both races for Vic Covey Jr, but the races themselves suffered with a distinct lack of entries - only five cars in round 1 and six cars in round 2 and races which after the field had sorted itself out in the first couple of laps were processional to watch, except for Mike Connon's attempts for the lead in race 1.

***

The Scottish Saloons and Sportscars looked extremely healthy in their race, with a very nice field of Radicals turning out. The race itself was good too, with Ian Forrest taking to the cockpit of a very sleek, black Radical. Brian Saravilovic took the lead early on in his ever-present LM3000 but he had a real fight on his hands to stay ahead of Forrest who was on a mission to have a good debut in the car. With the leaders starting to lap the tail-end of the field within a few laps of the start, the battle was a tense one as they approached slower cars, but Saravilovic held on to take the win by .30 of a second. Two more Radicals were next up with the established car of Olly Ross coming home ahead of Allan Dallas. John Muir's popular Toyota Starlet was the only other car to finish on the lead lap. Kevin Adam's Sierra was looking very bright and sparkly in a touched up paint job and he finished 6th ahead of Stuart Thorburn's lovely new Lotus Exige GT car. David McLennan in another Radical, Andrew Morrison's MGZR and Tim Jacobsen's Crossle completed a top ten of impressive cars. With more Radicals due out at the next round (and word of a Scottish centre for Radicals being set up at Knockhill itself) there is the prospect of the Class G sportscars getting races of their own.

***

The Scottish Ford XR2 Championship is another series to have lost a number of front runners from last season but it has also gained some. Alan Keith made his return to the series with fast youngster Oliver Mortimer making the switch from Formula Ford Zetec in a very colourful new car which sports the same colourscheme as his racing helmet. On the pole for the race, though, was 2003 champion Ian Forrest who was wanting to make sure that Keith was not going to return to the series he did a "Schumacher" on in 2002.

At the start Keith took the lead and Forrest slotted into second, having to concern himself with Mortimer who was contemplating making moves. Peter Cruickshank joined the lead group and the four of them pulled out a small gap to Nick Sanderson in fifth who in turn had a gap back to Ian Milton and Andrew Martin. Forrest and Keith were battling so hard at this point that they slowed the group up enough to allow Sanderson, Milton and Martin to join in the fun. This couldn't last though, and on the run to the line contact between Forrest and Keith sent the latter head first into the tyre wall. After a cursory inspection of the front end of his car, Keith hopped back in and continued on his way, but the lost lap meant that he would eventually finish 16th. After the clash between the leaders, Mortimer briefly dived into the lead, but Forrest took it back the next time by at the hairpin and stayed there until the finish, finishing two seconds ahead of the debutant. Cruickshank was on for third until a clash with Ross Marshall's lapped car put him well back. On the same lap, Milton got around Sanderson and despite his mirrors being full of orange for the remainder of the race, he held on for his first podium finish. Sanderson and Martin completed the top five with Cruickshank and Richard Reed ahead of George Orr who easily took victory in the Newcomer class.

***

The Caterhams have undergone some changes over the winter with the introduction of the Academy Class cars, and a field of thirteen cars lined up for the first race of the year. The Ecurie Ecosse pair of Alasdair McCaig and Andrew Smith are not out this year so up at the front were to be found the ever-present Ian Cowie, George Brewster, Malcolm Johnstone and 2003 Scottish Formula Ford Champion Alan Kirkaldy who had hired a car from ICR for this round and is hoping to make more appearances.

The race start saw Brewster and Cowie take the point with Kirkaldy starting well down in the pack. By the end of the first lap he was up to fourth, however and he soon got past Johnstone for third. Brewster and Cowie were having a huge battle though and having passed each other two or three times in a single lap, suddenly found themselves fighting over second as Kirkaldy passed them both on consecutive laps at the hairpin. The three then proceeded to run as a line of cars, with Brewster eventually managing to get inside of Kirkaldy leaving the hairpin, giving him the best line for entering Duffus. Cowie followed him through, demoting the Formula Ford star to third, but only for a moment with Kirkaldy retaking the spot on Railway straight. The order remained the same to the end with the three cars being covered by just over a second at the line. Johnstone came home fourth with Donald Laird fifth. Garry Meikle won the Academy Class by around eight seconds over his nearest class rival.

***

The cobwebs are now well and truly blown away and we don't have long to let our adrenaline levels return to normal before the next rounds are upon us - April 25th. On the strength of the incredible meeting we just witnessed, you wont want to miss it - especially with the addition of visiting T-Cars and Northern Saloons and Sportscars. All that's left is for us to list our awards for the meeting....

Scottish Club Racing.co.uk's "Racers Of The Day":

Sarah Playfair: She had easily her best race meeting to date, with a third in the first race and second in the later round. She pulled off some very impressive overtaking manouveres and was actually catching Julian Taylor in the closing laps of the second race. A very impressive performance!

The Legends field: With some amazing multi-car lead battles, the usual three wides and some very very clean driving despite the packs of fast-moving machinery, these cars were the stars of the day (though the classes to follow were very close...)

The XR2, Caterham and Formula Ford races: Too often in the past, processional races or low quality grids have stymied some events. All three of these classes provided some very exciting lead battles during the event.

The Radicals: These extremely quick machines look and sound the part and should breathe new life into the Saloons And Sportscars.

Oliver Mortimer and Alan Kirkaldy - The year of the Young Gun? Mortimer's XR2 debut was fast and level headed and Kirkaldy's debut in a Caterham race was thrilling to watch (though equal mention must go to Brewster and Cowie for making the lead battle as good as it was).

Scottish Club Racing.co.uk's "Not Racers Of The Day":

Ross Marshall: A frightening accident in the first corner of his first ever Legends race, a completely destroyed legend and a couple of incidents in the XR2 race - he'll be hoping that the season actually starts at the April 25th meeting!

MSA: Ludicrous new rules stating that a series must have at least 14 runners in it to be classified as a Championship. This could potentially mean that the Caterhams and Formula Fords are racing for nothing, even if they provide excellent racing (such as they did on Sunday) all year.

The Minis: Last year they had one of the bigger SMRC grids, elaborate corporate hospitality, a crowd of hangers-on and guests with all-access passes, celebrity cars and big name Scottish teams running multi-car teams. This season only five cars made the first race, Ecurie Ecosse, ICR etc are nowhere to be seen and the paddock was dotted with several Minis for sale. The commentators thought that grids will be up by the next round but it needs a pretty big boost.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/11th%20April.pdf

[Catriona]

April 25th, 2004

The end of April and May have picked up something of a reputation in recent years as being the best time for weather at Knockhill. Remember the BTCC in 2000? It's something of a shame, therefore, that when Knockhill now hosts the BTCC it always does so in July and August, the "rainy season" at the 'Hill - thus feeding the "It always rains at Knockhill" myth that seems to be believed by the majority of the UK. The good weather reputation for this time of year was further borne out on Sunday, when the SMRC classes basked in brilliant sunshine.

