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.

The Scottish Legends Championship got off to start with its biggest grid in a while, thanks to there being no clashes with National events this season and with the addition of a handful of Burnett Motorsport run National entries.

The first heat was all about Ben Mason who cleared off after hitting the front of the field, finishing five seconds down the road from Jon Jon Higgins and Carol Brown who enjoyed a race-long scrap. Making a welcome return to the series was Robin Drysdale who fought with Frank Hynds to the flag to complete the top five. Gerrard McCosh finished a couple of seconds ahead of a big fight between Steve Reynolds, David Thorburn and Stevie Coull with Ali Thom claiming the last of the top ten positions just ahead of Andrew Donald.

The second heat saw a much bigger fight for the win, Mason tracking Drysdale all the way to then just fail to win the drag-race to the flag, McCosh finishing right with them. Two seconds further back came Higgins and Reynolds to complete the top five followed by Brown, Thom and Frank Hynds. Filling out the top ten were Donald and Coull (both having possibly their best weekends so far in Legends) who crossed the line at almost the same moment.

The final saw the draw work in the favour of David Thorburn and he took off as best he could, keeping a gap to the following pack until he was caught by Drysdale in the closing stages, putting up a brave fight but losing out by a tenth of a second in the run to the flag while Drysdale took his second victory of the day. Higgins and McCosh were next up with Reynolds and Brown battling to the flag. Frank Hynds took seventh with Coull, Donald and Thom finishing the top ten.

It was all change in terms of drivers between the 2005/2006 seasons in the Scottish XR2 Championship, but the transition was a bit smoother for the 06/07 field with most of the protagonists returning for another bash at the title. Indeed, 2006 runner-up Andrew Winchester made a statement by taking pole for the first of two races, leading briefly until the red flag flew due to Jamie Bickett ending up on his roof after a spin into the SEAT gravel.

The restart saw Winchester once again pull away though Peter Cruickshank tagged on as best he could, pulling away from the following snarling pack made up of Derek McDougall, Willie Davidson, Ross McColm and Scott Morrison - the group fighting hard until they all got a bit close together on the run out of the hairpin. The result was a very angry McColm as he surveyed the wrecked remains of his car lying in the middle of the track. The red flag flew again and the result was declared at five laps with Winchester, Cruickshank, Davidson, McDougall and Morrison making up the top five. 2006 Champion Scott Fraser took sixth in a car he was unhappy with all weekend with Al Fraser, Graham Whitehill, Iain Fraser and Dave Colville all close behind to complete the top ten.

The second race went the distance with Cruickshank grabbing the early lead from Winchester who was suffering with a cracked exhaust manifold and it was all he could do to hold off Davidson whilst still keeping right with Cruickshank to the flag. A little bit behind came the still battling Morrison and McDougall to complete the top five quite some way ahead of a big pack battling for the remaining positions in the top ten. The three Fraser led the group home, Al, Scott and Iain closely followed by Colville and Colin MacKinnon.

The first Formula Ford 1600 meeting of the new era featured a twenty-three car starting grid and with the majority of the field covered by three seconds in practice, some great racing was assured, especially with names like Taylor, Kirkaldy, Di Resta, Kerr, Hourie, Geddes, Mason, Brunton, Thorburn and a host of other well known Scottish runners taking to the track.

The first race started with Geordie Taylor pulling out a small lead over Louis Di Resta which he would hold to the chequered flag, though Alan Kirkaldy did not see half distance, being forced to slow and retire into the pitlane. Robert Thomson took up what would become a lonely third place a couple of seconds ahead of Stuart Thorburn and Willie Hourie who suffered a coming together with David Kerr which ended Kerr's day, though Hourie was able to make it to the flag. Behind the top five the rest of the field had a mammoth battle throughout the race, with more overtaking than had been seen in a single-seater class at Knockhill for many years. Richard Brand and Elliot Mason took sixth and seventh seperated by a whisker at the end with Angus Geddes, Graham Legget and Craig Brunton completing the top ten, Brunton just holding off David Thorburn.

The second race saw Taylor starting from the pitlane, allowing Di Resta to take the lead in his IF run Van Diemen early on. After three laps, however, Stuart Thorburn surged by to take a lead he would hold onto until the end with Di Resta shadowing his every move. Eight seconds back Elliot Mason capped a brilliant single-seater debut with third place a long way ahead of the battle between Graham Carroll, Kirkaldy and Richard Brand who all crossed the line covered by a couple of tenths. A similarly close battle five seconds behind rounded out the top nine with Robert Thomson leading home Leggett and Brunton, Geordie Taylor taking tenth place after a blazing fight through the field from last. As in the first race, there was a bewildering amount of passing and close battles to watch all through the field, the big grid really making the races hugely entertaining.

The Smartycars.com Mini Cooper Cup saw Mark Dryden take his first ever pole position but his jubilation was short lived with a spin into the gravel at the bottom of SEAT Curves ending his race very early. Paul Wilson took over the lead but series veteran Vic Covey was soon on his tail, grabbing the lead with Ian Milton taking second a couple of laps later. Gillian Shedden took forth on her debut, holding on to the position just ahead of Kenneth Thirwall with IF Motorsport Scholarship winner Jordan Gronkowski in sixth a few seconds ahead of a big fight between Michael Rowan, Glynn Geddie and Gilbert Grossett, all three cars crossing the line together. Scott Caldow was the tenth and final finisher.

The second race saw a random draw flip the top seven finishers from the first race around and Rowan led the field away, While the field sorted itself out Shedden and then Wilson took a shot at the front, Wilson taking advantage of an absolutely massive battle over second erupting behind him to pull out a four second lead to take the win. Covey managed to pull away from the group behind to take second while Shedden managed a last gasp pass on Thirwall to take the final podium place. Also in the group at the end were Gronkowski, Milton and Dryden with Barrie, Rowan and Grossan fighting over the top ten finishing spots about six seconds further back.

Photo by Michael Booth

In the Classic Sports and Saloons it was a familiar sight to behold in the first race with Stan Bernard initially leading in his Porsche 911 followed by Al Fleming's Lotus Elan. With the lead battle hotting up, contact at Scotsman saw Bernard turned sideways with Fleming sufficiently slowed that Olly Ross managed to dive past both of them to grab a sizeable lead in his popular Lotus Europa. Fleming did indeed get into second and was challenging the black Lotus when the chequered flag flew and he was forced to settle for second, Bernard in third with Matthew Gordon and Jim Grant completing the top five.

The second race was looking like a fairly easy win for Fleming when his car ground to a stop on the last lap, gifting the win to Bernard to make up for his loss of a possible win in the first race ahead of Ross, Grant in another Elan, Tommy Gilmartin's beautifully turned out BMW 2002 and Gordon's Porsche.

Photo by Michael Booth

The Scottish Saloons and Sportscars had a lower grid than usual but you didn't have to look far to find the likely winners with Robert Pritchard and George Brewster pretty much taking up where they had left off in 2006 at the front of the field in their heavily modified Caterhams. In the first race Brewster initially managed to grab the lead but Pritchard quickly grabbed it and despite being pushed to the end he managed to record yet another win for his Caterham Vauxhall. Half a minute behind them came the fighting Caterhams of Iain Cowie and David Headen, the top five (indeed, the lead lap cars) being completed by Charlie Shaw's purple Focus.

The second race was more of the same, Pritchard leading all ten laps but never being given a moment's rest by Brewster. Headen and Cowie were this time able to fight with Shaw's Focus, Headen taking the final podium position ahead of the Ford and Cowie in fifth. As in the first race Andrew Morrison's MG-ZR was sixth, first of the lapped cars.