A HUGE crowd gathered on an autumnal evening this past Saturday along with drivers and teams at HRP Lochgelly Raceway for the latest slice of stock car action presented by Hardie Race Promotions, writes Les Waller.

As well as the usual blend of racing action, history was made as HRP hosted their first ever Ramp Rollover competition, which certainly seemed to attract a number of new faces and families to Scotland’s most modern short oval motorsports facility.

As has become traditional when they are racing, the Ninja Karts got the evening's action underway with their Whites & Yellows Race.

Lanarkshire’s Lucy Millar has been in great form of late having won the last whites and yellows race as well as a heat and she hit the ground running again this past Saturday as she took the chequered flag in the opening race ahead of Rachel Kidd and Lewis Walker with Kelty’s Mirran Adams also having a great showing in fourth place.

The first heat saw the additions of the blue and red graded drivers and it was blue graded Ryan Borthwick who came through the usual Ninja Kart chaos to take the win ahead of Polmont’s Charlie Hardie, who finally put his recent run of bad luck behind him and points leader Alex Robertson.

The second heat saw Hardie take his first win in a while, ahead of Declan Honeyman and Lucy Millar, while the final heat of the night saw recent debutant Calum McKinlay, from Anstruther, take a fantastic win ahead of Robertson and Josh Bruce to round off a great night of entertainment from stock car racing’s top junior formula.

The ProStocks have endured a long season and turnout in single figures underlined this but the drivers in attendance did their best to put on a show for the spectators with Dougie Kidd continuing his excellent late-season form with a win in heat one ahead of Ian Christie and Richard Cairns - Kidd was unable to catch Kirkcaldy’s Ian Christie in heat two as he had to settle for second ahead of Cairns.

The feature final saw Christie make a great start and he managed to maintain a healthy gap on the chasing pack as the laps wound down but Kidd was relentless in his pursuit and managed to get his nose ahead of Christie in time to take the chequered flag and claim his second victory of the evening with Christie holding on for second ahead of Cairns in his Vauxhall Corsa C.

The Under 1600cc National Bangers had a rare outing at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past Saturday night as a late change to the programme saw the formula replace the Rookie Bangers to allow drivers the chance to use any surviving cars from the Micro Banger World Cup.

This translated into a decent turnout of cars and it was Craig Lindsay who took the first win of the night in a race where only four cars finished ahead of Scott Gardner. Gardner made no mistakes in the second race when he managed to stay ahead of Lindsay to claim the win. A number of drivers in the Bangers would also be taking part in the Ramp Rollover competition at the end of the evening and full credit must go to those who competed in both events.

The HRP 1300 Stock Cars were back in action this past Saturday night at HRP Lochgelly Raceway and, as always, Scotland’s top stock car formula did not disappoint with action from start to finish!

Halbeath’s Norrie Moore has taken to the formula like a duck to water this year and, having scored a couple of heat wins already, he managed to repeat the feat in heat one as he held off former British Champion Fraser Clark and Scottish Champion Callum Barclay to take the win.

Clearly Moore was enjoying that race-winning feeling as he then went on to claim a heat winning double in the second heat as he held off a hard-charging Paul Beaton and Lee Moore to take his second win of the night which saw him upgraded to yellow for the feature final.

As always, the feature final was an action-packed race with some great bumper-work and something happening at all points throughout the race. Coaltown of Wemyss’ Callum Barclay managed to pick his way from the back of the grid to take yet another final win ahead of a resurgent Dean McGill from Kirkcaldy with Paul Beaton picking up another fine result with a third place to take home to Anstruther in an all-Fife top three! The 1300 Stock Cars have been simply brilliant throughout 2015 and, even at this late stage of the season, they continue to impress and delight both old and new fans!

The final event of the evening was certainly different and saw history made as HRP Lochgelly Raceway held its first ever Ramp Rollover competition sponsored by Ringtone Racepaints.

The object was simple – drive your car towards the ramp and the winner would be the one who managed the most spectacular rollover with a supplementary prize going to the driver who managed to travel the furthest distance from the ramp!

Around a dozen brave “pilots” arrived for the contest including Ashleigh Reid, from Cowdenbeath, as the only lady taking part as well as Perth’s Barry Folan, whose son Charlie races Ministox and is well known for his upside-down exploits in the Junior class.

The large crowd in attendance were treated to some spectacular action from the drivers with James Dillon looking like the early front-runner after a tremendous effort from the highly experienced Banger driver, while Grady Ross and Richard Cairns both took the opportunity to roll their ProStocks to finish them off for the year with Cairns’ effort especially worthy of note but it was Sean McConnachie who took the £150 prize for most spectacular rollover as he hit the ramp hard and managed to perform two rolls as the crowd cheered him on.

Barry Folan managed to maintain family honour as he took the prize for the further distance travelled – although his Ministox driving son Charlie may have provided some competition for him!!!

A fantastic evening of racing and entertainment rounded off in spectacular fashion as Stephen Van Putten made a second attempt at the ramp only for his back axle to catch the edge of the ramp which put paid to any further attempts but the smiles and cheers on the faces of the drivers, teams, staff and fans said it all as this unique event was brought to a close.

The next slice of HRP Stock Car action comes this Friday October 23rd as HRP Lochgelly Raceway hosts its final Friday night event of the year from 7pm. The HRP 1300 Stock Cars are back in action for the highly-coveted Mr Gunn Trophy while the 2.0 Hot Rods, CC Rods and Ministox provide the support under the HRP floodlights this Friday from 7pm.