***

The Legends had a storming outing two weeks previously with some great racing and they delivered again this time around, although there was a worryingly high amount of contact during the races themselves. In the first heat, Derek Pierce initially took the lead with Colin Noble grabbing second when Lance Gauld left the track at McIntyre and retired. Noble snatched the lead of the race with Pierce bouncing across the grass on the Railway Straight in his efforts to get the lead back, but he had to make do with second. Hunter took third a couple of seconds back with Ray Davison and Ben Mason in close company.

The second race saw an excellent race-long scrap between Robin Drysdale, Noble and Davison which finished with them going through the hairpin three-wide on the last lap and finishing in that order. The first time around the hairpin was a chaotic event with Ronnie Klos missing his braking point and riding over the back of Ali Thom's car. Indeed Klos had an interesting race which would see him called to race control following further contact in the race with Stuart Auld and Aly Hunter. The hairpin incident spread most of the field out and Pierce and Mason crossed the line two seconds behind the leaders.

The final started on a destructive note, with Caroline McMurdo barrell-rolling on the track upon leaving the hairpin after contact with another car which was rejoining the track from the gravel trap. After a worrying moment she emerged unhurt from the car but the race had obviously been red flagged. At the restart Lance Gauld took the lead followed by Malcolm Clark. An incident leaving the hairpin left Derek Pierce out of the race at the side of the track and Malcolm Clark suffered a spin to the rear of the field. Ray Davison reeled in Gauld whose car was still suffering from its race 1 damage and he took the lead to win by just over a second. Ronnie Klos led home a battling group which comprised of Noble, Dave Newsham, Drysdale and Chris Grieve.

***

Fans of the Saloons and Sportscar classes had a bumper day of action to watch with the splitting of the Scottish series into two distinct Sportscar and Saloon classes and the visiting Northern Saloon and Sportscar Series.

The first of the two classes to run was for the "Sportscar" E, F and G classes and basically comprised of the LM3000, the radicals and the Crossle. With the Caterham Academy class cars not running at this event, the five Caterham Roadsport entries were added to the bill. Ian Forrest did what Brian Saravilovic's LM3000 did at the last meeting, i.e. led the whole way with the LM3000 in close attendance. Despite a couple of attempts to get by the black Radical, Saravilovic had to be content with a very close second. In the Caterham field, George Brewster led the whole way with Ian Cowie all over him but he managed to hold the ICR boss off to just take the win. Donald Laird came home third.

The "Saloon" A, B, C and D classes was dominated by the fantastic 1999 Nissan Primera Super Touring car of Jonathon Young, who was shaking the car down prior to entering it in the Formula Saloon series down south. A poor start dropped him back but he was soon up with John Muir's Toyota Starlet and taking back the lead. Robert Pritchard's visiting heavily modified Caterham took second place late on in the race and finished 13 seconds behind the Primera and just ahead of Colin Simpson's Marcos Mantis - another welcome visitor from the Northern Saloons and Sportscars. John Muir took fourth ahead of the Sierra of Kevin Adam and the Escort of Ray Pollock. The small Mini field was placed with this race to save time on race-day and Findlay Crocker took an easy victory after Michael Connon and Steve Mitchell were forced to spend a number of laps trying to untie their cars from each other after a bizarre chicane incident which saw them connected by the rear towbar on Mitchell's car.

***

The XR2 race was a somewhat spread out race after a chaotic first lap broke the field up. Oliver Mortimer led the entire race from pole while Alan Keith initially jumped past Ian Forrest only to fall behind him again and retire to another non-points result when trouble cropped up with his radiator. Forrest tried a number of moves to unseat Mortimer from the point but eventually had to give best to the youngster, crossing the line right behind him.

A somewhat fraught following group changed positions a number of times leading to Stewart Scott working his way clear of the following pack to grab third ahead of John Swift who also fought his way up through the field. Richard Reed, Ian Milton and Andrew Martin were next up followed by Nick Sanderson who had suffered engine failure in qualifying and had to rely on Alan Keith's spare engine to make the race. Next up was Alastair Hart who won the Newcomer class ahead of George Orr and Henry Lowson, who himself won a very furious battle between himself and series returnees Derek McDougall and Norman Dalgleish.

***

The Formula Ford Zetec race was led from start to finish by series returnee Ryan Cannon who was followed closely for the whole distance by Julian Taylor, who finished a mere one second behind him. Seven seconds further back came Stuart Thorburn who had to defend hard (some observers have commented that he may have tried too hard) to keep the very much up and coming Sarah Playfair behind him. Joe Tanner was the only other driver really able to keep up with the top cars and although he faded a little towards the end of the race, he managed to come home in fifth.

***

The visiting series brought a host of interesting machines to watch in the Touring Car hopefuls of tomorrow driving the T-Cars (sadly only seven cars made the trip north), the extremely quick mini-prototype Global GT Lights and the ever welcome Northern Saloons and Sportscars, and all delivered very interesting races.

The Historic Ecosse vintage car series was also on hand for the first time this season and a piece of history was on track in a 1914 Stutz which we believe may well have run in the Indy 500 90 years ago!!

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/25th%20April.pdf

[Catriona]

May 15th, 2004 - F3 meeting, Day 1

Whenever the bigger National Motor Racing Series venture north to Knockhill, usually it creates three days of frantic activity at the track and for the British F3 meeting, this is no different. The first of the big meetings of Knockhill's 30th year got underway on Friday with practice sessions for all the involved series over the weekend and this report will look at the track activity for Saturday. Visiting along with the F3s are the TVR Tuscan Challenge, National Caterham Roadsports (A and B classes) and the UK Formula Ford Championship. With the British GT Championship sadly not making the trip north this year, the programme was supplemented by having the Scottish Saloons and Sportscars and Scottish Formula Ford Zetec Series run on the Saturday. Both the Scottish Fiesta XR2 and Legends Championships will run on Sunday. To add to this, the Historic Ecosse series has a race on both Saturday and Sunday.

***

The Scottish Formula Ford Zetecs were supplemented by the addition of Toby Hicks who was making his first start of the year, which meant a ten car grid. Stuart Thorburn started from pole but not for the first time didn't get away well and soon found himself behind Julian Taylor. Over the next few laps, Taylor would find himself pulling away with Thorburn dropping behind Derek Butcher, Joe Tanner and Sarah Playfair. With Taylor pulling into the distance and taking Butcher with him, it was up to the three behind to provide the entertainment and they certainly did, battling for several laps.

A good run into the hairpin saw Playfair get past Thorburn, plus a good run up the straight saw her grab third from Tanner! Tanner fell behind Thorburn and dropped off the pace towards the end but Thorburn was on a charge and he harrassed Playfair for the remaining laps, cutting inside her car at the hairpin on the last lap and taking third behind Taylor and Butcher by under one-hundredth of a second. Tanner took fifth and the only other driver really on the pace, Alastair Morton, retired with two laps to go.

