A PLEASANTLY warm and dry evening greeted drivers, teams and fans as they gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway lastt Friday night for the latest slice of HRP Stock Car action.

Four formulas were on the bill and an action-packed 12 race programme began promptly at 7pm.

The first formula on track were the ProStocks; one notable absentee was European Jazz Moore who was out of action due to a very nasty incident the previous weekend in Northern Ireland in which he was rammed in the driver’s door – we are pleased to report that Moore is absolutely fine and was in attendance last week – the car may take a little more time to make a full recovery!

With Moore out of commission the question on everyone’s lips was who would stand up and challenge British Champion Tam Melrose who enjoyed a faultless hat-trick last time out in his new Ford Focus.

At the start of the evening Lochgelly’s own Keith Annandale led the track championship by just two points from Melrose but the British Champion halved the deficit in the first heat as Melrose won the race with Annandale in second place.

Melrose made it a heat-winning double in heat two as Annandale posted a third place finish with returning Scottish Champion Ian Taylor splitting the top two. Melrose made it a perfect hat-trick in the meeting final as he scythed through the field to take the win from Kelty’s Raymond Brown and Ricky White, from Thornton, in a Fife 1, 2, 3!!!

The Ministox were back in action after a fairly lengthy absence and all credit should go to the drivers and teams, some of whom were leaving Lochgelly to head to Taunton in Somerset that night to compete for the British Championship which was won by Cambridgeshire’s Ryan Polley last Saturday.

Glasgow’s Rory Naismith went to victory lane in a shortened heat one which was declared two laps from the scheduled end when John Crawford hit the fence hard (Crawford was fortunately OK) and a large cleaning up operation was required to mop up a trail of oil the length of the whole track! Naismith doubled up in heat two before emulating Tam Melrose in the ProStocks as he took a hard fought victory in the feature final with Steven Burgoyne and Colin Thomson claiming the other spots on the podium.

The 2.0 Hot Rods were in action just nine days before their Scottish Championship; Scott Gilfillan can be considered very unfortunate as his differential blew in practice and brought an early end to his evening.

With some residual oil remaining on the track from the first Ministox race, there were some very sideways Hot Rods during the twenty lap race which was eventually won by National Points Champion Gordon Alexander from Bonnyrigg.

Alexander also took the spoils in the second heat but only after Kerr Paterson, who had crossed the line first, was docked for contact with the car of Harry Denholm who was officially placed second with Paterson dropped to third. The final was an excellent race which eventually saw Alexander and Paterson battling with Alex Wilson for the right to claim the feature win.

Wilson had to work hard to keep the formula’s top two drivers behind him as they swapped places several times but it was Wilson who took the win from Paterson with the unfortunate Alexander coasting across the line in a lowly fifth as his throttle cable had snapped exiting the final turn – John Campbell inherited third place but had to be towed off the track as his front left wheel fell off as he crossed the line!

The Superstox were the fourth formula on show and it was great to see former two-time Scottish Champion Colin Frame back on track. European Champion Stuart Gilchrist continued his incredible 2014 form as he came from the back of the grid to take a comfortable win having cleared a misfire that had reared its head during practice.

A delighted Paul Mackie, from Coaltown of Balgonie, took the win in heat two with Elgin’s Barry Stephen in second.

The feature final held a surprise early on as both Stuart Gilchrist and Barry Stephen, two of the formula’s top drivers, found themselves in the fence on turn one after a coming together.

This left the rest of the field to do battle and the on-form Lee Livingston soon hit the front of the grid; Iain Bruce was looking good for most of the race to claim a good finish but was planted in the fence by David Frame within a few laps of the chequered flag. Larbert’s Steven Ballantine claimed his first ever trophy as he finished in second place with Dundee’s Dino Bruce taking the third spot on an excellent evening of Superstox racing.

The next Stock Car action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway is this Sunday August 10th and features not one but two Scottish Championships as the CC Rods and 2.0 Hot Rods compete for their respective titles. The Stock Rods and Ministox are also back in action and HRP continue to offer super value as over twenty Rookie Bangers are also scheduled to appear for some crashing and bashing action. The action gets underwa