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The adventure basically began on Valentines Day 2007 when I opened a letter to read the words "delighted to inform you that you are one of three successful candidates for the 2007 Legends Scholarship." Having entered it more as a laugh than anything else while I scrimped the pennies to try and go racing in some way shape or form at some point during the year, I have to admit to being very shocked to have received it... |
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| (2/3/08) Some major catching up being done today, added (finally!) the race report from October 21st, several outstanding driver profiles and Mike Hogg's thoughts on his first season in Legends racing. | |
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(17/10/07) Apologies for the much-delayed report from last month's SMRC meeting - between holidays and various other real-life things we've been somewhat lacking in time lately! We'll try and catch up on everything else in an update after this weekend's races. |
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The Scottish Legends Championship guest-starred on the British Touring Car support this weekend and didn't disappoint, three races of high drama being provided. The first heat on Saturday afternoon was brought to an early halt when a coming-together at the top of Duffus left several cars off track and debris everywhere, leading to a red flag. The five lap restart saw Ben Mason and Dave Newsham battle for the win, Mason taking the victory by a hair's breadth. Gerard McCosh and John Higgins followed closely home, Andrew Donald leading home a large group of cars to take fifth. |
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(21/8/07) The festivities at Knockhill for the August SMRC meeting got under way with the Smartycar.com Mini Coopers. The first race saw the lead battle come down to four cars, Ken Thirwall pulling away a little from the battling Ian Milton, Glynn Geddie and Vic Covey Jnr behind him. Mark Dryden fought his way past John Barrie to complete the top five. |
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(25/7/07) This weekend saw the return of the highly successful Classic Speedfair event to Knockhill, with very entertaining races from the Classic Sports and Saloons, Formula Fords and Legends of the usual SMRC series, plus extra events including the hour-long Tin Tops race and Sir Stirling Moss demonstrating a Vanwall Formula One car. [Gallery] |
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(3/7/07) Knockhill seems to be stuck in something of a timewarp this season with the same old dodgy weather re-appearing each time the SMRC classes run there. The big addition this time though was some torrential rain into the morning of raceday. [Gallery] |
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Throughout the 2006 Saloon and Sportscar Championship at Knockhill, it was possible to follow the progress of Peter Taddei in his Ford Fiesta as it changed shape and incresed dramatically in speed as the season progressed. Indeed, by the end of the year he was very close to the front. After missing the first round of 2007, he and his car are back and challenging cars you might well have expected to be a bit quicker. Peter was good enough to give us an answer to a handful of questions. |
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(18/6/07) Feature: The Greatest Spectacle In Racing, by Robert Johnston “The greatest spectacle in racing” is how America refers to the Indy 500 in TV sports bulletins, web sites, newspapers and in fact in any pre–event reference to it. It’s never referred to simply as “the race”. Having had many trips to the USA over recent years I’ve become used to the American talent for optimistically promoting products and events as “the worlds greatest”, “the fastest”, “the biggest” etc. So while driving along the I70 toward Indianapolis early on Memorial Day morning, I was thinking that as long as the Indiana rain eased off I’d see some pretty good racing at my first Indy 500, but I was confident that the “greatest spectacle” was being played out by F1 in Monaco. Wrong. Totally wrong. The Indy 500 truly is the greatest spectacle in racing. F1, even at Monaco, seems rather dull after experiencing the 500. |
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(18/6/07) With a seven week gap between the first and second rounds of SMRC action, bumper grids were assured for the May meeting of the SMRC classes. Add the visiting MSA British Superkart Championship and you had a full paddock and a full day's racing to look forward to. |
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| (18/6/07) Some very late updates - apologies for the delay! Race report and results for the last SMRC meeting, an article on the Indy 500 experience by Robert Johnston, and many driver profiles, including Elliot Mason, Alasdair Gauld, Stuart Wilson, and a whole heap of Mini drivers (many thanks to Mark Dryden for gathering the Mini profiles for us!) | |
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| (18/5/07) A few general updates to the website, mostly just updating old information and links, plus adding driver profiles for Willie Davidson, Jason Ogg and Ross McColm. | |
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| (11/4/07) Television information is falling into
place with regards to the SMRC classes following AMG-TV confirming
that the first round of the Smartycars.com Scottish Mini Cooper Cup
first round will be shown as part of a package program on MotorsTV
on April 20th in the region of 20.00. Due to the excellent running
of the first meeting of the year, exciting racing and large grids
across all of the series, the Scottish Legends, XR2s, Formula Ford
1600, Saloon and Sportscars and Classic Sports And Saloons will enjoy
a one hour programme one week later on April 27th, again in the region
of 20.00 on MotorsTV so make a note in your diaries! The SMRC are also delighted at the positive response they have received with regards to their "Race-Plus" concept which involves shorter qualifying, double header, shorter races for all series split between a morning and post-lunchbreak race with Legends at the beginning, middle and end of the day's activities. This condensing of the schedule in theory allows for a shorter and less drawn out day at the track and it worked in practice, the final race of the day taking to the track prior to 16.00. The meeting was a figures success as well, with crowd numbers, marshall numbers and race entries all up. Indeed, the SMRC have already received interest in their "Race-Plus" concept from Autosport, Motorsport News and some motorsport organising bodies south of the border. |