***

The Scottish Saloons and Sportscars race was extremely disappointing in its field size. Only eleven cars of the usual twenty plus starters made it out, presumably because of the fact it was a Saturday race, but the small grid size reflected poorly on a Championship that is usually well supported with no John Muir, Jonathan Young, Kevin Adam, Andrew Morrison etc in sight. Brian Sarafilovic initially took the lead in the LM3000 with the three Radicals in close attendance but soon after losing the point to Ian Forrest he retired with no clutch. This left the way for the Radicals to dominate and Forrest took the victory, seven seconds ahead of Allan Dallas and David McLennan. Fourth and lapped was the Crossle of Tim Jacobsen with Stuart Thorburn's Lotus Exige the only other car one lap down. Paul Luti won an entertaining race-long scrap between his Rover 100 and John Nathan's Escort in sixth and seventh.

***

The TVR Tuscans had lost a round at Silverstone due to bad weather (does that mean we can get revenge on our Southern friends by saying "Silverstone? It always rains there"?) so ran at the end of the programme of events to get that round back. Some cars who will run on Sunday could not run in this round as they had not entered the ill-fated Silverstone round so only ten took the field. A great six way battle for the lead and various scrapes ensued but Lee Caroline snatched victory from Philip Keen at the death.

***

The National Caterham Roadsport Class A and B races produced the usual slipstreaming battles this class is renowned for, whilst the F3 cars proved they are still as fast and loud as ever in their qualifying sessions. Ex-Scottish Formula Ford Zetec front-runner Andrew Thompson will start seventh and fifteenth in Sunday's races, while in National Formula Ford Zetec, fellow ex-Scottish runner Ryan Cannon will start 12th, with Sarah Playfair also in the field, starting 14th.

With F3, Tuscan, Caterham, Formula Ford, XR2 and Legends all filling the day, Sunday should be action packed.

[Catriona]

May 16th, 2004 - F3 meeting, Day 2

Sunday dawned with brilliant sunshine for the second day of the British F3 meeting at Knockhill. Once again May was shown to be by far the best month for weather at the track as the temperature rocketed, though the "Knockhill breeze" was never far away.

***

The Scottish Legends were early on the bill for the day and started with an exciting first heat. Ben Mason worked his way through some chaotic scenes to take his first Legends victory, although Ray Davison was right with him all the way. A few seconds back, Ronnie Klos led home a group consisting of Dave Newsham, Malcolm Clark, Lance Gauld and Chris Grieve to take third. Derek Pierce and Colin Noble finished well down in the lower reaches of the top ten after some fraught battling which saw them delayed and Aly Hunter in the wall and out of the race.

The second heat got off to a destructive start when Ray Davison and Ronnie Klos made contact on the pit straight and veered off the track into the tyre wall, Davison's car ending up on its roof, although the driver was unhurt. Colin Noble fought a tooth and nail battle with Lance Gauld and Dave Newsham to the end to take the victory while a large group fought to the end for the remaining positions. Derek Pierce and Gary Crawford both suffered mechanical failures which stopped them from seeing the flag, Crawford's red and white car being packed up early afterwards.

The final saw a number of lead changes and various groups trying to gain positions, but in the end it was Ray Davison in a hastily (but well) repaired legend who took a very popular win, with Robin Drysdale and Colin Noble all over him at the flag. Ben Mason and Aly Hunter completed the top five.

***

The Scottish XR2s produced a race of two halves - the first half of the race produced drama and action while the second half was a subdued affair as the fairly small field spread out. At the race start poleman Oliver Mortimer initially took the lead but an off track excursion dropped him behind Alan Keith, Sandy Forrest (who was making his 2004 debut in his father's car) and Peter Cruickshank. After 5 laps, Forrest left the track at McIntyres to retire and Mortimer made his way past Cruickshank to put in his fightback. He started to catch Keith towards the end but couldn't quite make it and took the flag 1.3 seconds behind Keith and 5 seconds ahead of Cruickshank who scored his first ever podium. Stewart Scott and Nick Sanderson filled out the top five having disputed it heavily in the early laps while John Marshall made his return to the series in sixth. Another mentionable incident occured at mid distance when George Orr missed his braking point at the hairpin and slammed into the side of Ian Milton who in turn bumped Henry Lowson. Pieces of cars flew in all directions but all the drivers managed to stay on track!

***

The Caterham Roadsports Class A and B races provided slip-streaming action aplenty while the TVR Tuscans were the stars of the visiting series, with multi-car battles for the lead every time. Carrying on from last year, Ben Samuelson entranced the crowds with some daredevil overtaking moves while all the other drivers provided some excellent racing. In the British Formula 3 races, Ernesto Viso and James Rossiter both took victories with the hilariously named Aussie Will Power taking second in each race. Scot Andrew Thompson took ninth and tenth places in the races.

Ex-Scottish Formula Ford Zetec front-runner Ryan Cannon is a UK Formula Ford regular now and he fought the big budget teams with their brand new cars in his antique 1999 Van Diemen to take an impressive pair of ninth places. Sarah Playfair was the only Scottish series regular to take part in the National Series races and despite retiring from the first race with suspension damage, she took an impressive tenth place in the second.

[Catriona]

June 27th, 2004

The four seasons in one day thing reared its head at Knockhill on Sunday as we went from rain to extreme heat to freezing cold wind and driving rain by the end of the day as a number of visiting series paid a visit, ie the MSA Long Track Kart Championship, the Jaguar XK Challenge for vintage Jags and the controversial Formula Woman series. The usual suspects were doing battle in the SMRC club classes though and they provided the main action of the day.

***

The Scottish Anglo Legends Championship (I'm still waiting for someone to explain the "Anglo" bit!) was the first of these series to hit the track and in the first heat Ronnie Klos took an initial lead, attempting to fight off team-mate Robin Drysdale while Lance Gauld stopped on the first lap with electrical problems. Derek Pierce took advantage of the scrapping pair ahead of him to fight his way to the front and he duly took the flag ahead of them both. The tight pack followed them home with Chris Grieve, Aly Hunter, Ben Mason and Ray Davison all in close attendence. Colin Noble lost power with a lap to run and fell to the back.

The second heat saw the two unlucky drivers from heat 1 in Colin Noble and Lance Gauld start at the front but Gauld couldn't even complete half a lap before the electrical problems resurfaced (said to be a crankshaft sensor) and he parked up for another long chat with the marshalls. Noble led but was soon caught by Ray Davison and as the two circled side by side, a group of four others joined the fray. As they entered the hairpin for the last time, six cars entered the space of three and Derek Pierce emerged in the lead to take victory by the smallest of margins from Davison, Noble, Klos, Drysdale and Dave Newsham. Five seconds further back, an equally fraught battle between Aly Hunter, Malcolm Clark, Chris Grieve and Gerard McCosh finished in that order.

