Raceway hosts New Year’s Day meeting

The Winter National Championship for the crowd pleasing National Hot Rods is the main event on the festive Stock Car programme at Ballymena Raceway on New Year’s Day (2:00pm start). The fastest cars on the province’s ovals are sure to provide a high speed afternoon of short track action, ably supported by a bumper programme of races for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, Stock Rods, Group Two Lightning Rods, Euro Stocks and Junior Rods.

The National Hot Rods top the bill at Ballymena Raceway on New Year's Day.

Defending Winter National Champion is Keith Martin from Dungannon. Martin, World Champion back in 2005, has an impressive record in this event and is aiming to capture the Winter National crown for the third time in a row on Thursday!

It will be far from a foregone conclusion however with plenty of other top contenders ready to challenge for the Gilmore Engineering backed title.

There is a full programme of support races for the BriSCA F2 Stocks Car, Stock Rod, Group Two Lightning Rod, Euro Stock and Junior Rod classes. The popular F2 Stock Cars look set for an exciting year ahead with young guns like Dean McCrory and Bradley McKinstry stepping up to challenge established stars such as Irish Champion Craig McConnell and Raceway Stadium Champion Christopher Kincaid.

The well supported Group Two and Junior Rod categories will provide their own unique brand of thrills on New Year’s Day where the drivers compete for their Winter Cup and Challenge Cup respectively. The Euro Stocks were one of the success stories at Raceway during 2014 and look poised for another strong campaign. A number of drivers have inquired about the Stock Rod class over the winter months and the promoters are hopeful that numbers will improve this season with Raceway hosting the British Championship for the formula on June 12.

It promises to be an action packed afternoon of short oval motorsport, with the first race at 2pm.