HIGH speed fans were treated to almost 30 action packed races across two days at Lochgelly Raceway.

The 2.0 Hot Rods, 1300 Stock Cars and Rebels were all contesting their European championships and there were plenty of thrills and spills on the track.

There were just under 30 hot rods in action across the weekend, with Scotland’s Brian Wilson getting off to the perfect start with victory in the opening heat ahead of Lee Pepper and Jim Pitcaithly.

Englishman Ryan Morgan took the second heat, with Northern Irish duo Stephen and Mervyn Emerson finishing 2nd and 3rd with Pitcaithly the top Scot in 5th place.

The third heat was the final qualifier for the European Championship race and was won by England’s Alex Crane, with Dave Leech and world champion Damo Wellman rounding up the top three.

The 2.0 Hot Rod European Championship lined up with the front row made up by Pitcaithly and Leech.

The home crowd were rooting on the Pitcaithly car and as the green flag dropped there was no splitting the front two.

They raced away side by side before an on track incident brought out the red flags, with a complete restart called for.

The cars gridded up again, and the front two again got away well, with Pitcaithly edging just in front across the first few laps.

Stephen Emerson edged into second place but with a train of cars entering the corner, Emerson made contact with the Pitcaithly car and managed to squeeze up the inside, with the cars rubbing doors on the exit of turn four.

Pitcaithly’s car spun one way, before spinning the other and being collected by the oncoming Mitch Souter, bringing out a yellow flag with both cars now out of contention.

Wilson came into contention after two of the five cars in front of him crashed out.

Leech got away at the restart and drove off to a relatively comfortable victory, however, there was a scintillating race behind him with Wilson, Pepper, Mervyn Emerson and Morgan all battling it out for second place.

Pepper was runner-up with Mervyn Emerson completing the top three.

It was also a Euro summit in the 1300 Stock Cars with Scotland’s Eddie Corr and Regan Watson occupying the front row of the grid.

As the green flag dropped for the start of the European championships, Corr got away in front with Watson making a lunge into the first corner to make contact with the leader, who just held on.

Corr stormed to a comfortable lead as the pack behind exchanged blows and hits, including Danny Whyte and Zak Gilmour who were looking to come from the back of the grid.

Corr was more troubled by the back markers and a battle with Sean Naismith eventually saw his car grind to a halt on the infield, giving the lead to Stewart Aitken.

Gilmour made steady progress and was soon up into second place, with only a few laps remaining.

Aitken crossed the line first, but was later disqualified, giving Scottish favourite Gilmour the opportunity to wear the red and yellow chequered roof for the next year.

The Rebels made their annual visit with 27 cars heading north. For the first time in around 20 years, the European Championship was contested away from Northampton Raceway.

The title was ultimately won by World Champion Ian Chalkey, who added it to his long list of titles.

The Ministox contested the Fife Championship with around 20 cars in attendance, including reigning champion Aaron Richards and Charlie Santry.

Fin and Sam Carter also made the trip to Scotland from their west country base.

The opening race saw the English cars dominate proceedings with each of the top three places going to visiting drivers, Santry, Richards and Sam Carter.

Jake Wilson continued his good form in the second race, taking a heat win ahead of Richards and Santry.

Declan Honeyman was out for the first time at Lochgelly Raceway in his new car and he made a late charge through the field and up into second place in the Fife Championship.

He finished behind Santry and just ahead of Richards, who had a great battle in the end with Ryan Borthwick who finished in fourth place.

The Sunday races saw the Ministox replaced by the Junior Productions with National Bangers also in action, along with the 2.0 Hot Rods, 1300 Stock Cars and Rebels.

The 2.0 Hot Rods competed for the ASD Welding Open Scottish Championship, with two reverse grid heats determining the line-up for the main race later on in the day.

Pitcaithly put a lot of work into his car on the Saturday night / Sunday morning in order to have it fixed after suffering heavy damage in the European race.

The opening heat witnessed new Euro champ Leech reign victorious, with Wilson finishing second and BTCC driver Aiden Moffat finishing in an excellent third position after a great race with Pepper.

The second race of the day was won by Northern Irish driver Scott Cochrane, but only after fellow countryman Cono Hughes was docked a couple of places for contact, with Damo Wellman finishing in second.

As the grid lined up for the Open Scottish Championship, Wellman found himself on pole position and made the most of that opportunity, racing away to victory, with Leech finishing in second and Cochrane third, with Pitcaithly finishing in fourth place.

The 1300 Stock Cars again saw the grid formed out of a hat.

Gilmour again found himself near the back of the grid to start the race off.

It was Ulster driver Robbie Wright who brought his car home to success though, with Englishman Jason Scopes finishing second ahead of Gilmour.

The following two heats started in graded order, with Steven Gold in excellent form, taking a double heat win on the day.

The Junior Productions produced a first win of the season (and in the formula) for Amy Devine in the final, as she held off Jensen Bell, Lennon Grant and Harvey Sneddon for the majority of the race.

Fans were treated to some excellent and clean non-contact racing from the youngsters.

The 2.0 Bangers only had eight cars for the first race, including Lee Clarke who brought out an old Minx, which was a bit of a non event.

However a few more cars had arrived in time for the second race of the night, which provided much more entertainment, with a few good hits throughout the contest.

The final was a similar affair, with only three cars finishing.

Lee Kopacz won the opening race, with Brian Youngson winning the second heat and final after overcoming Philip Blowers in the latter part of the race.

We’re back in action on Saturday for domestic action, with the CC Rods, ProStocks, Ministox, 1300 Stock Cars and National Hot Rods all in action.

It’s also the final round of the 2019 World Qualifying series for the National Hot Rods with a lot still to play for.

Beyond that, we’re only a couple of weeks away from our mid season break; the end of the first half of the season will see a Caravan Demolition Derby round up proceedings on June 29.