A DRY evening greeted drivers, teams and fans as they gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past weekend for the latest slice of stock car action presented by Hardie Race Promotions.

Championship fever is how the promotion have billed the next few weeks as every Saturday sees at least one title up for grabs between now and the end of August! This past weekend saw the ProStocks take centre stage as they competed for their hotly-contested Scottish Championship title.

With 2014 champion Ally McDonald electing not to race, a new champion was guaranteed. The ProStocks have been the subject of much discussion lately among race fans who have seen grids dwindling in the formula, although HRP Lochgelly Raceway has generally managed to suffer less from this than other tracks; so it would have come as a very pleasant surprise to many on the terraces when a grid of over twenty cars arrived to do battle for the right to wear the saltire for the next twelve months.

Current National Points and British Champion, Tam Melrose, arrived as the pre-race favourite having dominated the formula this year and was clearly happy with his car in practice as he only completed a few laps before declaring himself happy with the 55 Ford Focus. For the drivers who had competed in at least three meetings, the random grid draw was held to determine grid positions and this put the speedy duo of Ricky White and Ian Walle on the front row with Melrose handily placed on the outside of row three.

As the green flag dropped the drivers got well and truly stuck in as the bumpers and cars went flying all over the track. In fact, more than half of the cars failed to make it through the early stages of the race as Melrose calmly made his way to the front.

In a race with twenty-one starters only six cars made it the full race distance with Dalkeith’s Melrose adding the Scottish title to his racing CV with Stirling’s Jordan Cassie and Aundre Adams, from Lochgelly, taking the other podium places after a highly entertaining race punctuated by a spectacular rollover for Lochgelly’s own Billy Wilson (pictured).

Two heats were also programmed for the ProStocks and it was Andrew Webster who managed to hold off the attentions of Melrose in Heat One to take the win after a lengthy absence from the formula, with Lochgelly’s Grady Ross coming home in third.

Webster made it a heat-winning double as he claimed victory in the final heat of the evening after a great night of ProStocks action as he beat Kyle Roy and Grady Ross to the flag. A tremendous night of ProStocks action which bodes well for their European Championship at HRP Lochgelly Raceway in early October – who can stop Tam Melrose?

The amazing 6-11 year olds were back in their Ninja Karts and another fantastic grid of almost thirty cars were in the pits prior to start time to compete. As has become traditional, the whites and yellows race got the evening underway in fine style and it was Josh Bruce who came out on top as he claimed his first win in quite some time ahead of Lucy Millar and Lewis Walker. Bruce made the long trip from Aberdeenshire worthwhile as he stormed to victory in heat one as he held off an on-form Alex Robertson and Ethan Doull. The second heat saw Declan Honeyman return to victory lane after a period of results that the Alloa driver would be less than happy with, but Lanarkshire’s Lucy Millar was probably the happiest person in Fife as she claimed her second trophy of the evening with a fantastic second place ahead of Kelty’s Mirran Adams. If Millar was happy after heat two then she must have had the biggest smile in Scotland after heat three as she took her first ever win to a tremendous reception to round off another great night of Ninja Kart action.

The 2.0 Hot Rods have had a busy spell of late but a reasonable grid of cars arrived to compete at HRP Lochgelly Raceway just one week ahead of the British Championship in Northern Ireland in which several HRP drivers intend to compete.

Kingseat’s Keith Chesher, who has recently announced his intention to race in a classic hot rod, took the first win of the evening ahead of Jock Campbell and Gary Black. The on-form Robbie Burgoyne claimed the win in heat two ahead of National-Points leader Kerr Paterson and heat one winner Chesher. The feature final was yet another frenetic, fast-paced race which saw only seven finishers and it was Kirkliston’s John Campbell who took the win in the Festival Travel sponsored Vauxhall Tigra ahead of Burgoyne with Chesher rounding out his best night in some time with yet another podium finish. Good luck to all of the Scottish drivers competing in Northern Ireland next week for the British Championship.

The final formula on show were the 1300 Stock Cars – Scotland’s top stock car formula in terms of numbers and action and yet again they did not disappoint!!!

It was great to see Patrick Calderwood return to HRP Lochgelly Raceway in his Nova while former ProStocks multi-champion, Jazz Moore, made his return to the tracks in his recently-acquired former Lee McGill 1300 Stock Car which he used to good effect throughout the evening. After a few weeks absence, Windygates’ Kev Baird returned to the track and victory lane as he claimed the win in heat one ahead Lochgelly’s Darren Rae and Halbeath’s Moore.

The second heat saw fellow Windygates resident Davie Auld claim his first win in quite some time after struggling to get his Honda CRX in race-winning form – Calderwood claimed a fine second place with heat one winner Baird coming home in third.

Former Scottish Champion Auld underlined his return to form in the feature final as he claimed his second win of the evening to see himself upgraded to blue next time out while Coaltwown of Wemyss’ Callum Barcklay came home second and Moore rounded off a successful evening with another podium finish on a fantastic night of action from the 1300 Stock Cars.

This Saturday, July 25th, sees the Superstox take centre stage as they compete for their highly-prestigious Scottish Championship title.

Defending champion Stuart Gilchrist has not been seen on track since early March but has provisionally booked in as part of a twenty five car field for what should be a great evening of open-wheel stock car action.

Support for the Superstox Scottish Championship comes in the form of the Stock Rods, CC Rods, Ministox and Ninja Karts. The action gets underway at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this Saturday July 25th from 5:45pm.