Stock cars: Kirkcaldy ace Michael Bethune wins stock rod final after slow start at Cowdenbeath Racewall

A poor start much have had Bethune thinking that it wasn’t going to be his night when he failed to finish in any of his heats for one reason or another.

But the final proved to be a different story for the Kirkcaldy ace and once it started, he was soon making up ground on his opponents, a cause which was helped a bit after rival David Dignan (Methilhill) was clipped and almost rolled as a result.

On the restart it was Leven’s Craig Haxton who forced his way into the lead and Bethune had to work his way from fifth spot up into second place before he could start to close in on Haxton in the battle for supremacy.

With only a couple of laps to run in an exciting race, Bethune ultimately caught up with and passed Haxton to win.

Earlier, Haxton had won the opening heat whilst Bethune’s fellow Kirkcaldy driver Dylan Smart was second in heat two and fourth in the final.

Elsewhere on the night, Dunfermline’s Keith Chesher had a clean sweep in the classic hot rods, winning all three races by a wide margin whilst Kinglassie’s Trevor Harris was third in heat one and then also in the final.

This coming weekend, the racing at the Racewall is on Sunday afternoon when the Formula II drivers will be contesting a World Championship qualifying round and their Scottish Championship.

Ben Spence won the title last year and will be on hand to defend, but Windygates’ Gordon Moodie will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

The meeting starts at 1pm.

In other stock car racing news from last weekend, Gordon Moodie from Windygates was on his travels with his Formula II vehicle.

On Saturday he raced on the shale down at Bradford where he ended up as the runner-up in the Peoples Trophy final.

Then on Sunday he raced at Crimond in the north of Scotland where he picked up runner-up spots in both the heats before going on to win the final.