Bloomfield and Martin Share Area 51 GP Wins
The inaugural Area 51 GP took place at Chipping Warden in rural Oxfordshire. Held in a vast industrial unit, the Silverstone club, laid out a flowing and challenging layout that took in a mix of raised sections, jumps and slippery corners that would demand controlled aggression to set a fast lap time.
2WD
Darren Bloomfield (TLR) and Lee Martin (Tamiya) would be the pace setters in 2WD with the former taking pole position with his 22 ahead of Lee mid-motor converted TRF201 and Tom Cockerill in third running for Schumacher.
The three leg A finals saw the first two battle hard with Lee winning the first race and Darren three second setting up a final leg showdown. Although Lee would take the lead early on in leg three, an error saw Darren pass him and this would be a position that the TLR drover would hold on to until the end to take the overall win from Lee and Schumacher’s Lloyd Storey.
4WD
On Sunday, Lee appeared to have the speed with his updated TRF502X chassis and took the pole position from Darren’s XXX-4 model with Tom Cockerill once again taking the Schumacher challenge to the two UK pro drivers.
The three A finals were incident packed and very exciting as Ellis Stafford took one leg with ease as he cruised to the win with the prototype X-7 from X Factory. Leg two though saw the pole man take the win and again, this meant that the winner could be one of many as they gridded up for leg three. Crashes for Lee and an electric start from Elliott Boots would see the latter chasing Darren Bloomfield for the leg win. The two have battled hard in 1:8 off-road and it was clear there was little love lost between them as they went wheel to wheel around the Area 51 track. In the end, Elliott muscled his way into the lead showing some great pace and car control at the very limit. His time in the final leg would secure him third place overall behind Darren (two second places) and Lee taking the title after his win and a second place.
Look out for a full race report from the event in the April edition of Racer Magazine.
