Lochgelly Raceway: Rory roars to Ninja title at weekend

The youngsters arguably stole the show, with both the Ninja Karts and Ministox standing out, writes our raceway correspondent Kevin McQueen.

The Ninja Karts were racing for their 2024 Scottish Championship, where a new name would be added to the roll of honour following the retirement of the outgoing champion, Stuart Shevill.

A pre-meeting draw would determine the starting positions for each driver in heat one, with the grid reversed for heat two, to give all drivers equal opportunities.

Heat one got underway with Jamie Balfour moving into the lead in the early stages, with Rory Wilson in hot pursuit. Wilson would move into the lead on the fourth lap, before Alix Martin found herself stranded on the exit of turn four, bringing out a yellow flag and bunching the pack up.

The race would recommence with Wilson up front, followed by Balfour, Henry Hunn, Jayden Jeffrey, Rayah Burns and a few others.

Wilson opened up the lead at the front with Jeffrey chasing down Balfour for 2nd position, and with the laps closing down, he would take that place from the 16 kart. Further back, Jayden Roff, who had started from the rear of the grid, had made excellent progress and was up into the top four.

Heat two would see the starting grid reversed, and it was Louie Hendry that was the early pace setter. Hendry had drove steadily in the opening part of the race maintaining a race lead before being overcome by 9 Jayden Jeffrey.

Shortly afterwards, a race caution was called for the stricken Ryan Love kart.

The order at the restart was Jeffrey, Hendry, Wilson, Hunn, Shevill and Lattka, occupying the top six places. Wilson made an excellent start and soon moved into second place behind Jeffrey, with Hendry also losing out to Henry Hunn in the early stages following the restart.

The drivers before their big final. (Image: Jim Stark)

Soon afterwards, Wilson made a move on Jeffrey who had hit a bump and it opened up a gap for Wilson to move up the inside on the exit of turn two and into the lead of the race.

Henry Hunn was looking to make a move on Jeffrey as well, with the two drivers battling closely for a number of laps before Jeffrey broke clear of the challenging Hunn kart and once more set about chasing down Wilson up front.

Louie Hendry was still in the mix and was holding onto the battle at the front, soon challenging Henry Hunn for third place once more and moving back up into third shortly afterwards.

However, this was to be short lived as he spun around the next lap dropping down the order as a result. Jeffrey, chasing down and closing on Wilson, looked to have the speed to challenge, however a spin dropped him down the order somewhat and almost out of the top 10.

This enabled Henry Hunn to move up into second place once more, and Wilson to breathe easier up front.

The battle for third place was now on – with Jayden Roff, Alfie Shevill and Christopher Lattka all battling hard, but fair. Roff, the most experienced of the trio would find a way past both and into third place chasing after the first two. This gap was too big by this point though, and Roff would have to settle for third position behind Hunn and Wilson.

The Scottish Championship was next up, and Wilson and Hunn occupied the front row, with Jayden Roff just behind alongside Jayden Jeffrey. As the green flag dropped, the first two got away and occupied the top 2 places early on.

However, Jayden Roff got a poor start and dropped back the order much to his disappointment, meaning he had to work hard to overcome a number of karts in order to challenge for the top three places.

Wilson opened up a gap to second and third, who were both having an excellent race. Jeffrey and Hunn had very little between them and battled closely throughout, before Jayden Roff caught them and got into the mix of the action.

Roff would move by Hunn and into third, before challenging Jeffrey for 2nd. As the pair battled for 2nd place, Jeffrey would spin around, losing ground, dropping him out of the top 5. Roff looked set to take an excellent 2nd place, though, on the last lap he found himself spinning around after a challenge from Hunn who hadn’t given up on that place!

The spinning Roff kart allowed Christopher Lattka to move up into third position on the last lap, with Jayden Jeffrey recovering to finish in fourth. Rory Wilson was unbeatable on the night, as he claimed the 2024 Ninja Kart Scottish Championship!

A pre-meeting lap of honour was given to newly crowned ORCi Champion David Philp. Philp took the title last weekend at Taunton Raceway.

Ben McLellan made his first outing of the season with us in the Ministox, and it was a memorable one for the youngster as he raced to not one, but two heat wins!

Heat one saw McLellan make a great start and open up a gap to the pack behind. Cole Ford was his closest challenger, but he himself struggled to close the gap to the runaway white grader. Rab Scott, who is nearing the end of his Ministox career, took third place in the opening heat.

Heat two saw McLellan take the win once more, though there was some excellent battles further back. Stuart Shevill drove an excellent race, and didn’t back out of a challenge, and fought tooth and nail to take the third place podium spot – finishing a little behind runner-up Dougie Kidd.

The meeting final was another excellent race – the youngsters exchanging blows lap after lap, with the positions chopping and changing throughout.

Dougie Kidd who has been in excellent form here at Lochgelly, took the win – though, the positions behind him were far from settled right up until the last corner as the bumpers went in and drivers chopped and change positions for the final time.

Rhys Kelly took 2nd place ahead of Shay Page in third, with Shevill Plenderleith and Philp all following closely behind.

The ProStocks were with us for the first of two consecutive events, and it was great to see the formula back in action with more excellent racing.

One driver stood out on the night though, and that was Rachel Kidd – Rachel had only just moved on from Ministox and made her debut in the class on Saturday, racing to a hat-trick of race wins that will push her up the grades immediately.

Nobody truly got close to her on Saturday, with comfortable race wins in all three races. Many of the lower graded drivers on Saturday performed excellently – Chris Mack and Becki Ritchie both claiming top three positions in the heats, before Paul Barron and Ryan Martin took the podium places in the final behind Rachel.

The Classic Hot Rods were the final formula in attendance. James Owen and Alfie Johnson made the trip north to be with us.

Owen took the flag in the opening heat, though would have that taken away from him for ignoring the blue flag.

Owen made amends as he stormed to victory in heat two, however, on the last lap, his car went up in smoke and despite crossing the line, that was the end of his night.

Cameron Willacy claimed the win in the meeting final.
We are back in action this Saturday and Sunday, with two great days of action.