When Fifer Michael Bethune was on top of the world

The winner, Fifer Michael Bethune, does with pride.

The 2015 ORCi Stock Rod World Final was staged at the Cowdenbeath Racewall over the weekend of that weekend and was held in glorious hot weather.

There were plenty of spectators on both days and most of the top names in the sport were on hand all hoping that at the end of the day that the title would be heading their way.

Bethune recalled: “The car was checked over thoroughly on the build up to the World Final.

“There was a buzz when I went out to practice but I certainly wasn’t happy with the car.

“I checked my car over between the practice and the qualifying heats and everything seemed to be alright. Must have been me.”

When the qualifying heats were over, Bethune had won the three that he had been selected in and as a result had secured pole position for the World Final on Sunday.

“I was really pleased how the car ran throughout the qualifying heats – it had to be - I had won all three races and had secured pole position for the World,” he said.

“After the meeting we went home and put the car on the scales. In the morning I was actually the first to get to the garage – that’s unheard of – and basically all we did was a nut and bolt check. I was thinking a lot about the tyres and how that the size of the fuel tank was marginal – a bit of a worry.”

Bethune and his team got to the track early on the Sunday to prepare for the race and admits nerves were starting to get the better of him.

After their parade lap the grid was formed and it was an all Scottish front row with Bethune on pole with James Gray alongside but third placed Jimmy Pitcaithly had a fuel pump fail as he moved to take his grid place and was pushed into retirement.

“The delay didn’t help me any and all but eventually we set off and my nerves settled down,” he added.

The cars set off on their slow warm up lap as the crowd began to get vocal. When the green flag dropped Bethune went straight into the lead and with McKinnon in second and pressurised Bethune until lap seven when he briefly led.

Bethune began to ease away from McKinnon but on lap 18 there was a race suspension. This allowed the cars to line up behind Bethune but there were four back markers between him and McKinnon

When the race restarted Bethune began to open up a useful gap before McKinnon got ahead of the back markers. Over the next few laps Bethune managed to maintain his lead, trying where possible to overtake the slower cars without getting into trouble.

When the last lap board was shown Bethune just had to keep out of trouble and then the chequer flag was being waved as he won the race.

“With two laps to run I decided to hold station and when the last lap one appeared it was a case of not doing anything wrong and getting the car to the finish line” he said.

“When it dropped it was brilliant, can’t really describe the feeling, – I even had a wee tear in my eye – and then the adrenalin kicked in.”

“I drove around to the start/finish line and got out of my car to be surrounded by well wishers and when my family, girlfriend, mum, dad and sister, appeared there were a few tears shed.”