WITH the doors of HRP Lochgelly Raceway closed for a couple of weeks due to events elsewhere; many of the Hardie Race Promotions drivers took advantage of the opportunity to hit the road and take in an event away from home, writes Les Waller.

There were over thirty HRP drivers racing away from home in the past week with the main destinations being Crimond Raceway, in the north of Scotland this past Sunday, and Northern Ireland at Aghadowey Oval and Tullyroan Oval, this past weekend.

A special mention must also go to 2.0 Hot Rod driver Alex Wilson who made the 1000 mile round trip to the Arlington Stadium, at Eastbourne, on England’s south coast last Wednesday, to compete in the Southern Championship, coming home with a tenth place finish in the feature race at a track on which he was making his debut!

The 2.0 Hot Rods also featured this past weekend at Aghadowey and Tullyroan Ovals in Northern Ireland and HRP were well represented with no less than five HRP Lochgelly Raceway drivers in attendance in the shape of Jock Campbell, Kerr Paterson, Gordon Alexander, Harry Denholm and Graeme Callander.

Two days of racing in fantastic weather did not bring any victories in the formula but some good results were posted; most notably by Scotland’s current top two Alexander and Paterson and it is good to see the Scottish lads getting on pace with the likes of European Champion Adam Hylands and two-time World Champion Shane Murray.

The Stock Rods were also in action in Northern Ireland but they had serious business as they were competing for their European Championship at Aghadowey Oval.

While the HRP Lochgelly Raceway entry was somewhat depleted; recent form-man David Kempton and five time World Champion, Chris Lattka, headed across the water looking to bring the title home. A grid in the mid-twenties raced in two reverse grid heats to determine the line-up for the European Championship final but it was the local Northern Irish drivers who were dominating the sharp end of results and the championship race itself was no exception as local driver Steven McNeice stormed to victory.

The Superstox have seen a recent influx of new drivers at HRP Lochgelly Raceway and Northern Ireland are catching up fast as they hosted the National Championship in only their second year of running the open-wheel contact class as well as the Irish Open Championship.

Four drivers from HRP Lochgelly Raceway made their way to Aghadowey for the Irish Open Championship with European Champion Stuart Gilchrist leading the charge along with David Frame, Lee Livingston and Barry Stephen.

On an unfamiliar track; Gilchrist posted a runners-up finish in heat one and won heat two to put himself on pole position for the Irish Open Championship and the former World Champion made no mistake as he added the Irish Open to his racing CV.

The Sunday at Tullyroan saw the National Championship being contested and, following heat wins for Gilchrist and Frame, the Scottish drivers and fans had high hopes for another victory as the grid was formed with Gilchrist once again on pole.

What was not known by many was that Gilchrist’s engine was now not in peak condition but he did all he could to eliminate the opposition as he battled with local driver Gary Grattan and English visitors Nick and Chris Roots, with some huge hits being traded. Frame had made his way up to join the lead group but was unlucky to lose out in one of the pile ups. Once the dust had settled Chris Roots managed to gain enough of a gap on Gilchrist to take the gold stripe as National Champion with Gilchrist holding on for second from British Champion Matt Carberry – Frame managed to get back up to sixth place by the chequered flag on another fantastic day of Superstox action.

This weekend sees no stock car racing at HRP Lochgelly Raceway once again but the drift cars will be taking to the oval as Jumanji Nights return – the Jumanji events were where it all began for the Drift scene at Lochgelly that have now seen Driftland UK, the UK’s first and only purpose built Drift circuit.