NIF2.com - 2013 - #5 – Ballymena Raceway

Bringing The Best of Northern Ireland's Oval Racing
to your browser since 2001

#StockcarRacingIsMagic

Added: 02 Apr 2013	Category: 2013 Oval Racing
2013 - #5 – Ballymena Raceway – 29/3/13
The first meeting of the 2013 season proper and the traditional Good Friday start to the season for the Stock Rod Yokohama tyres championship. On a rare occasion I made it for the start of a Friday night meeting, I would normally have been playing indoor football with work colleagues, but I’m still nursing a sore leg from the Oval Racing charity football match last week. An interesting drive to Ballymena, I don’t ever recall passing through such picturesque snowy landscapes on the way to an Easter meeting before. On a few occasions I was even going to stop the car and take a few photos…. Maybe I will on Saturday night. The Group 2 Lightning Rods got the season underway and the race seen an opening heat win to Jonny Gillispie in a tidy Mk4 Astra. Greg McMullan took the second heat after Jonny Teggart had led from the drop of the flag up until the last lap before being pushed wide on the last lap. Gillispie went on to make it a double and took the win in the final. The feature class of the night was the stock rods and twenty cars took to the track for heat one. They looked quite jittery on the new tar which has gone down on the raceway over the winter, and were coming out of the corners at some rather odd angles in the opening laps. Stephen McNeice took the opening heat win with Jonny Cardwell taking heat two. Stephen McCready and Cardwell shared the front row of the grid for the final, which McCready dominated only to pull out with mechanical problems with a few laps to go, his retirement handed the lead and the win to McNeice who led home Chris Lattka and Marc Morrell. Morrell was docked for an incident which I didn’t see, which moved Carl Sloan up into third. The National Hot Rods had fourteen cars on track, and you could still name a number of drivers who weren’t out. A great turnout for the class. Andrew Murray took all three race wins, with the pick of the nights action being a tight finish to the second heat when Gary Woolsey was challenging Murray for the lead in the closing laps. The Speed Stocks made their debut with four cars in action, every class has to start somewhere I suppose and these provided a fantastic opportunity for me to tweet the results of the Stock Rods. Billy Finnegan Jnr won all three races in his Honda. The only poorer show than the Speed Stocks was the ORC Lightning Rods, or Lightning Rod I should say. Gordy McKee won all three races as the only driver to attend. Thankfully he ran along with the Speed Stocks. Approx Car Turnout: 58 cars (1 ORC Lightning Rod, 4 Speed Stocks, 21 Stock Rods, 14 National Hot Rods, 18 Gp 2 Lightning Rods)







Speed Stocks in Action





Thanks Derek

More Photos on Facebook

Other Sites we Contribute to

- 2 Litre Hot Rod -
- Ballymena Raceway -
- DMC Race Promotions -
- National Hot Rod -