Bloomfield crowned the 2017 UK E-Buggy National Champion

0 July 25, 2017, 11:53 a.m.

Main Photo: Bloomfield crowned the 2017 UK E-Buggy National Champion

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

Race Report from NEMO Racing:
www.nemoracing.com

This weekend we were down at the Pembrey track within the grounds of the famous Pembrey Race circuit for round 4 of the UK e8 and truggy national championships.

We arrived a little cautiously on the Saturday to set up, all too aware of last weekend’s epic weather fail at the same track. We were delighted to find it was pretty warm and sunny, perfect race weather… that was the Saturday. Sunday morning arrived wet and dreary but we all pressed on, a little water never killed anyone important and we were all ready to go.

The qualifying heats began for the electric buggy and all was fine, aside from a few random showers here and there. It made things tricky to decide which tyres were up to the challenge of the changing conditions, a few drivers favoured the V-max super soft, particularly once the track began to dry out, though a few were going with cubes. Qualifying heats were going smoothly, up until the point Darren Bloomfield experienced a technical issue towards the end of his run. Luckily being an experienced driver and with a car that won’t quit it still limped through the finishing line at a diminished speed still seeing him TQ! Also qualifying well was our own young rising star Joni Skidmore, alongside two other drivers running our A251e models all through to the main A final.

The final was a masterclass from Darren with him taking a convincing win, Joni Skidmore was not far behind in a brilliant second. If you’ve got the car and the skills; you’re getting that podium spot. This is an amazing result for us and we’re excited to see both drivers continue to thrive. With this lastest win, Darren wraps up the UK national championship for 2017. Although there is still a round of the series left, his previous round scores are too good to be beaten by his competitors and as such he will only be racing to collect the champagne at that final round.

The truck and e buggy heats were running intermittently in quick succession, and timings were tight. Luckily as usual we had a good support network with us and an adequate supply of equipment. The muddy weather was our biggest contender but we had a few helping hands cleaning up the trucks and cars (cheers guys!). We started out great in Truck, dominating in numbers with 5 drivers using our A215T model to make it into the main final and of course Jon Hazlewood was getting stuck in, qualifying in 4th place. The final was intense with many fighting for a top spot on the podium and it looked like Hazlewood was poised to take 3rd, however towards the end a clutch failure meant his truck stopped on the track and unfortunately it ended there for him. Not all was lost though, Michael Shorey took 7th for us and as usual we’ll be back next time to hit the track even harder.

Our next big stop will be Sweden for the European championships, scheduled to start on the upcoming Monday. If you can’t make it, don’t fret, we will be providing live coverage via our Facebook page; make sure you give us a like and turn on notifications for the latest updates, pics and videos.