A DRY but chilly evening greeted drivers, teams and fans at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past Saturday night as Hardie Race Promotions presented their third Saturday night Stock Car event of 2015.

With another packed schedule and around 80 cars in attendance and sixteen races planned; fans were treated to an entertaining meeting featuring an unusual blend of five formulas.

From the fastest cars on the ovals in the form of the National Hot Rods, to the crashing and smashing of the Rookie Bangers and all stops in between; there was something to appeal to every generation of the families who gathered to enjoy the event.

The 6 to 11 year-olds were first on track as the Ninja Karts returned for an additional fixture just seven days removed from their first of 2015. Twenty four of the tiny terrors gathered in the pits but it was the traditional Whites and Yellows race for lower-graded drivers that got the night’s racing underway.

Armadale’s Ryan Borthwick took an excellent win in the race for his first victory of the year before Alloa’s Declan Honeyman stamped his authority on the meeting with a brace of victories in a row in heats one and two.

Last week’s whites and yellows race winner, Polmont’s Charlie Hardie, maintained his record of winning a race at each meeting so far with an excellent win in the final race of the night for the amazing Ninja Karts, Airth’s Lewis Clark-Burgoyne came home in a great second place with Scott Allardyce taking home the trophy for third back to Anstruther.

The high-speed National Hot Rods were making their first appearance of 2015 and the grid was supplemented by the additions of English Series racers John Sibbald and Robert McDonald as well as debutant Roy Anderson, from the north of Scotland.

McDonald may compete in the English series but he and John Sibbald both hail from West Lothian and it was McDonald who took the win in the first heat with Scottish points leader coming home in second place while his nearest challenger, David Philp Jr, posted a fourth place finish. The top two were reversed for heat two as Donaldson held off McDonald to take the chequered flag. Both McDonald and Sibbald missed out on the taking the green flag in the longest race of the night as mechanical maladies kept them out of the feature final.

After a hard fought battle it was Philp who came home second with his rival Donaldson enjoying a fine set of results with second place, with northern Scotland’s Jim Cowie finishing in a fine third.

The next time the National Hot Rods are on track at HRP Lochgelly Raceway will be the Dechmont Forklift Trucks European Championship, on April 18th and 19th – it promises to be a classic.

The ProStocks were also making their 2015 HRP Lochgelly Raceway debut and a gird in the mid-teens saw some excellent close racing as the drivers battled for supremacy.

Northern Ireland’s Conor McElmeel made the long trip across the Irish Sea and was rewarded with a fine win in heat one as he fended off the attentions of Bannockburn’s Jordan Cassie and Thornton’s Ricky White. Cassie made no mistakes in heat two as he beat McElmeel to the line with White once again posting a third place finish. Come the final it was a different story, however, as White domnated the race to take the win from Dougie Kidd and Ian Taylor in a fast paced night of ProStocks action.

The Rookie Bangers were also in attendance and a reasonable number of cars arrived to do battle with over a dozen drivers in attendance. Halbeath’s Team CoalPower were well represented and certainly made their presence felt as they crashed and smashed their way through heat one with Coalpower’s Lee Moore taking the win.

The second heat was won by car 78, Michael Kennedy, in another race punctuated by some big impacts. The final “race” of the night could well be the fastest Demolition Derby in history as the five surviving cars managed to dispose of each other in quick time with car 222 being the one to survive the longest!!!

The Superstox were the final formula on show and, having scored no points in his last outing, the question was how much of a recovery could Stuart Gilchrist mount in his National Points defence, after Barry Stephen closed the gap to just one point last time out.

The answer came quickly in heat one as Gilchrist came to a halt against the fence to score no points while Barry Stephen took the lead in the points chase as he finished second behind his house-mate, Colin Frame, with Musselburgh’s Bryan Forest posting a third place finish.

Frame looked on course for a heat winning double until the second last lap when he spun coming out of turn four handing victory to Barry Stephen from Colin’s brother David and Bryan Forest – Stuart Gilchrist had managed to fix the damage and did take to the track but pulled off before the green flag to lose more ground to Barry. The final was a fantastic race with the bumpers being used to good effect as places were swapped lap after lap.

A late race caution saw heat one winner Colin Frame in the lead with the likes of Forest and Frame in the hunt as the green flag fell once again. Forest made fast work of getting into second place and had a real go at Frame in the first half of the last lap but Frame held on well to take his second win of the night from Forest and the fast finishing Stephen.

Next Saturday night sees yet another five formula spectacular at HRP Lochgelly Raceway as the 1300 Stock Cars rumble back into town.

They will be joined by the fantastic Stock Rods, 2.0 Hot Rods, HRP’s own CC Rods and the 10-16 year olds in the all-action Ministox.

Racing gets underway at 6pm next Saturday night.