A GLORIOUS sunny evening greeted drivers, teams and fans as they gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past Saturday for the latest slice of stock car action presented by Hardie Race Promotions, writes our Raceway reporter Les Waller.

A large crowd had gathered by the 6pm start time with the majority being there for the main event of the evening – The Rookie Banger Scottish Championship.

The build up to this event had seen a driver list with around 76 names on it the day before the event and, as is often the way with Banger events, the entry on the day was slightly down as last-minute issues prevented some drivers from attending but, nevertheless, an entry in the low 60s easily broke the record for a Rookie Banger event in Scotland, which had previously stood at 47.

The entry was a cosmopolitan one with the usual stars from Scotland arriving in good numbers and being joined by a good number of drivers from the north of England plus some from further afield including the infamous Dreamers Banger Team from Sussex who may be familiar to some from the TV series Banger Boys. The first round of races would see the entry split in half to give the large crowd more of what they wanted – metal munching mayhem!!!

With an entry of around 32 cars for heat one, it will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with HRP Lochgelly Raceway’s growing reputation as a Banger track, the action came thick and fast! The drivers entertained the crowd from the off with some big hits and impressive pile-ups but, after the dust settled, it was The Dreamers' Reece Priestley who claimed first blood for England with victory in a race with only five cars making it to the finish.

The second heat saw a similar number of cars take to the track with only seven managing to make it to the finishing line and it was Georgie Boult Jr who took victory in his first race back following a lengthy suspension from racing. With the preliminary heats completed, all of the surviving cars rolled on to the track for the main event of the evening – The Rookie Banger Scottish Championship.

£1000 had been put up for this event with the majority of the prize funding going on this race plus the winner would also automatically qualify for the World Championship at Ipswich later in the year! An entry of just over fifty cars took to the track making for an impressive sight as the crowd eagerly anticipated the green flag and as the cars came around turn four, the 2016 Rookie Banger Scottish Championship was underway!

The race was stopped almost as soon as it began as a big pile up on the A92 bend brought proceedings to a halt with one car lying on its side. Once the race settled down, Heat Two winner Georgie Boult Jr found himself in the lead with a reasonable gap back to second place but as the laps wound down, Boult was eventually hunted down by those chasing him and his challenge ended after a big hit when his car failed him. Reece Priestley had claimed the first race of the night and was delighted to take the main event as he crossed the line to claim the title of 2016 Rookie Banger Scottish Champion ahead of Danny Verrall and Steve ‘Cecil’ Anscombe in what was a Dreamer’s 1,2,3 with only six cars managing to go the distance in what was bruising thriller of a race.

The evening’s final race saw an entry of just under forty cars take to the track for an all-comers race which was won by Chris Holt before a Demolition Derby saw some spectacular crashes with Steve Anscombe and Daren Terry sharing the spoils of victory in what was a dream night for the Dreamers following their 11 hour trip north to take part in what was a fantastic night of Banger racing.

The Ministox were back on track just seven days after their last appearance at HRP Lochgelly Raceway and the usual Scottish entry was supplemented with the addition of regular visitor Ethan Pope, all the way from the south west of England. Pope has taken a large number of victories at HRP Lochgelly Raceway in 2016 from what is, in all probability, an overly generous blue grading but that should not detract from Pope’s driving ability which was there for all to see once again as he took victory in both heats with Steven Burgoyne and Euan Millar swapping positions in the heats as they filled the other podium spots.

Come the feature final, the question on everyone’s lips was could Pope complete yet another hat-trick of HRP victories? The final was another frenetic race which was punctuated by a spectacular rollover for Kelty’s Ciaran ‘Spud’ Adams on the home straight with the driver exiting his car to huge applause with his customary smile on his face. Following the restart of the race, Pope eased away to a lead that he would not give up as he claimed yet another hat-trick with Burgoyne and Millar taking second and third respectively.

The 2.0 Hot Rods were back in action for the final time before the David Philp British Championship which will be held at HRP Lochgelly Raceway on the weekend of June 11 and 12. It was good to see 2016 rookies Andrew Denholm and Iain Bruce start their first events from the front of the grid and it was these two who made the early running before the highly-experienced Jock Campbell overhauled the young duo for victory ahead of Billy Bonnar and Alex Wilson. The second heat saw Wilson drift out wide as the green flag dropped and this caused some damage to the front of Robbie Burgoyne’s car – an incident which clearly irked Burgoyne who appeared to spin Wilson out later in the race which was eventually won by European Champion Kenny Purdie ahead of Gordon Alexander and Bonnar. The feature final was another fast-paced race but it was Campbell who kept his head despite the rapidly closing Purdie and Alexander to claim victory ahead of the duo.

The 1300 Stock Cars completed the line-up this past Saturday at HRP Lochgelly Raceway and were, as always, on great form. Lochgelly’s own Andrew Mathieson claimed victory in heat one as he held off Glenrothes driver Lee Buchan who had claimed a hat-trick in his previous outing and an on-form Jason Secker from Denny. Buchan made no mistakes in heat two as he managed to get to the head of the field to take the win with West Wemyss’ Dean McGill taking the runners-up spot ahead of heat one winner Mathieson. The feature final was another cracking race with the bumpers flying in everywhere you looked but Buchan managed to carve his way through the chaos to claim his fifth victory in six races with Secker taking second while ProStocks convert Jordan Cassie brought his car home in third following a very impressive outing for the Stirling pilot.

All in all, a fantastic night of entertainment at HRP Lochgelly Raceway with credit going to the drivers, teams and staff for keeping the meeting moving. The next slice of stock car action comes this Saturday June 4th at HRP Lochgelly Raceway with the debut of the Banger chained pairs which some of you may have seen on the recent ITV series ‘Drive’ with the Superstox, ProStocks, CC Rods and Ninja Karts completing the five formula line-up with the first race scheduled to get underway at 5:30pm.