The Final took place in the worst conditions of the day with heavy rain and a strong wind buffeting the cars. Klos broke down at the entry to the pitlane on the first lap while Lance Gauld took the lead in determined fashion, wanting a good finish after his horror day so far. Malcolm Clark initially challenged but was soon caught and passed by Derek Pierce and although Pierce suffered a mystery problem on the pit straight which dropped him down the field, Clark could mount no further attack on Gauld and settled for second, four seconds behind the jubilant Turnkey Computers driver. Robin Drysdale, Aly Hunter, Colin Noble, Dave Newsham, Pierce, Ben Mason, Chris Grieve and Ray Davison all slid home for top ten finishes in the sodden conditions to round out the day's proceedings.

***

The A,B,C and D classes of the Saloons and Sportscars looks like a Kevin Adam benefit from the results sheet but if it hadn't been for the untimely demise of John Muir's Starlet when it retired in a smokey fashion in the pitlane on lap 5, Adam may well have had a fight on his hands as he was being kept very honest until that point. Afterwards, though, he brought his Falkland Performance Sierra Cosworth home 8 seconds ahead of the battle between Stuart Thorburn's Lotus Exige and Andrew Morrison's MGZR which went Thorburn's way when he passed the MG on the last lap to take second at the flag. Ian Hepburn's rumbling Westfield V8 took fourth after the car's best run of the season with Stewart Whyte's Escort Cossie holding off the Rover 100 of Paul Luti which gets the most amazing acceleration out of the hairpin. John Nathan's Escort and the nicely turned out Renault 5 of Richard Lawson were the only other finishers. In the class for Mini Coopers, Vic Covey took the lead at half distance from the battling Mike Connon, Findlay Crocker and Steve Mitchell and held it to the flag.

The E,F and G classes now boast no fewer than six Radicals and the super fast sportscars provided some good racing, with Alistair McKever's new addition to the field taking pole and initially leading the way. Ian Forrest wasn't having any of this and fought his way by into the hairpin on lap 3, though McKever hung on as best he could, only finishing 0.42 of a second behind the black car, with Forrest once again breaking the class lap record. Allan Dallas, David McLennan, Ian McMurdo (in a new Caledonian Homes entry) and the returning Olly Ross completed the Radical roll of honour at the flag. Brian Saravilovic tried his best to spoil the party and mixed it well with them but his LM3000 sadly retired. The Scottish Caterhams also ran with the field in this race and Ian Cowie took class victory. The battle for the lead between himself and George Brewster was a close one though and they ran side by side for most of the race, Brewster eventually trying a do or die manouvere leaving the hairpin over the kerbs. Cowie knew exactly where to place his car though and Brewster spun off, leaving an easy run to the flag for Cowie. Donald Laird and Bob Lyons finished fourth and fifth.

***

Sarah Playfair took her first pole position in the Scottish Formula Ford Zetec race and was very confident prior to the start. When the lights went green, she initially led away but going into the hairpin on lap 1, Thorburn made a decisive move into the hairpin which saw him take the lead. As Playfair told the ScottishClubRacing.co.uk forums afterwards, Thorburn had started on fresh rubber compared to her one race old tyres and although his advantage only lasted a few laps, it was enough to make the difference early on.

Playfair tried to fight back but with an engine that was cutting out leaving the hairpin every lap, it was all she could do to hold off Julian Taylor who, having pulled off two passes in the opening lap having started fifth, took advantage of the dicing between the front two to work his way by his team-mate for second at the flag behind Thorburn. Playfair finished a frustrated third, taking pole and fastest lap - but she had really been going for the win having learned a lot running with the UK FFord Championship during the F3 weekend in May. "Gutted to put it mildly" was how she described her feelings about the race to us afterwards. Richard Huddart took fourth after initially holding on to the leaders but later falling back while Derek Butcher finished fifth after having to fight back from a spin following a clash with Joe Tanner on the opening lap.

***

The Scottish XR2 race was held when the weather was just starting to turn nasty and as the cars lined up on the grid the rain was well and truly falling. Something went wrong somewhere with the start procedure as the lights went green and then suddenly returned to red. It seems that a driver opened his door after the 5 second board and the starter hit red-green-red, confusing everyone. The front of the field went at the green and didn't see the lights go red again while the second half of the grid stopped and then got underway, confusion reigning as they entered Duffus Dip. With cars running at various speeds as well as the increasing rain, collisions were inevitable and Richard Reed vanished into the gravel never to re-appear while Chris Edwards suffered heavy front end damage and would park up in the pits. The red flag flew and the field got back into their starting positions, the second start going according to plan.

Sandy Forrest moved into the lead with Oliver Mortimer, Alan Keith, Andrew Allan, Peter Cruickshank and Nick Sanderson all in close attendance. With grip at a premium the cars tiptoed around and Forrest took the chequered flag a good distance ahead of the battling Mortimer and Keith who were covered by less than a second at the line. Allan was the only other car near to them at the flag. Sanderson grabbed fifth from Cruickshank who lost a lot of time on the final lap while John Swift, Ian Milton, Stewart Scott and John Marshall were next up. George Orr won the Newcomer class in 10th overall though Jamie Bickett and David Dryburgh were not far behind. Fourth in class was the returning Barry Holmes who has put together a new car after his previous machine was mortally damaged at the end of the 2003 season. The order was to be changed after the race ended however, as winner Forrest failed the technical inspection, and was excluded, promoting everyone else one position.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/27th%20June.pdf

[Catriona]

July 18th, 2004

With double-headers on the cards for most of the SMRC classes plus the visiting Northern Saloons and Sportscars, visitors to Knockhill on Sunday were promised 15 action packed races. They weren't disappointed.

The Legends were first to hit the track and their first heat of the day was to be one of the best displays of track action on show. After the four wide drifting at the hairpin in the first laps, things "settled" into a furious ten-car fight for the win. Indeed ten cars passed the chequered flag within three seconds of each other! Robin Drysdale took the win narrowly from Ben Mason, Colin Noble, Lance Gauld and Derek Pierce.

The second heat developed an eight car lead group by around half distance although a spin out of the race by Ronnie Klos broke the group into two. This left Drysdale, Gauld, Mason and Daniel Clark scrapping for the victory. On the last lap, Lance Gauld tried one of his patented "last of the late brakers" moves round the outside of the hairpin to take the lead from Drysdale and whilst he overcooked it and lost second to Mason, he had no regrets - and the move was certainly appreciated by the large crowd which had assembled for the day's racing. Colin Noble, Dave Newsham, Chris Grieve and Derek Pierce (who suffered an early spin and had to mount a long fightback) filled out the closest cars to the leaders.

