A GLORIOUS late summers’ day greeted drivers, teams and fans as they gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past Sunday for the latest slice of stock car action courtesy of Hardie Race Promotions and it did not take long for the high octane action to begin, writes Les Waller.

We are well and truly into the major part of the season and, having witnessed an incredible 1300 Stock Car World Championship here last weekend, it was straight back into championship action as the bumper boys gathered to race for their Scottish Championship.

Denny’s Jason Secker was looking to make up for the disappointment of last week as he defended his Scottish title and he drew a reasonable grid position of inside row five.

Another of the favourites, former Scottish Champion Lee Buchan of Glenrothes, drew pole and his recent pace would make him many people’s favourite.

Runner-up in last week’s World Championship, Fraser Clark, drew grid slot 25 so would have it all to do once again as the HRP Mercedes Pace Cars rolled off.

With a fantastic grid of 29 cars, contact was inevitable and it didn’t take long for the bumpers to fly in! The action was spread all across the track but Buchan continued on his merry way as he seemed to be heading towards another Scottish Championship.

The race was stopped for a huge pile up in turn four which saw the car of Dale Robertson obliterated at the rear end with all drivers ok as the action happened far enough away from Buchan to allow him to soldier on. However, at around mid-distance, he lost the lead to Gordon Gay, from Pittenweem, who started to pull away from the rest of the pack, that is, until he collected the spinning car of debutant Aaron Hastie and burst his radiator, bringing his strong challenge to a grinding halt.

By now Secker and Clark were very much in play, as was Craig Haxton, who has certainly found his top form again in recent weeks and young gun Zak Gilmour and it wasn’t long before defending champion Secker hit the front as the rest battled behind.

Secker’s challenge almost came undone as he was slowed down by the errant Craig Jones but he had a sufficient gap from Haxton and Clark to ride this out to take the chequered flag and successfully defend his Scottish Championship!

Clark took a huge dive at Haxton on the last corner but couldn’t make it stick so Haxton claimed the runners-up spot from Clark with Gilmour showing his clear potential with a fine fourth placed finish.

The other two heats were no less action-packed and the first heat saw an all-too rare win for one of the true characters of the formula as Lochgelly’s Ian Goodall took a fine win. The second heat saw Glenrothes’ Jim Pitcaithly but everyone would have left the stadium talking about the amazing crash involving Scottish Champion Secker, Craig Haxton and David Bowman, which saw Haxton’s car at least eight feet in the air before landing on top of the other cars (see picture) – spectacular stuff and great to see all drivers smiling afterwards! A spectacular day of stock car action from one of the best formulas in the UK right now.

The National Hot Rods were back in action after a long lay-off and it was great to see some returning drivers plus the debuting David Philp Jr on track – hopefully a few more drivers will return in the coming months as HRP look to rebuild the formula in Scotland.

Long distance traveller Jim Cowie made the trip south from his northern base worthwhile with victory in heat one while Ian Donaldson took the win in heat two having been docked from the runners up spot in heat one to fourth.

Donaldson had to settle for second in the meeting final as Lochore’s Billy Bonnar underlined his determination to hold on to his Scottish points title with a fine win in the feature final.

It is a rare day for both hot rod formulas to be on the bill at the same time but this past Sunday was the dream ticket for hot rod fans as the 2.0 Hot Rods were also on track. Kerr Paterson looked to have secured the first win of the day but his diff blew up with only a couple of laps to go to hand victory to Gordon Alexander. Alexander then doubled up as he took the trophy for heat two home to Bonnyrigg. The final was certainly controversial as Harry Denholm had a heavy impact with the fence which resulted in a red flag. The Steward felt that some of the cars did not slow down quickly enough and consigned these drivers to the infield – leaving only two cars to contest the race – a highly unfortunate decision. John Campbell took victory from Gordon Alexander for the record.

The Ministox were the fourth and final formula on show this past Sunday and there is only one place to start when discussing the junior class – James Mooney, who had been involved in an ugly crash at Cowdenbeath several weeks ago was in attendance as he was allowed a day out of the hospital and everyone at the track was delighted to see the young man smiling and talking to his fellow drivers.

An on-form Arran Chidwick took a fine win from a fast Euan Millar in the first race but Millar made amends in heat two as he ran out as the victor from Steven Burgoyne. It was the Burgoyne and Millar show again in the final, this time joined by Aaron Riddell as the three young stars sliced through the traffic to be running in the top three and, once they had hit the front, they engaged in some of the finest racing this writer has seen in a while as they swapped places with one another while maintaining full respect for each other. Burgoyne managed to get his nose in front and took the win from Millar and Riddell. James Mooney kindly accepted the offer to present the trophies to the drivers and it was smiles all round as all four young men took the lap of honour together. Stock Car Racing is a family sport and those involved are one big family – today was another example of just that.

This coming Sunday, August 31st, sees yet another championship event as the Superstox compete for their Scottish Championship. The open-wheel class has seen an influx of new drivers lately and at least another five will be making their debuts in the near future. Can anyone stop Stuart Gilchrist from taking the title? The ProStocks, CC Rods, Stock Rods and Ninja Karts provide the support, and the action gets underway at 1:45pm.