Darren Bloomfield takes UK 8th buggy national Rd3
The 3rd round of the BRCA National series took place at the Kent track just outside Maidstone over the weekend. The weather was very hot and humid on Saturday which made it pretty hard work for all the drivers as they got used to the excellent but very technical track layout that had been set down. In response to the track breaking it up at some races recently, the club had added oil to the dirt mix in many areas, and this held the dirt together well providing a contrast in surfaces between the smooth pile desertions and the loose dusty ones.
Practice was all about the track cleaning up and drivers getting used to the track before qualifying started. Tyre choice was high on the agenda as the contrast in surfaces was catching a few guys out and they were looking for a smoother transition across the two. Round 1 of qualifying saw Darren Bloomfield just miss out on TQ by a second, but the technical track with its bumpy sections was causing all the drivers to have mistakes or half mistakes where they got caught out, so all could probably point to lost time on their runs.
Sunday and the weather was noticeably cooler, compared to the hot and humid conditions on Saturday, with some cloud cover which made it a lot more bearable for everybody although it was still pretty humid. The final round of qualifying got underway at 8.00 a.m. sharp and Darren put himself on the back foot straight away with an error on lap 1. Late in the race he had closed the gap down with a series of fast laps but would just fail to beat Elliott Boots time and have to settle for 3rd in the round.
As the finals got underway the question most of the drivers were asking was “how much was the track going to break up during the finals?”. The 1/2 finals kicked off with a a bang on the B side with a race of carnage. Championship leader Elliott Boots was in trouble from about half distance, stopping on track several times putting him out of contention. Ben Williams got really unlucky with a half spin after the big jump that saw him collected at full speed by another car, putting him out. Tony Truman was running 1st after Elliott had stopped and then he was out fuel, later traced back to a split tank rubber allowing the tank to flip open and lose fuel. Still amidst the carnage Leon Goode kept his head, and drove an excellent race to finish 5th and make his 2nd National A final, a great effort from him and reward for his undoubted speed.
The A side 1/2 final saw Darren Bloomfield down to the back at turn 1 when he hit a massive rock in the track putting him in the fence and leaving him a huge amount of work to do. By this time the track had become very hard work with the faces of many of the jumps now destroyed making the cars very difficult to jump straight. This meant Darren exercised caution oh his way through the pack to ensure he didn’t make too many errors and leave himself too much work to do. He would eventually finish 3rd and safely in the main final.
The main final kicked off and very quickly developed in to a two horse race between Lee Martin and Darren Bloomfield, with Neil Cragg running 3rd and close enough to take advantage of any slip ups. Darren took the lead early but then dropped behind Lee after a mistake, and the positions would stay like this for the best part of 35 minutes with Darren chasing Lee down, making an error and then catching up again. As they went into the final 10 minutes Darren put a spurt on and took the lead on 2 occasions before error handed it back to Lee. With a few minutes to go, Darren’s greater speed eventually told and Lee made an error allowing Darren to take a lead he wouldn’t surrender this time to take the flag for a maiden win for the Agama brand at a BRCA National.
Source: Nemo Racing [nemoracing.com]
