HRP Lochgelly Raceway opened its doors this past weekend for its third of four annual Speed Weekends and a festival of motorsport was planned over two days with an action-packed programme featuring the David Philp Commercials 2.0 Hot Rod World Championship and UK Oval Track Legends European Championship as the headline acts.

In stark contrast to Friday’s practice session, Saturday had dawned warm and sunny and a large crowd gathered over the afternoon as the drivers and teams made their final tweaks to their cars as the afternoon practice session offered drivers the chance to test their dry set-ups.

Defending champion Shane Murray posted the fastest time of Saturday practice as he prepared to go for three in a row at the wheel of his RCE Peugeot 106.

Heat One saw Adam Hylands take what many would say was an easy win from near the front of the grid but 2015 European Champion and local favourite, Kenny Purdie, kept Hylands honest as he maintained his pursuit of the Northern Irishman all the way to the chequered flag.

England’s Damon Wellman claimed a fine third place with a fast-moving Mark Madill coming home in fourth ahead of current Scottish Champion Gordon Alexander and defending champion Shane Murray, who had looked exceptionally fast as he sliced through the field.

Heat two saw the drivers line up in reverse order from heat one and last-minute entry George Turricki stormed to victory ahead of fellow Englishman Chris Crane, former Lightning Rod multi-champion Stephen Emerson and 2015 Scottish National Points Champion Kerr Paterson.

After the points were compiled from the two heats; Adam Hylands found himself exactly where he wanted to be for the David Philp Commercials 2.0 Hot Rod World Championship Final – pole position. Chris Crane, who has always professed his liking for the HRP track, was on the outside of row one while fellow Englishmen Turricki and Wellman formed row two.

After a slow rolling lap followed by the pace lap, the green flag dropped on the World Championship under the HRP Lochgelly Raceway floodlights and Hylands immediately shot into the lead as a few of the cars in the midfield spun out – some on their own and some with a little assistance from the car behind.

The man on the move was defending champion Shane Murray but he seemed rather forceful in some of his overtaking manoeuvres in his determination to get on terms with Hylands as he rolled off the laps. A fantastic battle ensued for the podium places as the likes of Crane, Robbie Burgoyne and Wellman were joined by Shane Murray in his continued pursuit of an unprecedented three world titles in a row and he did manage to get ahead of the pack to be second in the running order as the laps ticked down.

Some may have thought that the race had been run as Hylands was well clear of Murray and the chasing pack but those people hadn’t banked on the actions of Mark Madill. The Northern Irishman had looked one of the fastest cars on the track at points during the day but he had been relegated to the back of the line earlier in the race.

Madill had clearly decided that he wanted to have a say in the destination of the 2015 World Championship and it soon became obvious that he was not a particular fan of Adam Hylands as he did everything he could to slow the 54 machine down – it must be stated that Madill did not break any rules but he certainly pushed them to the absolute limit in a disgusting display of poor sportsmanship in a race that he should have had no say in.

As Madill’s delaying tactics held Hylands on his outside, Shane Murray ate up the ground between them. When Madill finally gave way to Hylands, he generously ushered Murray straight through in short order to give the defending champion a chance to grab victory, but Hylands powered away from Murray to cross the line to a rapturous reception from those on the terraces. An emotional Hylands took to the roof of his car on turns three and four to celebrate in front of his fans before driving into victory lane where he was mobbed by his dedicated team and family.

While Murray had crossed the line in second, he was docked two places for contact during the race which saw Scotland’s own Robbie Burgoyne elevated to second place and England’s Chris Crane to third.

Sunday saw the 2.0 Hot Rods competing for the Scottish Open Championship and it was Scotsman Kenny Purdie who took the trophy ahead of English duo George Turricki and Dan Smith.

The UK Oval Track Legends were making their annual Scottish appearance to contest their European Championship and this time Scotland had interest in the form of former Superstox man Russell Adam. World Champion Martin Heath took heat one with Aaron Lee claiming the win in heat two.

Heath’s European challenge was over very quickly as he headed fence-wards in the opening stages of the championship race. 2014 Open Scottish Champion Sean Smith underlined his form around the tight confines of HRP Lochgelly Raceway as he took control of race that was stopped in the closing stages when Scotsman Adam and Miles Rudman ended up in a heap on the start/finish line. Smith made light work of the three remaining laps after the race was restarted to become the 2015 European Champion with Richard Stagg and Aaron Lee rounding out the podium places.

Sunday saw the UK Oval Track Legends in Scottish Open Championship action and it was Richard Poulter who came out on top with an impressive victory ahead of Matt Roach and outgoing champion Sean Smith.

Ninjas descended on HRP Lochgelly Raceway to compete for their Open Scottish Championship in association with Adrian Hillis Motors. Huge fields of Ninjas can only mean one thing and that is action!!! With cars flying around the track and several incidents, the Ninja Karts took a fair amount of time to run with Saturday’s wins being taken by Lennon Grant who won his three races while Northern Irish youngster Callum Magill took the other heat on the night.

Sunday’s four heats saw Charlie Hardie claim heat five with Declan Honeyman heat six, British Champion Sam McNiece heat seven and form-man Grant claiming heat eight to round off a marathon weekend of Ninja Kart racing. After the points from all eight races had been totalled up, it was Polmont’s Lennon Grant who claimed the title of 2015 Ninja Kart Scottish Open Champion.

The HRP 1300 Stock Cars have been in blistering form this year at HRP Lochgelly Raceway and a turnout of almost forty cars, including some new and returning drivers, this past Saturday guaranteed some spectacular action.

Lee McGill claimed victory in both heats as chaos ensued around him with Lochgelly’s Mathieson brothers and Halbeath’s Team Coalpower really taking it to one another – the biggest incident saw Euan Mathieson rolling over down the home straight. The feature final was the unfortunate victim of time restraints but the next session of 1300 action at HRP promises to be an unmissable event!!!

With the 1300 Stock Cars taking a well-earned day off this past Sunday; it was the turn of the ProStocks and Superstox to offer themselves in support of the weekend’s headliners. The ProStocks saw a healthy grid in the high teens arrive to do battle and it was Dougie Kidd who took the win in heat one before being loaded for misdemeanours in heat two which was won by visiting World Cup Champion Stuarty Agnew from Northern Ireland; Agnew repeated his feat in the feature final with a fine win ahead of Rab Moore and British Champion Tam Melrose who had also competed across the Irish Sea at Aghadowey on Friday evening and then changing his engine at 7am on the Sunday morning – true dedication.

The Superstox field was blown wide open this past weekend as neither of the top two drivers of 2015, Barry Stephen and David Frame, elected to race. Peebleshire’s Kenny McKenzie took full advantage in heat one to add to his race-winning tally for the year while recent returnee Chris Miller took his stunning new car to its first win in heat two.

The feature final was a hard, fast-paced affair and it was Carronshore’s Tony Lattka who came out on top ahead of that man Miller and recent final winner Bryan Forrest to round off a great weekend of action in all formulas.

A marathon weekend of racing enjoyed by a huge crowd on both days saw HRP’s August Speed Weekend go down as a huge success. Congratulations to our new champions and to all involved. The next slice of stock car action at HRP Lochgelly Raceway comes this Saturday August 22nd and features the Stock Rods in Scottish Championship action; the CC Rods, Ministox and Superstox will also be in action in an event that gets underway at 6pm.