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 Elliot 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.

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Darren Bloomfield will start the main event of the 2011 Arena Offroad Meeting from pole position after the Top Qualifier won his Semi Final ahead of factory TLR team-mate Riccardo Rabitti who will start second on the grid.   Elliot Boots lines up third for the 45-minute encounter just in front of defending champion Yannick Aigoin who was second the young British driver in the 20-minute Semi B.

The first casualty of the Semis was Orion engines head of development Adrien Bertin.  Having struggled in qualifying to get a set-up to his liking resulting in him qualifying in the 1/4 finals, the Frenchman built a brand new Kyosho MP9 for the finals and immediately found his form.  Dominating his 1/4 final, Bertin quickly worked his way into the Top 5 of the opening Semi only for the lower right rear shock pin to come out.  Making it back to the pits a temporary fix was made but six laps later it broke and he called it a day.

Also exiting from the event in the Semi A but in the cruelest way possible was Agama/Novarossi driver Riccardo Perin.  Running in a comfortable bump up position the Italian’s buggy stopped less than half a lap from the finish dropping him to 7th in the final classification, one spot shy of progressing to the Main.  This allowed 1/4 finalist Federicio Sala to bump up for a second time as did Truggy Race of Champions winner Walter Floris who finished fifth in the Semi.

The main drama of the Semi B struck French National B Champion Guillaume Hebert. Having won his 1/4 Final, the Mugen backed driver was set to bump up to the Main but in almost identical fashion to Perin his Ninja powered MBX-6 stopped on the final lap.

In the F2 Buggy class Austrian Reinhold Gruber will start on pole for their Main ahead of defending champion Jon Howells.  Top Qualifier Ashlee Owen starts fifth behind last night’s Race of Champions finalists 12-year-old Alessandro Remia and Gerd Pfiefer.

Buggy Main Starting Grid
1. Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Nitrotec
2. Riccardo Rabitti – TLR/Picco
3. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/RB
4. Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision
5. Simon Willets – Mugen/Orion
6. Alex Zanchettin – TLR/BP
7. Valerio Bellano – Xray/RB
8. Alessandro Stocco – Hot Bodies/Alpha
9. Federico Ruggeri – Crono/OS
10.Walter Floris – TLR/Novarossi
11.Federico Sala – TLR/Novarossi
12.Daniele Chicca – JQ/Precirotate

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As part of the Arena Offroad Meeting, Saturday night at the Cowboy’s Guest Ranch was time for the ‘Race of Champions’. Open to the Top 16 qualifiers in Truggy and both the F1 & F2 Buggy classes, this year’s format was to prove entertaining for the decent crowd of onlookers.  Lining up in reverse grid order the first stage of the ROC was to reduce the field in a regular race by elimating the car running in last position every two minutes until four remained.  With four remaining the winner of the first stage of the process drew a number to determine which of the Top 4 he would go head to head with in a three lap sprint, the winner of which would progress to the 5 lap final against the winner of the other duel, while the defeated drivers would go up against each other to determine the final step of the podium.

First up was the Truggy Race of Champions which saw TLR driver Walter Floris get the better of French Mugen driver Julien Lattanzio to secure a very popular home victory.  Winner of the Truggy Main earlier in the day Yannick Aigoin, who was ROC winner in both Truggy and Buggy at the last running of the Arena Offroad Meeting, had to settle for third with Ryan Lee of event sponsor Sweep tires fourth.

The F2 Buggy class was next up with Austrian Gerd Pfeifer winning the first stage of the competition and in the first duel held off promising 12-year-old talent Alessandro Remia to go into the final against Britain’s Jon Howells who fended of Austrian Reinhold Gruber.  Howells went on to claim the ROC victory after Pfeifer had a number of moments.

In the main Buggy class the shoot out was an all TLR affair.  In the draw Darren Bloomfield was pitted against Aigoin for his opening duel which was to be the closest battle of the night.  The buggy Top Qualifier eventually took the win and came up against 16-year-old Alex Zanchettin who got the better of Italian National Champion Riccardo Rabitti.  Zanchettin put it up to factory driver with the pair rubbing tyres on a number of occasions but in the end the British Champion would take the win to bring to a close what was a busy night.

