A DRY and pleasant 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.

Saturday marked the start of a championship bonanza as no less than nine championships will be contested in the next seven race meetings culminating at the Superstox World Championship Weekend at the end of August.

The honour of commencing the run of summer championships went to the CC Rods who contested their biggest race of the year as the drivers gathered to battle for the Scottish Championship.

2015 Champion Ian Taylor has not raced in the formula this year so, with other previous winners also having moved on, a new champion would be crowned.

The first heat saw a win for one of 2016’s top drivers Craig Watson as the East Wemyss pilot held off Kirkcaldy’s Kevin Hutchison and Methil’s Ian Walle to claim the all-important win. The second was started in reverse order from the first to ensure no driver gained an advantage and a great race ensued but it was Stirling’s Paul Muir who took full advantage of his pole position start to remain ahead of the field all the way to the chequered flag with Lanarkshire’s Kevin Connor and Bonnyrigg’s Jamie Brown rounding out the top three in a race where one of the pre-meeting favourite’s championship challenge ended when Ian Walle’s car was left stranded on the home straight. Watson’s win in heat one, coupled with his fourth place in heat two, was enough to secure pole position with Muir on his outside in his unique Ford Puma. As the green flag dropped; it appeared that Muir attempted to hold Watson down on the inside of the track but spun as a result while Watson continued to lead the race as it headed past halfway and beyond. Lanarkshire driverIan Donaldson has had a bad run of luck of late but was looking good for second place until the leaders came up behind a back-marker.

While Watson plumped to go around the outside of the slower car, Donaldson chose the inside line and this proved crucial as Donaldson managed to take the lead with little time to spare to claim the CC Rods Scottish Championship ahead of Craig Watson and Kelty’s Colin Wotherspoon, after a great night of CC Rod racing.

The 1300 Stock Cars were the final formula on show and it was their final outing of the 2016 National points campaign with Scottish Champion Callum Barclay and former Scottish and Points Champion Jason Secker both still in contention for the right to wear the silver roof with twenty points separating the duo.

Denny’s Secker got his challenge off to the best possible start as he took an excellent win in heat one as he showed tremendous pace to slice his way through the field to take the win ahead of Fife duo Euan Mathieson and Barclay. Secker repeated his heat one exploits in heat two as he secured his second win of the night ahead of Jordan Cassie and Barclay. As the drivers headed into the final; sixteen points separated Barclay from Secker at the top of the points chart with sixteen points on offer to the winner – meaning that is Jason Secker could win the final with Barclay failing to score in the top ten then it would be an unprecedented tie!!! As it was, Secker and his bitter rival, outgoing points champion Zak Gilmour, decided to become reacquainted in the most unfortunate of ways which ended Secker’s challenge for points as Barclay powered to victory in the final and the 2016 National Points title. Some unpleasant scenes followed that have no place at any family venue and no doubt the promotion will be dealing with those involved swiftly and decisively. Nevertheless, congratulations to Callum Barclay who takes the National points title back to Coaltown of Wemyss.

The next slice of stock car action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway comes next Saturday July 30 and features Caravan Carnage 2016 as HRP host their annual Caravan Destruction Derby.