Bloomfield is Arena Champion
Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield is the 2011 Arena Offroad Meeting Champion after a dominant performance in the Buggy final at the indoor event in Voghera, Italy. The Top Qualifier who started from pole pulled off a Sebastien Vettel style start to the 45-minute encounter immediately opening up a gap over his pursuers. The fastest man on track, any hope his rivals had of catching him up were further dashed when it became apparent that his Nitrotec powered 8ight was able to run a three stop strategy, nothing his rivals could afford to risk.
While Bloomfield disappeared into the distance before switching to cruise mode to win by 14 seconds, the race for second was to produce one of the greatest offroad battles of the year as fellow Brit Elliott Boots and outgoing Arena champion Yannick Aigoin went wheel to wheel. Drifting side by side through the double chicane lap after lap as if it was a Gymkhana style drifting competition the last lap saw both drivers launch their buggys across the finish line with Boots’ Kyosho snatching second by just 16/1000 of a second over the TLR of Aigoin. Receiving huge applause from the large crowd of onlooker gathered in the Rodeo Arena both drivers said afterwards that it was a great race to be a part of.
His first time to attend the Arena Offroad Meeting, Bloomfield was delighted at what he described as his first international 1:8 win. Particularly pleased at having beaten his factory TLR team-mate Aigoin, the winner of the Brushless Buggy title earlier in the event said his focus for the final was just to get a clean start and drive a clean race as he knew after the Semis that he had the buffer of being on one stop less than his rivals.
Boots, who looked very professional with his Formula 1 style radio headset that allowed Kyosho Europe’s Mick Cradock keep him fully briefed throughout the race, said having switched to a harder compound tyre for the final his RB powered MP9 took a while to come in, being very good in the middle part of the race before starting to fade in the final few minutes. Asked if he felt the pressure of racing so close to Aigoin the 18-year-old said he was very comfortable racing against the former European Champion as he knew he could trust him to run a clean race. Struggling for steering Boots said on the final run through the double chicane before the finish line he had to use the track piping to guide the buggy through.
One of the great ambassadors of the sport, Aigoin who successfully defended his Truggy title said he thoroughly enjoyed the battle with Boots who he described as a very fair driver. Having set-up up his nVision engine and clutch for slightly higher traction before focusing all his attentions on tyre choice, Aigoin said he was lacking ever so slightly in forward traction and in this situation this probably prevented him from claiming a TLR 1-2 but after such an exciting race he was not too disappointed with third.
Carrying the hopes of the home crowd Riccardo Rabitti was the best placed Italian coming home fourth. The factory TLR/Picco driver who started 2nd on the grid struggled with his tyre choice at the start of the race but managed to work his way up to the battling Boots and Aigoin only to make a ‘stupid’ mistake with six laps to go. Running within striking distance of a podium finish the spin at the end of the straight cost him almost 6 seconds. Behind Rabitti, Mugen team driver Simon Willets and young 16-year-old TLR driver Alex Zanchettin completed the Top 6.
In the F2 Buggy Main, which was run ahead of the feature race, 21-year-old Reinhold Gruber denied Jon Howells from defending his title. The Austrian Mugen driver, who only returned to racing earlier this season after a six year break from the sport, the fastest lap of the race on his way to what is his first big victory. Driving a Hobao, British driver Howells was joined on the podium by his understudy & team-mate 19-year-old Ashlee Owen. The Top Qualifier of the F2 class, Owen is another driver who this year made a return to racing after some time out.
F1 Buggy final results
1. Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Nitrotec – 63/45:13.411
2. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/RB – 63/45:27.674
3. Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision – 63/45:27.690
4. Riccardo Rabitti – TLR/Picco – 63/45:32.266
5. Simon Willets – Mugen/Orion – 62/45:14.122
6. Alex Zanchettin – TLR/BP – 61/45:41.412
7. Valerio Bellano – Xray/RB – 60/45:29.754
8. Walter Floris – TLR/Novarossi – 60/45:31.500
9. Alessandro Stocco – Hot Bodies/Alpha – 59/45:04.035
10.Federico Ruggeri – Crono/OS – 58/45:27.016
11.Daniele Chicca – JQ/Precirotate – 52/45:24.836
12.Federico Sala – TLR/Novarossi – 36/28:17.386
F2 Buggy final results
1. Reinhold Gruber – Mugen/Novarossi – 60/45:29.329
2. Jon Howells – Hobao/RB – 59L/45:01.691
3. Ashlee Owen – Hobao/RB – 58L/45:23.298
4. William Campanelli – Losi – 57L/45:26.550
5. Gerd Pfeifer – Durango/OS – 56L/45:15.736
6. Gurdeep Dhami – Kyosho/OS – 55L/45:35.966
7. Alessandro Remia – LRP/LRP – 55L/45:38.818
8. Lloyd Pitt – Hobao/RB – 54L/45:11.229
9. Nicolo Veronesi – Agama/Picco – 53L/45:19.947
10.Stefano Tena – TLR – 52L/45:37.138
11.Valerio Poltronieri – Kyosho – 21L/17:22.888
12.Rudi Traxler – Xray/RB – 1L/2:46.581
Sponsored by Sweep tires and Speed RC this year, the organisers of Italy’s top international offroad event, Paolo Bosco, Piero Cresta and Ruggero Zanusso have again successful pulled of a third running of this event indoors and have also announced that they will hold the event again next year at the great setting that is the Cowboy Guest Ranch.
View the event image gallery here.