Buggy Result
1.(1) Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Nitrotec
2.(6) Alex Zanchettin – TLR/BP
3.(3) Riccardo Rabitti – TLR/Picco
4.(2) Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision

Truggy Result
1.(2) Walter Floris – TLR/Novarossi
2.(4) Julien Lattanzio – Mugen/Picco
3.(1) Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision
4.(6) Ryan Lee – TLR/Alpha

Buggy F2 Result
1.(2) Jon Howells – Hobao/RB
2.(9) Gerd Pfeifer – Durango/OS
3.(3) Reinhold Gruber – Mugen/Novarossi
4.(7) Alessandro Remia – LRP/LRP

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TLR are on target for a repeat clean sweep of the Arena Offroad Meeting with Yannick Aigoin successfully defending his truggy title at the indoor Rodeo ring in Voghera, Italy, this evening. Starting from pole, the Top Qualifier won the 45-minute encounter by a lap from Italian TLR driver Walter Floris who in the opening laps of the race managed to find a way passed the French driver.

After the race Aigoin said he was surprised by the pace of Floris who he said had found a lot of speed since qualifying.  A much harder race than he was expecting, he was delighted to defend his title with a TLR 1-2 and said he can now focus his attentions on buggy which he admitted is going to be a much bigger challenge to defend.

Running a Novarossi powered 8ight T, Floris was delighted to finish second to Aigoin whom he described as ‘one of the best drivers in the world’.  Pulling a pass on the factory driver early in the race to take the lead the 27-year-old said it was a great feeling but he always knew Aigoin who eventually find his way back into the lead.

Mugen team driver Julien Lattanzio, who as a kid went to the same school as Aigoin, completed the podium but said it was a difficult race.  Starting from fourth on the grid, the former French National Buggy Champion said his Picco engine was down on power and despite giving 110% he couldn’t keep pace with the the two TLR drivers ahead of him. Finishing half a lap up on fourth place finisher Jon Howells, Lattanzio said he was very happy to come away with a podium on what is his first visit to the Arena.

Truggy Final – Result
1. Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision – 65/45:07.743
2. Walter Floris – TLR/Novarossi – 64/45:11.393
3. Julien Lattanzio – Mugen/Picco – 61/45:06.407
4. Jon Howells – Associated/RB – 61/45:26.933
5. Alberto Pacini – Mugen/Sirio – 59/45:46.505
6. Andrea Ubaldi – Serpent/EZ Power – 58/45:03.838
7. Rudi Traxler – Xray/RB – 58/45:30.612
8. Richy Ferraro – Mugen/Precirotate – 56/45:01.504
9. Luca Balzola – Mugen/Alpha – 55/44:44.140
10.Maurizio Tinnirello – TLR/Sirio – 47/35:22.693
11.Ryan Lee – TLR/Alpha – 47/45:08.954
12.Lloyd Pitt – Associated/RB – 43/35:36.709

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Sweep Racing have shown us their new Square Armor V2 buggy tires. The new updated version of the tire features more material around the pin, changing the base of the pin from a sharp angle to a rounded edge. This new design helps extend the life of the pin especially on rough tracks. We’re told that the new tire is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Mugen have the final production version of their forward mounted radio plate, something that was seen in prototype form in the past. The new definitive design sees the battery mounted to the front of the car next to the steering and throttle servos for better car balance and will be included in an upcoming release of the MBX6. We also saw some other new parts in testing such as a new rear shock tower with extra upper arm mounts. We also hear the team is testing a new internal drive ratio but the team wouldn’t confirm or deny this.

Truggy top qualifier Yannick Aigoin is testing a new nVision engine in his Losi 8ight-T. The new motor will feature a slight larger capacity which will give more torque, something that is needed for the heavier truggies. Adrien Bertin wouldn’t give any specific details apart from there being more testing required to make sure everything is perfect and that we can expect a release in February of next year.

Fast Race have some new products for sale here at the Arena including a front radio tray conversion for the MBX-6. Similar in design to the soon to be released official Mugen version, it uses a slightly different material. The end result is the same with the car getting a slight balance change. Also new from Fast Race are some ‘Double effect’ aluminium shock pistons for the Losi 8ight, whose design gives a fast compression but a slower rebound, something beneficial on very bumpy tracks.

Tommy Garage were out in effect during the brushless 1/8th buggy class with a large team running their Mugen brushless conversion kit. The set sees a completely new chassis plate as well as machined aluminium battery mount, combined steering servo & RX mount and machined servo saver lever, to accommodate the long steering linkage from the rearward mounted servo.

Bitty Design have the first sample of their new Force shell for the JQ Products ‘THE Car’. The shell incorporates the same cab forward design as the others in the range as well as some other ‘improvements’ such as a small rear winglets before the rear wing. This prototype body shell will get some small updates before it is released in the next 2 to 3 weeks, with some extra space needed for around the throttle linkage and a slight angle change to the front window.