The final saw Pierce mount an even better comeback. Starting ninth, he made his way to the front of the field, in close company with Malcolm Clark and Chris Grieve who were all over each other in the last couple of laps. Ronnie Klos came home a relatively lonely fourth with Robin Drysdale, Dave Newsham, Lance Gauld, and Colin Noble furiously fighting out the top eight positions.The top ten was completed by the curiously quiet pairing of Aly Hunter and Ray Davison who seemed to be a little off their usual pace. The Legends were the only regular SMRC class to miss out on a double header but that will be put right in one month at the BARC meeting at Knockhill in which we'll get an overdose of Legends in both their Scottish and National Series guises.

***

The Formula Ford Zetec races sported healthy grids with the inclusion of some new cars. Englishman James Jakes and Canadian Shaun McIntosh were the most notable new names, both in one off drives to learn a bit about Knockhill in advance of their Formula Renault outing here as part of the TOCA package which visits in August. Jakes took victory in the first race by 3 seconds from Sarah Playfair who was once again frustrated in her hunt for that debut win, although she did pull off one of the moves of the day by diving past McIntosh into the hairpin on the last lap. Stuart Thorburn, Julian Taylor and Richard Huddart all came home a further 8 seconds down the road. Alistair Morton failed to finish after a sizeable off at the top of Duffus Dip damaged his car.

The second race saw all twelve cars on the grid however, Taylor Motorsport working feverishly to get Morton out on track - in fact they cut it so close he was still shedding gravel as he left the paddock to join the grid! Just as the cars took the start, a large black cloud hovered over the track and opened up, drenching the circuit quickly. A number of cars spun off at the chicane and Race Control sensibly threw the red flags to allow the cars to switch to wet tyres. As it was, the rain stopped quickly and the sun came out, only four cars taking on wets, most notably Sarah Playfair, starting second.

Jakes started on slicks from pole and had no traction compared to Playfair, who immediately jumped into the lead. Jakes left the track briefly and dropped into the pack, while Playfair put the hammer down and drove for all she was worth, knowing that the rapidly drying track would soon favour the slick-shod cars behind her. Neil Fisher had also gone with wets and ran third early on, until an over-ambitious attempt to take second from Thorburn at the hairpin saw him spin and lose several places. Meanwhile, Playfair had managed to get her lead up to nine seconds with only a handful of laps to go and although Thorburn managed to bring the gap down to under five seconds at the flag, he could do nothing to stop her taking a famous victory. Ten seconds behind Thorburn, Julian Taylor took third ahead of a battling McIntosh and Jakes with Huddart, Fisher, Toby Hicks, Joe Tanner, Derek Butcher and Alistair Morton completing the field. Simon Kingsley's visiting Van Diemen was the only non-finisher.

***

Double-header XR2 meetings always provide a great spectacle and this event was no different. The first race was an Oliver Mortimer benefit almost as he took the lead and held it solidly to the end. A large red mass followed him however with Sandy Forrest, Peter Cruickshank and Alan Keith all swapping places but finishing in that order. Behind them, Andrew Allan fought his way by Nick Sanderson close to the end to take the fifth position. Several tight battles in the mid-field raged to the end as well.

The second race ended on a note of controversy when long time leader Oliver Mortimer, who had run at the front for most of the race before losing out to Sandy Forrest, lunged by to take first place again with only a few laps remaining. Forrest tried a few late braking manouveres to the flag but could not get past again and was clearly unhappy afterwards. Peter Cruickshank took another third place with Andrew Allan just getting past Alan Keith on the line for fourth. Nick Sanderson came home sixth after dicing hard with Allan and Ian Milton early on with John Marshall, John Swift, Milton and Andrew Martin completing the top-ten. Incident of the day occured when James Bicket locked his brakes at the hairpin and collided twice with Alistair Hart, leaving debris scattered liberally across the hairpin.

***

The Scottish Sports And Saloon Car Championship double header translated as four races with the current split between the "Saloon" (Class A,B,C,D) and "Sportscar" (Class E,F,G) grids. In the first Class A-D race, Northern Saloons and Sportscars runner Robert Pritchard stormed away from pole in his mighty 240 HP Caterham Vauxhall (possibly the best prepared and impressive modified Caterham anywhere) to win by 23 seconds from Jonathan Young's immaculate Pro Motorsport Nissan Primera Super Touring car which had to fight its way through the field after stalling on the grid and needing a lengthy push by the marshalls to get going. Kevin Adam and Ray Pollock were next up in their Cosworth powered machines with Andrew Morrison's MG ZR, Ian Hepburn's ever improving rumbling V8 powered Westfield and Stuart Thorburn's Lotus Exige the only other cars on the lead lap.

The second race was Young all the way. With a long journey home in prospect, Pritchard had left the circuit by the time of the race and the Nissan dominated after having to overhaul Adam's Sierra which had taken the lead off the line. Adam kept the gap to a respectable 26 seconds behind the Super Tourer while Andrew Morrison, Stuart Thorburn and Ian Hepburn all narrowly avoided being lapped as they battled together. John Muir failed to start either race in his ever present Toyota Starlet after melting a piston in practice.

The E,F and G class (or Radical Class as it will no doubt soon be known!) boasted no fewer than six of the superb sportscars with the addition of Alasdair McCaig in the car normally driven by Ian Forrest. Forrest took to the track in the "spare" car which has sat around at the last couple of meetings. Alistair McKever initially led away (in a car that had a strangely coloured front end after a practice crash required hasty repairs) and after they had fought each other for a few laps, McCaig and Forrest caught him up towards the end. A last gasp lunge by McCaig at the hairpin came to nothing and the three of them crossed the line covered by a second. Allan Dallas, David McLennan and Ian McMurdo completed the Radical field while the only other entry and finisher was Darren McWhirter's superb 6 litre Jaguar XJR15 of the type that ran well at Le Mans in the early nineties.

The second race started with McCaig diving into the lead and he held it for much of the race. Three laps from home, McKever made an attempt with locked wheels to get through but couldn't make it, so he tried again the next time by - grabbing the lead through the hairpin. On the last lap Forrest attempted something similar but couldn't make it stick and the three of them finished just as they did in race 1 - McKever, McCaig and Forrest all covered by less than a second. Allan Dallas continued to improve, coming home four seconds behind with McLennan once again leading home McMurdo.

***

The Caterham and Mini Cooper race saw the same story as at every race this year - Ian Cowie and George Brewster fighting tooth and nail for the win. Brewster initially led but as they came up to lap the first of the slower Minis, Cowie took the opportunity and jumped through for the lead. On the last lap, Brewster went for it and the two cars crossed the line side by side, Brewster taking the win by 0.35 of a second. The visiting car of Michael Thornhill took third some thirty seconds further back. Patrick Clark took fourth overall on the way to winning the Academy class by five seconds over Garry Meikle.

