Murdoch Claims Walsh Memorial

Race Results: Saturday 25th February

1300 Stock Cars
Heat 1: 638, 715, 17, 68, 410, 924, 411, 916, 88, 849
Heat 2: 410, 638, 924, 715, 68, 916, 17, 502, 88, 16
Final: 733, 715, 22, 111, 924, 638, 916, 17, 410, 502

Stock Rods
Heat 1: 555, 25, 27, 13, 248, 252, 671, 11, 289, 44
Heat 2: 27, 252, 25, 13, 721, 555, 248, 98, 289, 44
Final: 25, 27, 252, 248, 721, 98, 11, 555, 44, 289
H2 - 13&25 Docked 2 places for jump starts

National Hot Rods
Heat 1: 142, 330, 71, 72, 320, 36, 555
Heat 2: 142, 71, 330, 72, 320, 700, 36, 555
Final: 330, 71, 72, 142, 320, 36, 700

Van Bangers
Shaun Walsh Memorial: 245, 883, 13, 99, 203
Heat 1: 245, 13, 203, 14
DD: 13

Murdoch Claims Walsh Memorial

It was a cold start to the 2023 season at Lochgelly Raceway, but there were a lot of positive talking points throughout the event.

The Stock Rods seen young Jack MacLeod take victory in his first ever Stock Rod race – storming clear from the outset to take a commanding victory. Jack’s success in the formula at his first event owes a lot to the current state of the Junior Production formula – which now seems to be breeding a crop of talented drivers that will comfortably make the step up into the senior formula, which only bodes well for the future of the sport. After winning the opening heat of the night, Jack found himself starting at the back of his grade in heat 2, where the going was a little tougher, but Jack still managed to perform admirably, keeping a host of experienced drivers on their toes throughout. The meeting final was a similar occurrence, with Jack having a brilliant race with Darren McAlpine and David Crichton, with the three drivers crossing the line within a couple of cars lengths of each other.

The Stock Rod formula seen Siobhan Martin rise to the top yet again – as she crossed the line first in the two remaining races, including the meeting final. However, she would be demoted a couple of places in the second heat, following a perceived jump start, elevating Gary Dean into first place. It was great to see several new drivers enter the formula in addition to the aforementioned Jack MacLeod. Shane Allen faired best of the rest of the newcomers, with Callum Elliott, Brandon Gourlay, Kyle Hutchison, Kris Simpson and Tam Brown finding their feet throughout the evening.

The 1300 Stock Cars have been consistently one of the best performing formula in Scotland in recent years, and Saturday was no exception. Jack Walls made his stock car debut, and found the going a little tougher than he probably expected – coming away with some repairs to carry out on his car before the next outing in a few weeks time. Ivan Elliot was a welcome visitor from Northern Ireland, and provided some good form, getting in amongst the action. Darren Rae took a win in the opening heat of the night, before Callum Sturrock took victory in heat 2. The talking point of the night though would be for young Ryan Wilson – a driver that had only raced online, and provided some race commentary beforehand. Wilson was out in the Kyle Hegg hire car, and it looked like he had years of experience prior. A fantastic drive in the final seen him claim victory ahead of Kyle Hegg, with Hegg just outside lunging distance come the last lap. Steven Gold took a third place finish in the meeting final behind the HRD cars.

The National Hot Rods took to the track for the first time in 2023, in the first of the remaining 6 World Series rounds ahead of the World Final in July at Ipswich Spedeweekend. Sponsorship for the meeting was put up by Sibbald Training Ltd, with a tyre being presented to a driver after the meeting final. William Hardie showed off his new livery and re-worked car for the first time, whilst Gordon Alexander made a return to action following a lay off due to injury. James Mooney couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2023 year as he swept to two heat wins, despite some major issues towards the end of heat 1 where something appeared to blow up in the closing laps! Ross McWilliam continued his battle to retain his silver roof, taking away three top three finishes for his efforts, including a win in the meeting final. Gordon Alexander showed some great pace on his return to action, with some brilliant battles with William Hardie and James Mooney throughout the evening. With McWilliam taking a relatively comfortable race win in the meeting final, the battle between Hardie and Alexander for second place wasn’t quite so straight forward. Hardie seemed to have the pace on the exit of the corners as he opened up a gap to Alexander, whilst Alexander looked to have the pace at the end of the straight and into the corners. Despite looking quicker, Alexander wasn’t able to mount a continuous challenge on Hardie, though he did manage to claim second place on the final lap of the race, following an unfortunate coming together ahead of him involving Hardie and the back marker car of Ross Alexander. Alexander appeared to veer from the outside of the track in turn 2, heading towards the infield, but it appears, didn’t see the oncoming Hardie and Alexander battle behind him. Hardie ran into the Alexander car despite his best efforts to avoid him – with the coming together then seeing Alexander run into the rear end of Hardie with nowhere to go. A damaged Hardie car limped home in third place, finishing just ahead of James Mooney.

The Van Bangers were racing for the Shaun Walsh Memorial event, which Chris Thomson was keen to retain for yet another year, and looked in good shape to be able to do so, before a race stoppage closed up the pack, enabling Zak Murdoch to close in on him. Murdoch has been known to win a race or two in van bangers at Lochgelly in recent years, and felt he could take the race to Thomson once the race re-commenced. Within a lap, Murdoch was pushing Thomson, and managed to get the move done before another caution for an overturned van. As the race re-started, Murdoch got the break, and didn’t look back as he took victory ahead of ‘Tamson’ and Chris Watson. Lee Clarke was the one that had spectators talking, as he showed up in a rotten Ice Cream van – which was duly reduced in size during the meeting courtesy of William Stawiarski. Murdoch would take another win in Heat 1, before Chris Watson took the DD win.

View event laptimes on Speedhive