Bloomfield Wins At BRCA 1:8 Rallycross Nationals Round 2
Report By Rob Cuss
The second round of the 1:8 Rallycross championship was at Deerdale located in the heart of the Nottinghamshire countryside not to far from Sherwood Forest. It’s early in the championship with Neil Cragg taking the first round at Frankley with a astro masterclass he surely would be favourite again.
The track itself is a very technical track with big jumps and some fast sweepers…onto qualifying then! The first round was taken by…..yes you guessed it Neil Cragg with the RC8B just behind was team mate Dave Bailey and third was the first of the Mugen cars with Elliot Boots on the sticks. Onto the second round and it was the turn of Darren Bloomfield to put on a masterclass as he was inch perfect round this very demanding track, second was Elliot boots with a solid performance.
The third round and with TQ to play for Neil went out for his run and got caught in traffic, Darren went out and laid down the marker with another great drive, so it was up to Elliot to try and take TQ and as usual he went for it like a exocet missile, he was on pace for TQ until about the three minute mark when he made a mistake and had to be marshalled. So by the end of qualifying Darren was TQ and would start from pole, followed by Elliot, Neil and Dave
So down to the finals, the lower finals were entertaining with some great drives going on such as 10yr old Mugen driver Callum Niblett in the I final, started 10th drove great to bump up, his next final was not so great but he will be a name to look out for along with Hobao Driver Joe Adams who bumped from the D to the B final at the tender age of 13, beating former National Champions along the way!
The C final was the Stewart Wilcox and Mick Craddock show, with some fantastic racing and fanatical support from their respective teams. One unlucky driver was Dave Grunil who was leading by a country mile until he popped a driveshaft on his Hotbodies D8.
The B final and this was a entertaining affair with the return of Jamie Booth after a year out, however his sabbatical was not noticeable as he piloted he LRP buggy round this tough track. He was battling with Sam Taylor, Bruce Thompson and Jon Howells until he flamed out after a heavy landing but some top marshalling by Digger got he back to the pits with gazelle like speed after a couple of misfires his LRP Engine sprang into life and he rocketed back into the action. Sam Taylor then had a issue he was hit on his way into the pits and was left by the culprits pitman much to the annoyance of the spectators, some fast pitwork by Jamie Amstrong and myself got him away again.
Meanwhile Anthony Potter and Richard Barton had checked out and and came home 1 and 2 the real battle was for 3 and 4 with Jon Howells and Sam Taylor battling with Booth catching them, but running out of time. It ended up being just too much of a job for Booth, but watch out he’s back!!
The A final was the Darren Bloomfield show. The guy even had time to jump the fence out of the track, much to the amusement of us lot in the pits, Dave Spashett went and rescued him and he continued on his merry way to his and Losi’s first win of the season. Elliot Boots was second with his MBX6, he was superfast when his was on his wheels, but Deerdale is unforgiving and Elliot found that out. Simon Willets came home in third with his Kyosho MP9 with a great drive considering he only did two qualification runs and Neil Cragg reitired with a broken shock.
So championship looks like this:
- 1. Darren Bloomfield Losi
- 2. Elliot Boots Mugen
- 3. Simon Willets Kyosho
- 4. Graham Alsop Hot Bodies
So who’s your money on? Reigning champ Neil Cragg is lying in sixth…the next round is the two day event at Herts Nitro Model Club – see you there!
