Caravans come a cropper at the Raceway

The evening began with the 6-11 year olds in their Ninja Karts and, as always, a good grid of cars arrived to do battle. As has become traditional, the first race of the night would be for the lower graded white and yellow roof drivers and was won by Methil’s Jase Walle with Demi Ritchie posting her best ever result with an excellent runners-up finish ahead of Rachael Kidd. The first heat proper saw the blues, reds and superstars join the fray and it was blue-topped Bailey millar who came through to take the win ahead of British Champion Charlie Hardie and red top Ethan Doull. Millar proved that his heat one win was no fluke as he stormed to victory in heat two with Hardie and Doull again completing the top three. The final heat of the evening saw Doull take a well-earned victory as he came through the usual Ninja Kart chaos to take the win ahead of a fast-moving Jase Walle and Josh Bruce who was competing in his final race for a while. This was also Evie Black’s last race in Ninjas as she has now reached “retirement” age – well done to Evie and to all other Ninja Kart drivers!

Youth was to the fore once again as the 11-16 year-old drivers were back in their Ministox. The Ministox have been in amazing form at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this year and this past Saturday was to prove no exception. The usual Scottish drivers were joined by regular visitor Ethan Pope all the way from the south-west of England who was now sporting a silver stripe as a result of being the top points scorer at his home promotion so he would be starting from the back at HRP Lochgelly Raceway for the first time. Pope is more used to starting his heats from blue grade at HRP Lochgelly by thus upgrading certainly didn’t slow him down as he carved his way through the field to take an excellent win ahead of Scotland’s current top two Euan Millar and Steven Burgoyne. Burgoyne managed to claim the win in heat two ahead of Millar and Pope as these three drivers continued to dominate. The feature final was yet another fantastic race; watching the likes of Pope, Millar and Burgoyne battle their way to the front of the field is a truly fantastic sight as these youngsters display skills well beyond their years. It was to be Pope’s night though as he crossed the line first to claim a fantastic heat and final double with Millar in the runners-up spot ahead of Steven Burgoyne to finish off a great night of Ministox racing.

The 2.0 Hot Rods were back for the first time in what feels like a long time as they have been contesting major championships across the UK for the past several weeks. Sadly, no titles made their way back to Scotland but our drivers certainly gave a great account of themselves. The return to domestic action saw the pleasing returns of Iain Bruce and Gill Anderson while Kelty’s Kinzie Law debuted a stunning Citroen Saxo. It was another Saxo-mounted driver who took heat one as Lochore’s Billy Bonnar claimed a fine win ahead of Gordon Alexander and Jock Campbell. Alexander and Campbell had to settle for the same positions in heat two as Dunfermline’s Gerry Hendry took his refurbished Saxo to victory lane. The feature final was another excellent race as the drivers put on a great display of close racing with heat one winner Bonnar making it a heat and final double as he stormed to victory ahead of Alexander and Campbell who should be pleased with their points hauls on the night.

The Superstox were back in action for the penultimate event before their World Championship here at HRP Lochgelly raceway on August 27th and 28th. Family commitments and holidays saw a slightly lower turnout than usual but the drivers that arrived put on some great racing action. Bryan Forrest did no harm to his hopes of a good starting position for the world championship as he took the win in heat one ahead of a fast-moving Aaron Riddell and Tony Lattka as the drivers got stuck in. Heat Two saw Dino Bruce remind everyone of his turn of speed as he blasted to the win with Riddell having to settle for second once again ahead of heat one winner Forrest. There had been double winners in the three other formulas racing during the evening so the question was – could Forrest or Bruce make it four doubles for the evening or would one of the other drivers bring a halt to that run? The answer came 25 laps later as Dino Bruce used every bit of his experience and skill to claim a fantastic heat and final winning double just two weeks before the Scottish Championship and four weeks before the World Championship – great timing! Aaron Riddell had his most-consistent evening and his largest points haul so far in his career as he posted his third runners-up spots of the night while Paul Mackie took his Zetec-powered machine to a fine third place to underline the potential of the new power-plant.

The final event of the evening saw the one that many of the large crowd had come to see – Caravan Carnage 2016! Sixteen caravans arrived to battle it out and the decision was taken to allow all sixteen onto the track at the same time. Sadly, we lost Dave Richardson to mechanical troubles before the start of the race so fifteen caravans were set to meet their demise! The action came thick and fast with some incredible hits thrilling the crowd as bits of caravan lay strewn all over the usually pristine HRP Lochgelly Raceway tarmac and it was veteran Neil Naismith who was the last car running while towing what was left of his caravan who was pronounced as the winner after several minutes of frenetic action. Naismith rounded off the evening with a big head on against 1300 Stock Car National Points Champion Callum Barclay to send the crowd home happy having witnessed another great night of action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway.

The next slice of stock car action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway comes this Friday August 5th and features 1300 Stock Cars, 2.0 Hot Rods, Ministox and CC Rods. The action gets underway at 7pm.