A WET afternoon gave way to relatively rain-free evening as drivers, teams and fans gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway for what would prove to be a highly entertaining night of stock car action with plenty of great racing and quite a few talking points presented by Hardie Race Promotions, writes our Raceway scribe Les Waller.

The Junior Productions continued their regular demonstration runs as we await the completion of several cars so it was a two-horse race between Cameron Willacy and Northern Irish visitor Adam McFall with McFall taking the first race in fine style while Willacy held on to take heat two in a thrilling finish. Their final demonstration run saw the weather change with drizzle in the air clearly reducing the speed of the cars and, try as he might, McFall was not able to overhaul Willacy’s advantage as Cameron held on to take his second win of the night.

The ProStocks were first on track for the start of the main meeting and another decent-sized grid had assembled featuring a couple of new faces for 2017 in Gordon Myers and Grumm Fleming.

Stuart Wilson led the way from the white grade for a number of laps but the faster cars from the back of the grid were closing in swiftly led by Kirkcaldy’s Ian Christie who overhauled Wilson’s lead and stormed to a fine win ahead of star-graded pair Paul Barron and Jason McAlpine. The second heat saw a few cars posted missing in action after some bumps and bruises in heat one but Christie certainly won’t be complaining as he took another win to see himself elevated to red grade for the final – McAlpine claimed second place ahead of Ryan O’Shea with Barron failing to finish.

The feature final for the ProStocks is usually chaotic and Saturday night’s version was no exception with Wilson making the early running once again while a great battle ensued behind him between O’Shea, Christie, McAlpine and Barron as they traded places on every turn. Eventually, the chasing pack caught up with Wilson and it was O’Shea who came through to take a fine win ahead of hat-trick hopeful Christie.

The CC Rods were back in action and it was great to see Methil’s Ian Walle Jr back out in a brand-new car as part of yet another big grid of HRP’s low-budget, non-contact class.

The first heat saw 18 cars take to the track and it was another Methil driver in the form of Bob Cairns who crossed the line first after a race where it was difficult to know where to look with battles all over the track. However, the Steward knew where to look and this was unfortunate for Cairns who was docked two places for contact which handed the win to Gorebridge’s Michael McNiven which will have come as a great boost to the 444 driver after a difficult start to his season.

The second race saw Cairns involved in the main talking point as he was deemed to have been pushing the 71 car of Emma Kirk around turn four which resulted in Kirk spinning out only to be collected by Colin Wotherspoon and Ian Walle Jr with all three cars looking decidedly second hand – this all happened at the same time as Kevin Hutchison and Lee Wotherspoon tried to leap over the infield banking!

Cairns was disqualified from the race and loaded for the remainder of the evening while Jamie Bell went on to take his maiden win after a level-headed drive in only his second race in the formula ahead of Jack Robertson and McNiven.

The feature final saw a reduced field of 14 cars but it was a race of great quality as Robertson came through to take yet another final win ahead of long-time leader Graham Osborne and Jamie Bell to round off a great, but controversial, evening of CC Rod action.

The Stock Rods were back at HRP Lochgelly Raceway for the first home meeting of the 2017/18 National Points chase with outgoing champion Siobhan Martin missing as she re-panels her car in preparation for her world championship challenge in June. Newly-crowned points champion Chris Lattka was on hand as well as a good number of drivers including two new drivers in the shape of ex-1300 Stock Car racer Paul Beaton and former ProStocks star Ricky White. Indeed, it was Beaton who made the early running in heat one as he used his HRP Lochgelly experience to take a healthy lead but, sadly for Beaton, an issue with the car saw him forced to retire which handed the win to fellow debutant White ahead of Chris Lattka and John-Lee Green. The second heat was another cracking race with some fast-paced close action but it was Kelty’s Darren McAlpine who came through to take the win in a close finish with Daniel Davidson and Green claiming the other podium spots.

The feature final was another excellent race which saw 2017 rookie Ross Finlay making the running for the vast majority of the race with an excellent drive after some teething troubles earlier in the year. Finlay will be ruing the longer distance of stock rod finals as he led for over twenty laps only to be overhauled by Chris Lattka in the closing stages of the race but he held on for an excellent second place.

The Superstox were the fourth and final formula on show and, having been in blistering form so far in 2017, decided to turn up the wick even more this past Saturday as they produced some incredible action. Heat One will long be remembered by those who were there to see it as the 25 cars battled throughout the race for every position before one of the most memorable finishes to any race in recent memory where the top 7 or 8 drivers all clashed on the final corner with Colin Frame coming through to take what, for him, may have been an unexpected win before the chaos!

The second heat started as the previous one ended with the bumpers flying in at every turn, having led a number of laps in heat one, Ally Noble made his way to the front in short order and began to increase his lead on the chasing pack. However, once Stuart Gilchrist was clear of the pack in second place, he began his high-speed pursuit of Noble and managed to catch and pass the 63 machine to take the chequered flag.

The feature final was another fantastic race from Scotland’s top open-wheel formula as the drivers put on yet another exhibition of contact stock car racing. Once again, Noble made the early running but some of the star-graded drivers had sliced their way through the grid in quick fashion with Gilchrist winning ahead of Forrest and Miller to bring an end to a brilliant evening of action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway.

The next slice of stock car action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway comes your way this Saturday May 20 and features another busy five formula, sixteen race programme of events with the Ninja Karts getting the meeting underway at 5:45pm.