Lochgelly Raceway: Michael Green claims title success

The sun was shining throughout the weekend, allowing for perfect racing conditions, and the on-track action was fast, with some excellent lap times posted by the drivers across the two days' race conditions.

The Superstox raced for their A1 Containers R Us British Championship, on Saturday night, and their Scottish Open Championship on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday, 25 Superstox took to the track for two reverse grid qualifying heats to determine their grid positions for the main event. No sooner than the green flag had dropped for the opening heat, the bumpers were going in left, right, and centre, as drivers tried to make as much progress as they possibly could, whilst looking to ensure they themselves finished the race to get points on the board.

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Michael Green took the win in the opening heat having raced from row four on the grid, with Randall Lynn finishing in second following a row eight starting position, and Craig McConnell in third from the ninth row.

Heat two would see the grids reversed with those who started at the back of heat one, now starting at the front for heat two. Northern Ireland’s Lee Davison crossed the line in first place, leading for most of the race, whilst Dean Johnston and Ian Beaumont took second and third positions across the line respectively.

Following on from the two qualifying heats, and the points tallied up, there was an array of talent at the front end of the grid.

Michael Green, Dean Johnston, Craig McConnell and Eric Walker occupied the front two rows of the grid, with reigning British Champion, Chris Bradbury, starting further back following a couple of difficult qualifying heats. As the green flag dropped, following two rolling laps, Green got away first and survived the first corner lunges going on behind him.

Jake Sturt make an excellent start, moving up into second in the early laps, before finding himself on the receiving end, dropping him back down the order. Coming from 17th on the grid, Chris Bradbury was using the front bumper to good effect, quickly disposing of those ahead of him and moving multiple cars at once as he made excellent progress in the first half of the race, finding himself up into second place around the midway stage.

Scotland’s Dean Johnston seemed to have a few issues with his car, and couldn’t match the pace of McConnell, Green or Bradbury, and found himself in a race of his own for long periods.

With the laps running down, the gap between Green up front and Bradbury behind was closing, and it looked like the gap could have come down enough for a scintillating finale in the closing laps.

However, a sticking throttle on the 886 Bradbury car would see him come together with Michael Taylor, and spinning around in the process. A race caution was called for to allow the officials to see the 426 pilot, closing the pack up.

Green controlled the restart, with McConnell, Beaumont, Johnston, Sturt, Walker et al all up close behind, and it was an opportunity for someone to take their chance.

However, Green would get away well and, once more, open up daylight to those behind. Further back though, for the last few laps, the bumpers were going in hard, cars spinning, cars hitting the wall, and the placings changed regularly in those laps.

Bradbury was taking no prisoners, coming from the back once more, with Kenny McKenzie, Randall Lynn, Dean Catherwood all up there too, challenging, and getting pinged around from others.

Michael Green would take the 2024 A1 Containers R Us British Championship, with Craig McConnell crossing the line in second , ahead of 713 Ian Beaumont in third and Jake Sturt in fourth.

The Sunday afternoon saw two graded races for the Superstox to determine the grid for their Scottish Open Championship.

Heat wins went the way of 511 Martyn Coles and 886 Chris Bradbury, with Coles taking the opening heat win after Declan Salmon was docked having been adjudged to have jumped the original race start.

Ian Beaumont and Declan Salmon were both showing great pace throughout the weekend. Heat two saw an almighty crash on the opening lap for Eric Walker, who found himself squeezed to the wall, with his car riding up before somersaulting across the raceway, as a red flag was called for to stop the traffic as quickly as possible.

Beaumont and Coles were on the front row for the Scottish Open, with Bradbury and Gary Chisholm just behind. The race was electric, with some mega hits going in from the outset, and pole sitter Beaumont dropped out almost immediately, as did Chris Bradbury and Gary Chisholm.

The drivers starting further back the grid had made up a lot of places early on. Randal Lynn, Bradley Brooker, Craig McConnell, Adam Low and Kenny McKenzie all found themselves battling for the front few places in the first 5-10 laps of the race.

