The 3rd round of the E-Buggy and Truggy National Championship was held at the ever excellent Herts Nitro facility near Stevenage, and with great weather and a great track the racing was excellent as ever.
The Truggy class saw the debut of the new Agama A215T with Jon Hazlewood at the controls. The Truck - still in prototype form - was running great and Jon pronounced himself more than happy with the performance despite only a small shakedown run prior to the meeting being possible. He'd run competitively but be frustrated with his own lack of match practice blunting his edge. Tony Truman was also in the mix, and heading into the main final both guys were on the look out for a good result.
The start of the final was a rough afair, with Jon getting a good start only to end lap one in the fence, literally, and unfortunatly the marshal couldnt free the wing and wheel that was caught. Finally he did and Jon crossed the line last by some considerabe margin. Clearly fired up by this incedent he then raced the next 25 minutes absolutely flat out, showing the truck at 100% in the old Hazlewood way. He'd get back to third and on the gearbox of second and it was looking good for the podium. Unfortunately lady luck struck and he lost both front body clips resulting in the need to limp the truck with its now large air break body round to the pits to have the problem fixed. He would end 4th. Meanwhile Tony Truman was flying and looking secure for a 2nd place until a pit stop fumble cost him time, dropping him to 3rd and the final step of the podium. Still, 2 Agama trucks in the top 4 and 4 trucks in the top 7 marked an awesome result.
In the E-buggy class, which was more competitive than ever, there was a great scrap between Darren Bloomfield, Elliott Boots and Jack Embling for TQ. Agama drivers Ollie Currie, Tony Truman and Jonny Skidmore were all also in the mix and running well.
The main final saw pole man Jack unable to start due to a technical issue, which left a big battle between Darren and Elliott. Darren was chasing hard the whole way, and a bobble here and there would drop him back, only to close the gap again, Darren was quicker, just not able to make the pass. Elliott hung on to cross the line a second in front after a great race. Darren's last lap was quite spectacular, setting the only sub 40 second lap with a 39.78, 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else in the final!. Not just a one off he set the top 6 fastest laps, it truly was a pleasure watching him drive the A215e around the track.... Jonny Skidmore was at it again in E-Buggy and he would drive an excellent race to secure 3rd and yet another podium place which will put him in a really strong Championship position with 2 rounds to go. He is currently leading the ebuggy series with Jon leading the Truck.
Once again, many thanks to the Herts club for a wonderful track and we will be ready for the next one…..
