Lochgelly was buzzing

The evening kicked off with a couple of fun filled coupe car races that saw around 30 entrants for each of the two races.

Race 1 saw 267 Nate Wotherspoon being pushed to success by Lee Wotherspoon despite a last corner challenge from another car which ultimately saw the challenger pushing too hard and running well wide and losing a place as the crowd cheered the teams on to the finish line.

Race 2 saw Lucas Whyte being pushed to success by Ritchie Whyte after a slow start, but come the middle of the straight team Whyte were in front and sprinted to victory around the last corner to win by a clear margin.

The kids loved it, the pushers lay down on the ground afterwards as they realised how unfit they were to recover their energy!

The main event kicked off at 5pm with the Keir Millar Memorial Race. Around 30 minutes before start time the 30 eligible drivers entered the raceway to a fantastic reception as they completed the parade lap before lining up on the grid for some pre race interviews.

As the green flag dropped it looked like 128 Ciaran Adams was going to lead into the first corner after pole sitter Taylor Borthwick appeared to get away slowly and was helped on her way by Rian Mitchell behind her. Taylor got up to speed quickly though and forced herself into the inside line to keep Adams out wide and take the lead. Aaron Richards was quickly up into 2nd place battling with Taylor for the lead with Mitch Gold just behind with the 3 of them exchanging blows for a few laps before Taylor opened up a lead.

The field was brought back together though after Robbie Armit was spun on the back straight, stopping in the middle of the track which seen the yellow flags brought out. Richards was right on Taylors bumper and tried a couple of times to push her wide but to no avail and Borthwick again opened up a few car lengths lead on the chasing pack.

Rian Mitchell had fought his way back up the grid after a few other the challengers dropped out of contention and was into the top 5 places having a good battle with Ross Lawrence and Jamie Stewart before another yellow flag closed the grid up again. Up the front, Borthwick led the restart from Richards.

On the restart Borthwick got away well but Richards was still there, and eventually took a lunge to make contact with Borthwick before she broke free, spinning Borthwick out of contention. Rian Mitchell was up into 2nd place after making good progress on a restart, with Ross Lawrence behind and briefly in front.

As the laps closed down, Richards gained control of the race to make the journey north worthwhile as he secured the race in, with Lochgelly’s Rian Mitchell finishing 2nd and northern driver Ross Lawrence finishing 3rd, with Owen Robbins from Somerset finishing in 4th!

An emotive presentation was then carried out after the race with the presentation by RS Motors and the Millar family. The first heat of the evening for the Ministox followed with Taylor taking the victory ahead of Richards and Mika Millar. The second heat for the Ministox seen a dominance of the lower grade drivers. Lochgelly based Jake Wilson led the opening half of the race before being reeled in by yellow grade driver, Rian Mitchell in the last couple of laps as Mitchell took the race win ahead of Mitchell and blue grade driver Kai Gilmour.

The 3rd and final heat of the evening for the Ministox seen Jake Wilson take the chequered flag for his first win in the formula, despite Taylor Borthwick closing in fast over the last few laps, with Jay Paterson finishing in third place, possibly his best result in the Ministox around Lochgelly Raceway.

The National Micro Bangers were in action and the opening race of the evening seen 39 cars on track for the first race. There was plenty of action around the raceway including 2 rollovers! The first by Liam Glendinning who rolled quite spectacularly and almost landed on top of another car, before his car eventually landed back on all 4 wheels as he fired it into gear and drove away like nothing had happened! Latterly Kenneth Scullon went in for a big hit at the back of a train of cars which seen his car spin around after impact and rolling over onto his roof – incidentally, Kenneth had a rollover at the same meeting last year! Sean McConnachie led the opening race for much of the distance before a train of cars formed on the exit of turn 4 blocking the track, with Sean piling into the crash. As other cars also piled in, a fire broke out in the car of Lee Burden bringing the race to a halt. Dylan Ward was declared the winner of the race, which only seen a handful of cars finish! Race 2 seen the majority of the cars back out in action with around 25 cars on track. Again, there was lots of crashing and lots of entertainment including a spectacular rollover from Neil Sutherland, which seen him rollover 4 times before his car landed on its side. Joe Reynolds came away victorious in this race. Onto the final, the Bangers were racing for the Keir Millar Memorial Shield. Around 20 cars started the race but only 5 finished with Reynolds winning the race and will take the shield south with him to hold onto for the next year.

There were 33 Ninja Karts racing on Saturday night which resulted in a change of format from the norm. We ran 4 heats with around 75% of karts in each race to give each driver 3 races each. Jack Baird continued from where he left off last week and started off the evening with a fine race win, with Connie Anderson not far behind. The 2nd race of the evening provided an excellent finish to the race, with Kenzie Bell and Bailey Millar finishing less than a bumpers size between them. After a review of the photos and camera system, it was deemed that Bailey Millar crossed the line centimetres ahead of Kenzie Bell in what is one of the closest finishes you’ll ever see!

Kayden Connor had a good race in heat 3 of the night, coming from the blue grade and overcoming his brother Jack to take the lead before holding on ahead of Toby Tyson who had made a late charge to challenge Kayden upfront. The final race of the evening for the Ninja Karts seen European Champion Bailey Millar take the race win ahead of Kayden Connor and Toby Tyson.

The 1300 Stock Cars were in action for the first of 2 consecutive meetings and seen a strong field of cars in action. A couple of new drivers joined in the shape of Rory Naismith and John Whyte. The bumpers flew in from the word go as the drivers battled for position but it was in form driver Stewart Aitken who got to the front first to take the race win ahead of Zak Gilmour and Patrick Calderwood in the opening race. The 2nd race of the day seen Jamie Brown show his continued improvement in the formula that seen him take his first win ahead of fellow rookie driver, Regan Watson before Patrick Calderwood again completed the top three. The meeting final was another lively affair, and seen Rory Naismith take his first win in the formula in what was his first meeting, with Stewart Aitken and Craig Haxton rounding up the top 3.

Domestic action returns this Saturday night and with all still to play for in the race for qualification for the ATP / JP Fabrications 2.0 Hot Rods European Championship on the 8th and 9th June,there should be a good field of cars on track as they look to get the most out of there cars as well as sealing qualification.