As the race settled down, Lynn was the driver looking like not being caught – he had opened up a lead and was putting in some steady laps, navigating the back markers.

Brooker behind was catching somewhat, but not enough to sustain a challenge on the 492 car ahead. Lynn would take the Scottish Open, with Brooker second and McConnell third.

The 2.0 Hot Rods battled it out for their own British Championship across the weekend, with 25 cars taking to the track for each of the heats.

The drivers competed in three qualifying heats on the Saturday night to determine their starting position for the main race on Sunday afternoon.

The 2.0 Hot Rods provided some very close racing, with drivers looking to try and force errors from those ahead, with little taking the opportunity to go around the outside.

The racing saw some mega trains of action, with cars bumper-to-bumper for long spells with not an inch given between each other. Adam Heatrick was awarded the win in heat one, whilst Brendan O’Connell and Drew McKewon also took race wins in the qualifying heats.

There wasn’t much luck for the home contingent of drivers, with Keith Brown struggling with car issues, and Frankie Cunningham showing great pace, but very little luck across the qualifying heats.

Allan Gibson had faired best in the heats, having led much of the way in heat one, before dropping down into third position, which he held onto until the end of the race.

The British Championship race saw the drivers line up in points order, with Northern Ireland’s Drew McKeown on pole position and European champion, Ben Murray, alongside him on the front row, and Jack Wilks and Jason Jackson occupying row two.

As the lights went green on the opening lap, there was a melee as the drivers accelerated away. Cunningham went for a gap between Dan Bennett and Conor Hughes, with the gap closing as he had his nose between the cars. Hughes came across, and Cunningham squeezed into Bennett on the inside, with Bennett getting out of shape, this forced Cunningham into Hughes with Hughes hitting the wall.

Hughes and Cunningham crashed to the infield whilst Adam O’Dell and Brendan O’Connell found themselves spinning as they tried to avoid Hughes and Cunningham.

O’Dell managed to reverse to safety and the race continued onward with a few casualties. Up front, McKewon had maintained his P1 starting position as both he and Ben Murray raced on.

Behind the front two, Jason Jackson was defending for his life as a chain of cars tried to force him into an error and open up a gap to move on through. Dan Bennett, Andy Best, Keith Brown and Jack Wilks were all in close contention.

Nobody, though, would find a way past the Jackson car as he held on for a hard-fought third position, as McKeown took a well deserved victory ahead of Murray.

The Scottish Open Championship followed with a reverse grid from the British Championship.

Nathan Maidment made an excellent start, and looked out of sight as he looked to take a win in the Scottish Open, however, a misfire in the car slowed his progress allowing the pack to close up, and Maidment found himself out wide and dropping down the order.

Ireland’s Ian Riordan went on to take victory, with Keith Brown in second and Jordan Rochford in third. An all comers race rounded off the weekend’s racing, which saw Maidment take a well deserved race win ahead of Bennett and Rochford.

The American Cup Cars teams made their trip north for their annual Scottish Championship weekend.

The formula’s provided some great close racing, with very little between much of the drivers in both the seniors and junior classes. There were numerous ‘photo’ finishes across the two days, with the Scottish Championship titles going to 18 Stratton Mackay, in the seniors, and 24, Andrew Slater, in the juniors.

The Junior Productions provided support on Saturday night, with race wins going the way of Andrew Russell (heat and final) and Harry Minish, as the Northern Ireland-based youngsters stole the plaudits.

The Ninja Karts replaced the Junior Productions on the Sunday, with more great action from the youngsters ahead of their British Championship on June 22.

Rory Wilson took a heat and final double, whilst Jayden Jeffrey also took a race win. There was some great close action between Rory Wilson, Tommy Melrose, Henry Hunn and Jayden Jeffrey throughout the day, with all four challenging each other hard but fair throughout, whilst Blair Innes, Sophia Allan and Christopher Lattka all put in strong displays in each of the three races.

The action returns to Lochgelly Raceway on Saturday with the U Pull It 1300 Stock Cars, National Hot Rods, ProStocks and 2.0 Hot Rods taking to the track with a 6pm start time.