As we wrote yesterday on the news site the Durango DEX408 is being run in prototype form by Austrian driver Gerd Pfeifer. We are told the final production car uses a similar configuration to that seen in the photos with the exception of the battery pack mount which will see the batteries lying flat instead of on their side as in this version.

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Truggy Top Qualifier and defending champion Yannick Aigoin will start this evening’s 45-minute Main from pole position after he took an easy win in the first of the Semi finals this afternoon at the Arena Offroad Meeting in Voghera, Italy. The French ace lapped the entire field during the 20-minute encounter to take victory over fellow TLR 8ight T driver Maurizio Tinnirello and French Mugen team driver Julien Lattanzio. In the Semi B, Italian Walter Floris, also driving a TLR, took a convincing win from the Associated of Britain’s Jon Howells with Ryan Lee of event sponsor Sweep tires completing the top three which puts the Korean racer sixth on the grid.

Truggy Main Starting Grid
1. Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision
2. Walter Floris – TLR/Novarossi
3. Maurizio Tinnirello – TLR/Sirio
4. Julien Lattanzio – Mugen/Picco
5. Jon Howells – Associated/RB
6. Ryan Lee – TLR/Alpha
7. Andrea Ubaldi – Serpent/EZ Power
8. Alberto Pacini – Mugen/Sirio
9. Lloyd Pitt – Associated/RB
10.Richy Ferraro – Mugen/Precirotate
11.Rudi Traxler – Xray/RB
12.Luca Balzola – Mugen/Alpha

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TLR completed a clean sweep of buggy qualifying this morning with Riccardo Rabitti taking the fourth and final round of heats ahead of team-mates Darren Bloomfield, who set the pace in Q2 & 3, and Yannick Aigoin who TQ’d yesterday’s opening qualifier. Overall Bloomfield secures his second honour of being the Top Qualifier having dominated yesterday’s Brushless Buggy action.

Italian National Champion Rabitti, who set the fastest lap of qualifying in Q3 and was on a TQ run before losing 4-seconds with a mistake at the final corner of the last lap, ran his Picco powered 8ight exactly the same as last night focusing instead on driving an error free run and the approach paid off. The only member of the team running the prototype radio tray set-up that features the throttle servo moved to the front of the chassis, he said after this morning’s run he is feeling very confident for this evenings ‘Race of Champions’. Together with engine guru Alberto Picco, Rabitti has been working hard on maximizing his run time and believes 11-minute stops are on the cards for tomorrow finals.

Bloomfield reported better grip levels over yesterday but trouble with traffic resulted in an error on lap 3 which cost him 3 seconds. Switching from Losi Kingpin to Blockhead tyres for the final round, the British Champion said he should have stuck with the Kingpin as these would have suit this morning’s condition better. Overall happy with his Nitrotec powered 8ight, Bloomfield will run the buggy as is in tonight’s stand alone ‘Race of Champions’ event saying it was far too early to predict how track conditions will be for tomorrow’s finals.

Completing a clean sweep of Truggy qualifying this morning with his fourth TQ run, reigning champion Aigoin said he was a little slow in the final buggy qualifier. Struggling a little with understeer in his nVision powered 8ight he said it was very hard to go fast and he will use the ‘Race of Champions’ to try a number of set-up changes in preparation for his title defense tomorrow.

Fourth fastest in Q4 and the best placed non TLR driver in the final qualification ranking Elliot Boots said his time was better than he thought. The talented British driver, who is out of a chassis contract and running a borrowed Kyosho MP9 here this weekend, said the track felt really slow and lost time with a couple of spins. Looking to improve the back end of the buggy, the RB team driver will, like Aigoin, use the Race of Champion to try some set-up ideas he has discussed with the buggy owner Mick Cradock.

Enjoying his best run of qualifying with the fifth fastest time in Q4, Italian TLR driver Alex Zanchettin completes the overall Top 6 splitting the Mugens of team drivers Simon Willets and Julien Lattanzio.

In the F2 Buggy class, who ran two qualifiers this morning, British driver Ashlee Owen got the better of his Hobao team-mate & defending champion Jon Howells to secure the overall TQ honours.  The 19-year-old backed up his Q1 run by setting the pace in Q3 while Q4 went to Austrian Durango driver Gerd ‘RTR’ Pfeifer.