Mike Connon held off the race-long advances of Steve Mitchell to take the Mini class win with Findlay Crocker in third five seconds behind.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/18th%20July.pdf

[Catriona]

August 14th-15th, 2004

It may not be officially known as the Legends Festival anymore, but the visit of the National Legends Series to Knockhill usually creates just that with a double header for both the National and Domestic Series. Great racing was expected and great racing was delivered with the Scottish Series runners providing just as good if not better entertainment.

Saturday saw the first three races of the weekend's six-race Scottish Legends program. Dave Newsham won the first heat after pulling out a lead to the warring pack behind him ahead of Derek Pierce, Robin Drysdale, Lance Gauld and Colin Noble while the second heat went the way of Pierce after a battle with Ben Mason which lasted until the flag. The Final was also a Pierce victory with Davison, Drysdale, Noble and Mason rounding out the top-five.

On Sunday, the second round got underway with a bang when the red flag flew almost instantly. Colin Noble speared off the track into the tyrewall avoiding a wayward Robin Drysdale and badly damaged his car. It was so badly damaged in fact that his car was packed up for the day. At the restart, several cars pulled into the lead with Chris Grieve pulling away from a battling Ben Mason and Dave Newsham. On the final lap, Mason and Newsham banged doors leaving the hairpin, neither wanting to give way to the other. Newsham spun off the track while Mason was slowed almost to the point of losing second to Lance Gauld. Behind them Derek Pierce and Aly Hunter filled out the top five.

The second heat did not feature Hunter who suffered a large enough crash in the National Legends race to put his car out of action for the day. Derek Pierce initially pulled away after a fight with Newsham but the battling pack caught the two of them, Robin Drysdale managing to grab the win at the line by 0.18 seconds. Pierce, Newsham, Mason, Malcolm Clark, Gauld (who endured a scare mid race when he discovered his passenger side door had not been closed properly and it popped open in traffic), Grieve and Daniel Clark all crossed the line seperated by a second and a half.

The Final was always going to be good, but it turned out to be possibly the best Legends race ever. Lance Gauld was easily the star of the first lap, jumping from eighth to fourth in the first part of the lap before diving through into the lead at the hairpin. Malcolm Clark ran second until a spin at the hairpin dropped him back and after a further spin later he pulled into the pits to retire. Ray Davison stepped up to challenge Gauld next, and took the point until Robin Drysdale caught them both and took his turn at the front. This fighting allowed the chasing pack to catch them and an eight car battle for the lead raged over the last three laps. Ray Davison found himself spat out of the pack at the hairpin leaving seven cars to fight to the end, positions changing constantly as they fought tooth and nail to the flag, Drysdale taking the win from Derek Pierce, Chris Grieve, Dave Newsham, Ben Mason, Daniel Clark and Lance Gauld - the group all covered by one second!

***

The Caterhams and Minis once again were running together and had a double header at this meeting. George Brewster was totally unchallenged all weekend as Ian Cowie was not on track, indeed the only other car to come close to Brewster was the similar car of Jeremy Robertson in the first race - finishing five seconds behind. Ross Wilson took two victories in the Academy Class. The Mini races both saw victories for Finlay Crocker.

The second race was looking to be an interesting battle to the end between Crocker, Mike Connon and Vic Covey but the red flag was thrown on the twelfth lap after a multi-car collision saw Owen Will's Mini and the Caterham of Bob Lyons badly damaged and just off the racing line at the hairpin and the result was called as of lap eleven.

***

The Saloons and Sportscars ran as a single race at this meeting as opposed to the usual "Sportscar" and "Saloon" races. The Radical brigade didn't have it all their own way in the race this time though, as although Ian Forrest led away, Brian Sarafilovic could be found in second in the familiar LM3000. Alistair McKever pushed his way by at the hairpin to chase after Forrest and eventually took the lead to win by just over a second. Andrew Smith made his first start of the year in the IF Motorsport Radical to take third with the LM3000 coming home fourth ahead of David McLennan. Jonathan Young's DDMC Nissan Super Tourer grabbed sixth overall and the class A win ahead of Robert Pritchard's Vauxhall Caterham (also visiting with the DDMC Northern Saloons and Sportscars series). Colin Simpson's superb Marcos Mantis was next up. Further back Jillian Butcher made her return to the cockpit driving an ex-BTCC Production Class Ford Focus.

***

In the Scottish XR2 Championship, Sandy Forrest managed to break the Oliver Mortimer stranglehold on the series by battling past his younger opponent and pulling away to win the race by three seconds. Knowing that his large points lead would not by significantly damaged by this, Mortimer held back and took the safe second place, a good 6 seconds ahead of Alan Keith who was unhappy with his car's lack of pace. Peter Cruickshank, Andy Allan and Ian Milton finished a second or two behind Keith and they would have been joined by Nick Sanderson had he not suffered a spin early in the race which he fought back hard from to grab tenth at the end. Various cars came away with damage, none more so than Alistair Hart who was involved in a couple of sizeable shunts, the second of which punctured his fuel tank and lead to his receiving a black flag. Chris Pass lost a wheel in the closing stages while Norman Dalgleish failed to take the start when smoke eminated from his car on the out-lap.

***

In the Formula Ford Zetec race, Stuart Thorburn headed the field from Julian Taylor, Richard Huddart and Sarah Playfair. The field fought for position until lap seven when Huddart made an outside passing move at the hairpin on Taylor, the two making contact upon leaving the corner. Both suffered collapsed suspension and with Taylor's car blocking the track, the race was red-flagged. At the restart, Thorburn bogged down and dropped to the back, allowing Playfair to take up the lead with team-mate Alistair Morton in second. Thorburn fought his way up to third and tried a few times to get to grips with Morton, eventually making an all-or-nothing move at the hairpin on the last lap which did not pay off, allowing Joe Tanner to dive past and take a very happy third. With Derek Butcher spinning out at McIntyre's, the only other finisher was Neil Fisher.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/14th%20August.pdf and www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/15th%20August.pdf

[Catriona]

September 5th, 2004

The 2004 season for the SMRC classes is already drawing to a close. Testing started back in March and we are already into September and reaching the closing stages for all the competing series. For the Legends it was their final Championship round of the season and "end of term" chaos broke loose...

The first Legends heat took place on an almost dry track after some terrible early morning weather which had held up the practice sessions. Lance Gauld jumped from fourth to first during the first lap with Dave Newsham in hot pursuit. Newsham grabbed the lead and held onto it despite a number of challenges by Gauld and they crossed the line split by only 0.23 of a second, followed by Derek Pierce who had been gaining on the battling pair. Aly Hunter and Ray Davison finished fourth and fifth. A big battle raged towards the back of the pack for the majority of the race and was won by Ali Thom who managed a late braking manouvere on Chris Grieve towards the end, with Jamie Willis, Kevin Clark and Caroline McMurdo in close attendance.

