Jock was a smash hit at Cowdenbeath Racewall

Jock Maxwell (middle) in action at Cowdenbeath Racewall

Now Maxwell, from Buckhaven, is the senior technical officer for BriSCA and the ORCi and says he was racing “within weeks” after a trip to Cowdenbeath Racewall in 1979 saw him become hooked on the sport.

“I remember my first race all too well,” he says, “it took me around six weeks to build my car but it only lasted three or four laps and was wrecked!

"I could race with the best of them but if something happened then I had no hesitation in having a crash. I used to have a set of wheels that my team nicknamed the “crashing wheels”.

"If it was raining or I was in a bad mood they would get fitted to the car.”

Maxwell won the Scottish Championship twice, the first at Armadale and the second at the Racewall in 1991.

"That was a cracking race and there were three rollovers early on. I remember spinning Bill Auld then getting ahead of Kenny Stewart later on to win.”

“I never really had much luck in the World. My best shot was at Swaffham where I led the race only to be taken out by Gordon Alexander not long after I had lapped him.

“The Ipswich weekends were always looked forward to.

One year there was the “peaches fight”. That was the year I had put Deane Wood in the wall. The crowd were booing me.

"When the cars were lining up for a heat the fans began to throw peaches at the drivers!”

Maxwell says he eventually stopped racing for a couple of reasons.

"One was that the pain was getting to me and the other was that my son Garry was of age to race a Ministox.

"I borrowed Derek Duff’s car for my last race. I had been spun on the main straight by James Cochrane and once I got the car restarted I drove the wrong way looking for a head on.

"I hit Brian Irvine instead. He broke his coccyx and I broke three bones in my foot. That was the end of my competitive racing career.”

“I have raced at many tracks over my career and I don’t care what anybody says you cannot beat the atmosphere at the Racewall.

"Even at a normal meeting there is a buzz but at a championship it is exceptional.”