Overall Buggy Qualification – Top 16
1. Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Nitrotec – 400 pts
2. Yannick Aigoin – TLR/nVision – 398
3. Riccardo Rabitti – TLR/Picco – 397
4. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/RB – 394
5. Simon Willets – Mugen/Orion – 392
6. Alex Zanchettin – TLR/BP – 389
7. Julien Lattanzio – Mugen/Ninja – 388
8. Valerio Bellano – Xray/RB – 385
9. Federico Bellano – Crono/OS – 385
10.Eghlis Gallo – Mugen/OS – 385
11.Davide Rabitti – TLR/Picco – 383
12.Daniele Chicca – JQ/Precirotate – 381
13.Stefano Cantoni – Kyosho/Orion – 381
14.Alessandro Stocco – Hot Bodies/Alpha – 380
15.Riccardo Perin – Agama/Novarossi – 379
16.Andrea Giorgetti – Mugen/Novarossi – 377

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Making his first appearance at the Arena Offroad Meeting TLR’s Darren Bloomfield has notched up the first title of the weekend at the Italian event with a dominant performance in the Brushless Buggy class.  Topping three of the five 7-minute qualifiers ealier in the day the British ace secured TQ honours ahead of fellow countryman Simon Willets and his Mugen and Italian Xray driver Valerio Bellano.

With the finals decided over three 10-minute legs the rest of the field were no match for Bloomfield and his LRP powered 8ight E.  Winning the opening leg from Willets by almost 13 seconds he secured the title previously held by team-mate Riccardo Rabitti, who is this year just focusing on nitro buggy, with a second win over the Mugen driver in Leg 2.  Despite sewing up the overall win Bloomfield ran the third leg which he duly went on to complete the perfect result. Having a poor third leg Willets took second with Bellano completing the podium.

The provisional overnight Top Qualifier in the premiere nitro Buggy class with one round of Buggy qualifying still to run, Bloomfield will be hoping to continue his form through the rest of the weekend at the Cowboy’s Guest Ranch in Voghera.

Brushless Buggy Overall Result
1. Darren Bloomfield – Losi/LRP – 2 pts
2. Simon Willets – Mugen/Orion – 4
3. Valerio Bellano – Xray/Mamba – 6
4. Walter Floris – Losi/Mamba – 8
5. Stefano Cantoni – Kyosho/Orion – 9
6. Stefano Rabitti – Losi/LRP – 9
7. Federico Sala – Losi/LRP – 10
8. Luca Passarini – Mugen/Hobbywing – 13
9. Alex Zanchettin – Hot Bodies/Tekin – 15

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TLR driver Darren Bloomfield holds the overnight Buggy Top Qualifier honour at the Arena Offroad Meeting in Voghera, Italy, after securing his second TQ run of the day in the third of the four scheduled qualifiers with team-mate Yannick Aigoin the only one capable of denying him in tomorrow morning’s final round of heats.

Bloomfield set the pace in the penultimate qualifier by 2.6 seconds from Aigoin with the third of the TLR National Champions Riccardo Rabitti making it an 8ight 1-2-3 for the round. The British Champion, who has done little to his buggy all day even running all three heats on the same set of Losi green compound Kingpin tyres, said driving the track he feels like he is slow but the time sheets prove that this is not the case.  With two TQ runs and a second to his credit there is only an outside chance that Bloomfield will not claim the honour of overall Top Qualifier.  With two rounds to count Bloomfield just needs to finish in the Top 5 while 2009 Top Qualifier and race winner Aigoin needs to top the time sheets of the final round.

Switching from Procircuit’s Square Impact in extreme compound to a Super Soft Hot Dice tyre for the third round, Aigoin said the harder compound was not the right way to go.  Describing Q3 as clean run, the French Champion said it was good to test the different compound to see how it worked and he can use that information to help with his tyre choices for the rest of the weekend.

Rabitti, who set the fastest lap of qualifying in his third run with a 39.417, said his Picco powered TLR was much better following changes made after Q2.  The Italian champion was on target to TQ the round but lost 4 seconds at the final corner of the last lap following a ’stupid’ mistake.  Running AKA super soft compound Impact tyres throughout the day fitting a fresh set for the penultimate qualifier, Rabitti said he will leave the car as is for tomorrow Q4.

Behind the TLR trio Simon Willets was best of the rest.  The Mugen driver said his modified MBX-6 continued to feel good but another mistake this time on the last lap when he flipped the Orion powered buggy lost over 3 seconds.  Driving for Agama Riccardo Perin had his best run of the day with fifth followed by Elliot Boots who lost a massive 7 seconds on his second lap due to some slow marshalling.

In Truggy, Aigoin completed a hat trick of timesheet topping runs with his nVision powered 8ight T to wrap up the overall TQ honour just as he did here at the Arena in 2009.  Also with one final qualifier scheduled for the morning, Italy’s Walter Floris, also driving a TLR, sits second in Truggy with France’s Julien Lattanzio holding third.

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