The second race started in dramatic style with the red flag flying after a large accident at Butchers. Ray Davison had left the track and in trying to keep his foot in the throttle, came back onto the track at an almost 90 degree angle. Whilst attempting to avoid Davison, Ali Thom's front right wheel came into contact with the rear left of Lance Gauld's number 23 car. Gauld was launched skyward and landed very heavily on the tarmac while Thom pulled off the track missing his wheel. Worrying scenes followed as it became clear that Gauld was not getting out of the stricken car and the marshalls and emergency crews got to work getting Gauld out of the car and into the ambulance. Thankfully it was later confirmed that Gauld had escaped with only a sore neck. Lance would like to thank all those who sent their good wishes and concern and is glad that he came away in a better condition than the car!

When the race was restarted, a six car battle for the win raged for the entire race with Robin Drysdale eventually emerging as the winner (despite an unfortunate dose of diesel being put in his car's fuel tank during practice!) with only a second covering himself, Newsham, Pierce, Ben Mason, Daniel Clark and Chris Grieve.

The third race was also marred by a big accident, this time at the hairpin on the first lap. Contact was made in the pack and Ronnie Klos skated across the field triggering a series of impacts that saw several cars spun, damaged and delayed. Ray Davison and Ben Mason were immediate retirements and were forced to watch proceedings from the hairpin grass. The pile-up had strung the field out at the front massively and Chris Grieve took possibly the easiest win in Legends history, over five seconds clear of Robin Drysdale who held a two second gap to Aly Hunter. A good battle for fourth raged for most of the remainder of the race between Newsham, Jamie Willis and Gerrard McCosh. After Newsham had escaped his pursuers, Willis and McCosh took their fight for fifth all the way to the chequered flag, Willis taking the spot by a whisker. Klos finished a damaged seventh ahead of Caroline McMurdo, Simeon Maurer and the equally battered Pierce who rounded out the top ten.

ScottishClubRacing.co.uk congratulates Derek Pierce on becoming Scottish Legends Champion of 2004. Some of the Legends should be out again at the final SMRC meeting of the year to run "fun races" as happened at the end of 2003.

***

The Scottish Formula Ford Zetec race was a fraught affair with Stuart Thorburn leading away from polesitter Sarah Playfair. Series returnee Alan Kirkaldy (in the car of the absent Derek Butcher) also managed to dive past Playfair at the hairpin but found himself being repassed at the same spot later, leaving so much room that Joe Tanner dived into the middle of the two of them, managing to make up the position from Kirkaldy.

A spirited fightback from Kirkaldy saw him fight his way back past these two before the end, acting as tailgunner for his team-mate Thorburn to the end. Alistair Morton and Julian Taylor had an entertaining three car scrap for the majority of the race, but Taylor was unhappy with a persistent misfire in his new engine which was slowing him on the straights and meant he could not fight for the win.

***

The Mini Cooper Challenge ran on its own at this meeting and of the six entries, Mike Connon proved to be the quickest on the day, though he had to hold off a race long challenge from Victor Covey who finished only .37 of a second behind him, setting a new lap record in the process. Eight seconds back Finlay Crocker took a lonely third with Steve Mitchell finishing a troubled fourth just ahead of Owen Will.

***

The XR2 race saw yet another massive battle between Oliver Mortimer and Sandy Forrest for the win. Mortimer generally had the upper hand and seemed to have better speed on the straights, but the experienced Forrest battled hard and even took the lead before having to conceed defeat to the impressive youngster. Ten seconds further back came Ian Milton but he was to lose third place later when he received a ten second time penalty for jumping the start. This dropped him behind Nick Sanderson and Stewart Scott to fifth.

Sanderson took his first podium finish (despite not actually getting onto the podium at all!) in his new car, previously driven by Alan Keith earlier in the season. Colin McKinnon took sixth on his return to the series while Barry Holmes took easily his best result yet in seventh to take Newcomer Class honours despite the SMRC not showing him as a Newcomer on the results sheets and awarding the victory to Marc Baynham who finished ninth! Only two cars retired from the race, Jamie Bickett being assisted off the track by Ross Marshall and Norman Dalgleish who was left fuming after being removed from proceedings by the errant George Orr, who had been upside down in the gravel during the practise sessions and came into contact with so many cars in the race that the officials saw fit to exclude him from the results.

***

The Saloon and Sportscar race saw yet more Radicals in the field, making for a very interesting lead battle. Ian Forrest, Colin Noble (making his debut in one of the sportscars) and sometime top flight Touring Car, Sportscar and seventies Formula 3 driver Bryce Wilson made the initial pace, passing each other on several occasions with the LM3000 of Brian Saravilovic keeping a watching brief. The turning point came as they came up to lap the "best of the rest" which was a fascinating battle between Kevin Adam and Stuart Whyte in their Sierra Cosworth and Escort Cosworth respectively. With the Cossies side by side down the pit straight, the Radicals had to check up and the LM3000 dived in amongst them, grabbing third from Noble while Forrest managed to take the win from Wilson. Ian McMurdo took fifth ten seconds behind this battle ahead of three further Radicals and the Crossle of Tim Jacobsen. Kevin Adam eventually won the Cosworth battle and came home tenth.

***

The Caterham Roadsports looked set to provide the usual Ian Cowie (driving a spare car while his usual mount was undergoing work) vs George Brewster battle but an early spin to the back for Brewster seemed to have stopped that from becoming a reality. Brewster didn't think so and a stirring comeback drive plus the fastest race lap saw him finish only half a second behind Cowie. Bob Lyons took third as the only other Roadsport finisher after his battle with Esmond Smith saw Smith into the tyre wall after losing control at the hairpin.

Ross Wilson took a commanding victory in the Academy Class fifteen seconds ahead of Mark Wilson. ScottishClubRacing.co.uk forum regular Ross Taylor took his first Academy Class podium finish just ahead of Ricky Whitehead.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/5th%20September.pdf

[Catriona]

October 17th, 2004

Another season draws to a close, and with most of the SMRC classes getting double-header races at this meeting, the spectators and drivers could expect some great battles on track to round out 2004.

The XR2 drivers were first to get involved in race action, taking to the track in chilly conditions with the track holding water at the chicane and at Clark. 2004 Champion Olly Mortimer had elected not to run this weekend in favour of trying out a Mini following his move to the different category in 2005, so the way was clear for Sandy Forrest to take the head of the field. On the first lap Forrest led away while Nick Sanderson suffered a sideways moment at Clark which triggered chaos on a grand scale. Peter Cruickshank, John Swift and Ross Marshall all took heavy damage in the ensuing pileup while several other drivers found their race positions shuffled. Another off for Sanderson found him drop a number of positions while Ian Milton, George Orr and Marc Baynham found themselves fighting for the remaining podium positions. Orr later fell back behind Baynham and Sanderson, however.

