Bloomfield Wins BRCA 1:8 at Coventry
We arrived at the Coventry dirt track for round two of the National Championship, greeted by light rain and some puddles on the track. The Coventry crew aided by DXR soon cleared the track and put down sawdust in appropriate places and fortunately, the weather was due to clear up later in the day.
With the track looking great considering the amount of water that had been, on it practice got underway on this technical but fast track and Graham Alsop took charge with his Hot Bodies D8. Elliott Boots and his Durango would come in second and his car was looking great – it seems the Durango team are working hard on getting the best out of the car. Another D8 piloted by John Holmes came in third with Neil Cragg, fresh from his 1:10 off-road outing the day before cruised into fourth spot with his team boss Craig Drescher in fifth.
Qualifying was interesting with intermittent rain showers providing headaches for most drivers. Some decided not to run in the round which caught them out such as reigning SRS Champ Mark Tatman. Neil Cragg took the first round with his Pro-Line-equipped RC8, Graham Alsop with his D8 came in second ahead of Team Durango’s Elliott Boots in third. Elliott took round two from Neil and Chris Doughty in third with his Durango. Round three and it was all to play for. Darren Bloomfield hadn’t figured in qualifying yet due to a poor tyre choice, Simon Willetts was also there or thereabouts whilst Jon Hazlewood had a return to the top ten of qualifying and was secured in the A final. Darren obviously chose the right tyres for this round as he took the number one spot as did Simon Willetts who too had previously used the wrong compound however, round three he got it right to come in second with Elliott third. This left Neil Cragg as pole man for the A final.
Top Ten – Qualifying
1 Neil Cragg – Associated/Reedy/Pro-Line
2 Elliott Boots – Durango/RB/JConcepts
3 Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Nitrotec/Losi
4 Graham Alsop – Hot Bodies/RB/Hot Bodies
5 Simon Willets – Mugen/Orion/AKA
6 Chris Doughty – Durango/LRP/AKA
7 Tony Truman – Associated/Reedy/Pro-Line
8 Jon Hazlewood – Agama/Bullitt/VP
9 Matt Lewis – TLR/Novarossi/Losi
10 Craig Drescher – Associated/Reedy/Pro-Line
In the finals there rubbing and dust ups, as well as some great passing moves due to the nature of the track. The A final would be interesting as Reece Sawyer, Ed Kerry, John “Bumper King” Holmes and Bruce Thompson were added to the mix after bumping from the B final. As the final got underway the usual Coventry Carnage happened in the technical section at the end of the straight away – I mean it’s a 30-minute final yet people still try and win it in the first lap or two. Neil, Elliott and Darren left the carnage behind them and pulled a gap before Elliott took the lead on lap two and promptly shot of into the distance. Darren got the better or Neil for second and then Simon Willetts also got past Neil for third. This stayed like this until the closing stages and Darren’s Nitrotec engine able to make ten-minute stops and the RB of Elliott doing sevens, this meant one less stop for Darren. This of course played into his hands, as did a few errors from Elliott as the gap closed to just a few seconds when Elliott got involved in traffic which allowed Darren to pass with a few laps to go. So Darren took his second win of the season, can anyone stop him? With Slough next where he dominated last season, its hard to see who will…
Result – A Final
1 Darren Bloomfield
2 Elliott Boots
3 Simon Willetts
4 Neil Cragg
5 Craig Drescher
6 Graham Alsop
7 Chris Doughty
8 John Holmes
9 Reece Sawyer
10 Tony Truman
11 Bruce Thompson
12 Ed Kerry
13 Matt Lewis
14 Jon Hazlewood
