Darren Bloomfield continued his good form since moving to the Nemo Racing/Agama team, by winning the first round of the BRCA National Truggy Championships at the Herts club over the weekend.
With the UK once again experiencing clear and sunny weather, the competitors for the opening round of the Truggy and E-buggy Nationals were in for a treat with the track having been rolled and prepared since the previous weekend. A big Nemo team were in attendance as usual, with competitors in both classes. In truggy qualifying, Darren spent the time adjusting his chassis after the previous event in the USA where servo issues prevented a good result. At Herts though he was able to concentrate on improving the set-up and improving his lap times. He would eventually end up qualifying in second place on the grid and in a good place to challenge for the final. The Agama team were very strong in truggy, with Ollie Currie and Jon Hazlewood directly behind Darren in third and fourth respectively on the grid.
The E-buggy guys were involved in a very close contest at the front and with many of the usual nitro National drivers in attendance the competition was very fierce. The Agama drivers were running quickly in qualifying, but odd mistakes were costing them dear in their overall round scores that meant Darren, Richard Barton and Tony Truman would qualify sixth, eighth and ninth respectively. Everybody was chasing the set-up a little bit and tuning their cars to deal with the huge amount of torque the electric motors produce compared to a nitro engine. Darren was again in only his second event with the car, Tony was running new electronics which he was learning about and setting up as he went and finally Richard was running his E-buggy for the first time in a long while. So overall with the standard of the competition, the qualifying results were not too bad.
The truggy final would see Darren and Jon and Michael Lewis fighting between themselves for the win, and on this occasion Darren would come out on top with a very controlled drive. Jon had a nice race with Michael that he managed to win, to make it an Agama one-two and a fantastic result for the team. The Beta shod Agama truggies seemed to be unmatched in the final, making full use of the power available from their Bullitt engines. Ollie Currie came within a whisker of completing a podium lockout for the Nemo Racing team, finally having to settle for fourth overall after a great battle. No less than six Agama truggies and at least as many running Beta tyres were present in the main final.
The E-buggy final was a frenetic affair with many fast drivers competing for the win. Unfortunately the Agama drivers couldn’t quite get up to the front as those mistakes that had cost them in qualifying also prevented a concerted challenge at the head of the pack in the final. Darren was running quick enough for the podium, but would have have to settle for fourth overall with Tony finishing eighth and Richard ninth. Beta tyres were again heavily used by the main final drivers, with at least six running the rubber.
The next round of the series takes place at Coventry in the middle of April.

Source: Nemo Racing