The second race saw Sandy Forrest once again take the lead while Milton led Baynham and Sanderson away. Having passed Baynham for third, Sanderson then left the track at the bottom of Duffus Dip, not to rejoin. Peter Cruickshank, meanwhile, had started at the back of the grid following his DNF in race 1 and he was on an inspired charge, battling through the field. Forrest then retired in the pitlane at half distance, allowing Milton to take a lead he wouldn't lose, despite an incoming Cruickshank who grabbed second from Baynham but couldn't quite catch the leader. George Orr and Jamie Bickett filled out the top five with Stewart Scott finishing sixth ahead of of Barry Holmes. A strong run to a possible sixth place was lost to Charlie Thornton when he first of all suffered an off followed by a mechanical retirement.

***

The Formula Ford Zetecs also had a double header and the first race began with polesitter Duncan Vincent (in his first race this season - using Charlie Glancy's car and Alan Kirkaldy's helmet!) pulling away from fellow Taylor Motorsport team-mates Sarah Playfair and Alistair Morton. A returning Jonathan Adam initially ran fourth but an off track moment dropped him to the rear of the field whilst Julian Taylor and Stuart Thorburn fought their way by Morton. Vincent had built up a good lead but Playfair ate into it very quickly and despite running on his tail for the last two laps, she could not find a way by and they crossed the line seperated by 0.16 of a second with Taylor, Thorburn and Neil Fisher filling out the top five.

The second race saw Vincent leap into a huge lead in a very short space of time while the rst of the field fought ferociously over second place. After Morton pulled off the track we saw six cars battling for the runner-up spot. More changes of position than could be counted occured within the group over several laps until Taylor and Playfair seemed to make contact. Taylor dropped to the back of the group while Playfair carried on, though broken rear suspension intially caused her to spin and although she attempted to continue, it collapsed completely just a few laps later. The remaining five got back together again and Jonathan Adam emerged at the head of the bunch on the last lap to take what he no doubt expected to be second place. At least, that would have been the case if they didn't then find themselves staring at Vincent's car off the track at the exit of the last corner of the last lap, the returnee hitting the power too hard leaving the hairpin and spinning off into retirement. Therefore only five cars made it to the finish, Adam taking the win ahead of Thorburn, Taylor, Fisher and Joe Tanner.

***

With the number of Radicals running these days, they tend to get their own "Class G" race in the Saloon and Sportscar Championship. The first race saw Allan Dallas take a surprise lead in his red car, though he would eventually lose the lead and the win to Colin Noble, who is proving to be pretty good with these cars. Ian Forrest ran third until he retired in the pits with a rough sounding engine so Ian McMurdo completed the podium with the only other finishers being the older machines of Roddie Paterson and Olly Ross.

The second race saw some great battles following a small shower just before the start. All the cars started on slicks and most of the drivers took the first laps slowly. All except Paterson that is, his older-spec Radical enjoying the conditions far more than the rest of the field. An excellent move into the hairpin saw him pass both Forrest and McMurdo for second place behind Noble but as the track started to dry he was caught by the newer machines and a nudge from McMurdo found him back behind the two of them again. Allan Dallas could not get to grips with the conditions and spun twice, not rejoining the track after the second. A spin by McMurdo at the hairpin saw him drop to the back, while Patterson's heroics continued - repassing Forrest but then sadly spinning off and out of the race just as Forrest had taken the spot back. Noble now held a huge lead but sadly it came to nothing as clutch failure forced him into retirement. This left Forrest in the lead with McMurdo catching hand over fist but as the chequered flag flew McMurdo was still 1.3 seconds behind Forrest. Olly Ross was the only other finisher, some 20 seconds behind the leader.

***

The first of the two races for all other Saloon and Sportscar classes saw Stewart Whyte and Kevin Adam make it an all-Cosworth battle for the win. The Escort and Sierra pairing fought hard all race but not even a tap at the hairpin on the last lap could dislodge Whyte and his silver Escort took the victory. Andrew Morrison had an interesting race with the two top Caterham entrants (who were having their last race of the year as part of this race) in George Brewster and Ian Cowie to the end with Bill Carr taking an impressive 6th in his Mallock.

The second race saw Whyte take a more convincing victory with his 4 wheel drive car suiting the damp conditions and he finished 13 seconds ahead of Adam. Andrew Morrison was again third with Carr taking a handy fourth. Dave Colville made a welcome return to Scottish racing with his Mayflower Trophy MG ZR to take fifth after an early exit from the first race.

***

With Derek Pierce already crowned as this year's Legends Champion, the remainder of the field had elected to run some non-championship exhibition races. Although a number of the bigger name drivers were not out, a lot of newcomers decided to have a go and 14 cars lined up.

In the first heat, four cars broke away from the field - Ben Mason at the point. Lance Gauld stuck very close to him for the majority of the race but could not work his way by, crossing the line only 0.28 of a second behind the blue No.22. Robin Drysdale and the racy Gerard McCosh were covered by an even smaller margin just 2 seconds back. Ali Thom took easily his best finish yet with fifth place ahead of the squabbling Steven Coull, Ronnie Klos and Jamie Willis.

The second heat was a bit of a Lance Gauld walkover after he had passed Klos on lap 1, the Turnkey Computers car stretching out a 4 second lead to Drysdale, Mason, Willis and McCosh who fought hard over the remaining top five positions. Klos took 6th place just ahead of Jeff Stewart.

The Final saw Mason do what Gauld had done in the second heat by pulling out a gap to the following cars. Drysdale, Gauld and McCosh were the head of the chasing pack again as before and finished in that order. Klos took fifth after fighting with a sick sounding engine.

***

The final standard Mini Cooper Challenge race of the season started with several chaotic laps in which Minis were seen to be heading in all directions in the damp conditions at the back of the circuit. Finlay Crocker came through the chaos to win by just over a second from the closely following Martin Stein and Owen Will, whose car was sporting interesting adjustments to the roof following a roll on Saturday.

In a novel season-ending concept, the organisers borrowed an idea that was once used in the XR2 Championship by running a 30 lap relay race for the minis at the end of the day which would feature a driver change. XR2 Champion Olly Mortimer started the race in Owen Will's car, blowing the field away in the first two thirds of the race before handing over to Will who then finished 30 seconds ahead of the car shared by Vic Covey and Vic Covey Jnr. Mike and Mark Connon finished fourth with Martin Stein and ex-Scottish Caterham Champ Andrew Smith's car coming home just ahead of the car shared by Finlay Crocker and Ronnie Klos. The race was red flagged initially after a bizarre accident in which Steve Mitchell vaulted the tyre wall at the bottom of Duffus Dip to plunge ten feet over the other side into the boggy middle section of Knockhill. Mitchell was unhurt but it ended his and Alan Keith's race.

Full results: www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202004_files/Knockhill/17th%20October.pdf