IT WAS an epic two days of action at Lochgelly Raceway over the weekend – almost 150 drivers competed over the two days to provide non-stop on-track action from start to finish, writes our Raceway correspondent, Kevin McQueen.

But it was the National Micro Bangers who took centre stage as they raced for their Fife Medical Group-sponsored World Cup.

The last-chance race went ahead with just under 40 cars vying for a place on the World Cup grid. From those that started, little more than 10 cars completed the distance, with each of the finishing drivers claiming a place at the back of the line and Kieron Kinghorn took the victory in the last-chance race.

The World Cup was the next race on the agenda for the banger formula, with the drivers being given a parade lap as they entered the track. William Stawiarski had drawn number 2 on the grid, and nearly didn’t make it having run into issues with the car ‘pre-race’ – with ‘Stav’ becoming the last car to make it on track.

There was an early scare for Harry Cobb too – whose car didn’t want to start after the parade lap and required a push start to get it going! The action unfolded almost immediately as the race got underway, with cars spinning and crashing into the wall from the opening lap.

The numbers soon fell away, with Keiron Tweed and Harry Cobb in amongst the front-running drivers with fellow challengers falling by the wayside as back-markers became involved.

But it would be Cobb who would come out on top, and win the 2024 World Cup. Tweed finished in 2nd place, with Jackson Whitehead in third.

Two action-packed all-comers races followed, with race wins going the way of Freddie Speirs and Alex McBain.

The Sunday saw the Scottish Open raced for with a special draw determining the starting grid. An eventful and action-packed race saw Luke Thompson come out on top.

(Image: Supplied)

Jay Byram and Charlie Cooper won the all-comers races, whilst Jack Speirs was awarded the Destruction Derby win and James Slater took the best-presented car award.

The ProStocks also raced for their World Cup over the two days – Just over 20 cars participated in five heats over the two days determining the starting positions for the World Cup race on Sunday afternoon.

It was a new format for the event- and one that wasn’t without risk - however, the drivers performed excellently and battled well all weekend to provide some great racing from start to finish.

Dean McGill got things off to a perfect start in the opening heat with a race win before things turned sour for himself, with an engine failure in a later heat putting an end to his night of racing. Paul Barron claimed victory in Heats 2 and Heat 3.

Heats 4 and 5 on Sunday saw Dougie Kidd and Dean McGill take the honours. The World Cup race saw Paul Barron start on pole position, but as he went into turn 1 after the greens, he shot wide and this allowed others to make a move with Barron dropping down. John Mason, Grady Ross, Ryan Martin, Owen Bonner and Dougie Kidd were all pushing but Barron slotted in amongst them before a yellow flag closed things up.

Dougie Kidd led the way from here on in and would go on to take the title for the second year running, with Paul Barron and Grady Ross finishing 2nd and 3rd.

The Junior Productions battled it out with just under 30 cars competing over the two days, with a number of Northern Irish attendees. Saturday saw three qualifying heats to determine the grid for the Scottish Open.

Ryan Berry, Harry Minish and William Plenderleith navigated their way to victories on a damp and greasy track in the heats, before Andrew Russell claimed the win in the Scottish Open, whilst William Plenderleith and Lewis Dickson completed the top three.

The Sunday saw two reverse grid heats start things off with Northern Irish drivers Callum Doak and Harry Minish taking the wins before Doak went on to retain the Fife Championship. Lewis Dickson brought his car home in 2nd place whilst Minish rounded out the top 3.

The U-Pull-It 1300 Stock Cars were in action as well, with the ‘Lochgelly Masters’ title up for grabs and Fraser Clark was aiming to defend the title.

Sam Owen, Mark Bishop, Josh Machin and Lee Jordan joined us from outside the Scottish borders, with all in on the action. Machin looked quick all weekend, and put a big hit on Sam Cavanagh on Sunday afternoon, with Cavanagh riding the wall with quite some force!

Saturday saw the less experienced drivers dominate proceedings – race wins going the way of Michael Lithgow and Callum Elliott in the heats before Chris Gold raced to a deserving victory in the meeting final.

Ally Strachan was never far away over the two days and was amongst the top 5 in the majority of races over the course of the weekend.

Sunday saw Blair Robertson take a win in the opening race before Scottish Champion Jamie Stewart took his first win of the weekend. Stewart would maintain this form into the Lochgelly Masters race, as he rode to victory ahead of World Champion Darren Rae and Gary Nicholls.

We are back in action this Saturday, with two Scottish Championships up for grabs!! Be sure to join us at Lochgelly Raceway on Saturday, October 19 – 6 pm start time.