Bland finally lands a big one with european spoils
Organiser: Hardie Race Promotions When: April 21 Where: Lochgelly, Fife Starters: 30
Former circuit racer Shane Bland claimed a faultless victory in the 2018 National Hot Rod European Championship.
A giant entry of 30 cars made the trip to the Lochgelly venue to race for the first title of 2018 and the chance to wear the prestigious red and yellow chequered roof for the next 12 months.
Heat one got off to a rocky start with a big coming together on the back straight causing lots of damage. That collision resulted in a premature early end to the evening for Northern Irishmen Gary Wilson and Shane Murray and it left local man Billy Bonnar with lots of work to do before the next race.
Adam Hylands restarted the race from pole and took a commanding flag-to-flag victory ahead of Bland and Glenn Bell.
The heat two victory went to Oxfordshire man Jason Kew. After damage in the first heat, he steered his Vauxhall to a victory despite coming under lots of pressure from defending European champion Carl Waller-Barrett in the closing laps as they picked their way through the backmarkers. Kym Weaver rounded out the top three with Derek Martin and Chris Haird in fourth and fifth.
Heat three got off to an exciting start when polesitter Steven Armit failed to move as the green flag dropped. Luckily everyone avoided him and the cars lined up again for a second attempt. Everyone got moving this time and it didn’t take local man Robert Mcdonald long to work his way up into the lead, something he then extended every lap until the chequered flag. Chris Crane took a well-deserved second place and, after a massive effort back in the pits, Bonnar took third.
Waller-barrett was on pole for the final with Mcdonald next to him, ahead of Bland and John Christie on row two. Waller-barrett took the lead at the flag before quickly losing out to Bland, who powered through to take up the running at the front. After grabbing top slot, he simply drove off into the distance.
The pack was left to fight over the other podium positions. Waller-barrett held off Christie, who was also under increasing pressure from Martin, Mcdonald and Hylands.
Christie eventually managed to squeeze past Waller-barrett, who started to slip back before pulling off with mechanical problems. That left Hylands on the bumper of Christie’s Ford Fiesta, before he lost out on third place to Mcdonald. The latter had dropped to seventh at one point but came charging back up the order.
All of that was happening in Bland’s rear-view mirror and he zoomed off to his first major title. It means he also follows in the footsteps of his father Gordon, who was the 1979 European champion. The winner said: “I had the balls to make a change [to the car] for this race and it worked.”