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| (10/4/07) Added the race report for Sunday's racing - our schedule page and series information page will be updated shortly! | |
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| (8/4/07) After a great day's racing we've uploaded our photo gallery for the day - report and more to follow in the coming days! | |
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(5/4/07) All Quiet On The Knockhill Front... Or at least it has been until this coming weekend - the winter now seems to be well and truly behind us and with a promising weather forecast for some sunny weather for the Easter Weekend, it looks like a promising start to the new season. Double headers for all at each round this year (with the usual three races for Legends) with Formula Phoenix being absorbed into the new Formula Ford 1600 field and Supersports sadly passing on due to lack of entries. |
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| (5/4/07) With the new seaon almost upon us, we've added a season preview for 2007, and driver profiles for Charlie Cope and Frank Hynds. | |
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| (5/3/07) I may not have received any Valentines Cards on Februrary the 14th this year, but something just as surprising came through the letterbox that day in the shape of a letter from the SMRC confirming that I was to be one of the three recipients of the Legends Scholarship which is in its first year. | |
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| (25/2/07) To follow on from our previous news regarding
National racing for Sarah Playfair and Nick Sanderson, to continue
the SMRC invasion Mini drivers Jamie Cleland and Finlay Crocker will
be running on the BTCC support programme in the hugely successful
Elf Renault Clio Cup this season. Cleland Motorsport have stepped
up to the burgeoning series which is expected to have a huge grid
of the new style Clios running this year. Porsche stalwarts Jim Geddie and Tommy Dreelan have aquired a pair of new Porsche 997s with which to run in the Porsche Open, an all-comers series based south of the border which is open to most racing Porsches. Both drivers ran in some of the races last season, Geddie in his familiar GT3 Porsche and Dreelan in the beautifully turned out GT2 class car. |
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(14/2/07) Interview: Chris Edwards A glance at any SMRC literature or the raceday programme at Knockhill for the club racing events will usually show up the name of Chris Edwards. If you've ever wondered what the Competition Secretary of the SMRC does or how he went about taking up that post, our recent interview with him may provide you with some answers... |
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| (5/2/07) Two ex SMRC top drivers are set to take on the National circuit this year. Sarah Playfair had a disjointed 2006 but has pulled together the funds to run the full 2007 UK Formula Ford Championship with Jamun Racing. Meanwhile we can exclusively reveal that 2005 Scottish XR2 Champion Nick Sanderson has bought a brand new Ford Fiesta ST to run in the new Class C for the Fiesta ST model in the BRSCC Ford Fiesta Championship. We wish them both the best of luck and you should be able to follow both drivers on satellite television. | |
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| (7/1/07) Added our 2006 season review plus a driver profile for Mark Dryden. We're working on more articles, so keep an eye out over the close season for future driver interviews etc! | |
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There are a lot of things I've just never got round to doing. For example, one of the Knockhill Experiences. I've been meaning for years to have a go in a proper racing car on the twisty, undulating track we all know and love so much, but job changes, flat moves etc have always got in the way. Until now, when I finally got round to going for the Legends Unlimited Package. |
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Site best viewed using Internet Explorer 6 at 1024*768 resolution. - Credits- About us/ Contact us/ the boring stuff |
(2/3/08)
"Living The Dream"
(3/9/07)
Scottish Legends at the BTCC 
(3/7/07)
Interview: Peter Taddei
(10/4/07)
After a long, long winter (I'm sure I say that every year when I
write up the first meeting) the SMRC club classes met up at Knockhill
to shake off the cobwebs and get back to the serious business of
racing. Old series have gone, a new one has appeared, double-headers
have arrived and television coverage was in the offing. Would the
racing be up to it? In a word, yes.
(5/3/07)
During the 2006 season, Mark Dryden came to the fore in
the Scottish Minis. After taking his first win at Knockhill in July,
he then took what is still the lap record for the class at Knockhill
the next time out. Heading into 2007 with a lot of confidence, we
caught up with him for a chat.
(26/1/07)
The first feature this website carried was back in 2003 when John
Findlay described a lap of Knockhill in his XR2. Since that was
written the track has had two seperate upgrades, the second of which
changed the layout of some of the track quite radically while still
holding onto its unique shape. With that in mind, we thought it
was time to update the article, this time with the help of drivers
from some varying series to get an idea what a fast lap of the track
is like from differing perspectives. 
(7/1/07)
Looking back at the SMRC classes in 2006, it's hard to suggest it
was anything other than a vintage year. With the addition of cctv
coverage of the whole track allowing quick decisions to be made
along with some efficient racedays and the usual excellent marshalling,
the organisation was very good indeed and the quality of the the
racing couldn't be questioned. Knockhill was as usual its fantastic
self, indeed the only thing that could have been improved upon would
have been the weather but to the best of our knowledge neither Knockhill
or the SMRC have any direct control over that!
(2/1/07)
Feature: The Legends Experience