West Bridgford Buggy Blitz

WBMCC have been running their 6-round Indoor Off Road “Buggy Blitz” championship (sponsored by Schumacher Racing) for several years now and for the 2017/18 season moved to a new larger venue at Bingham Leisure Centre. This allowed a full 30m x 16m track to be laid out, with brand EOS racing carpet and track markings specifically for this championship. The result was the most popular Buggy Blitz championship to date and some great racing at every round of the series.

2WD saw a very strong field at every round of the series, with several F1 National level drivers competing for overall honours. Right from the start, Schumacher’s young Ben Smith showed he meant business this year, as he showed all of the senior drivers how to do it by taking TQ and the win in the 1st round of the championship. But then from round 2 of the series onwards, Eugene Galley found his form and pushed Ben hard until going into the last round of the championship he led Ben by 2 points. With Eugene not able to attend the last round of the series, it was up to Ben to deliver the goods if he wanted to secure the overall 2WD championship title for 2017/18. With a masterful display of driving, Ben once again took TQ and the win to become the Buggy Blitz 2017/18 champion, beating Eugene by a single point! James Harrold took the final podium spot, but was a further 18 points behind, showing just what a dominant performance it had been between Ben and Eugene this year. Ben seems to be getting faster & faster every year now and surely must be set for a shot at the National title in the some point in the future if he keeps going at this pace. To top it off, he’s always willing to volunteer as a stand-in marshal or to help out setting-up and packing-away the track. Well done Ben!

In 4WD we also had a number of F1 National level drivers competing and the start of the series also coincided with the release of the new Tekno car. Showing its pace straight away was Iain Mellish, who shared top-spot from Round 1 with Gareth Preece. Iain backed this up with TQ and the win in Round 2 and again in Round 5, leaving him at the top of the standings going into the final round of the series. However it was not all plain sailing for the Tekno driver as James Harrold was also fighting hard with his B64, having claimed TQ and the win in Round 4. In the end, Iain managed to take the title by just 2 points from James, with another Tekno driver in the form of Dan Austin finishing 3rd overall.

So, another fantastic Buggy Blitz championship finished with the presentation of some fantastic trophies supplied by long-time local club racer Charlie Fogg and the traditional end-of-series raffle which included some fantastic prizes including a brand new Cat XLS re-release kit donated by Schumacher Racing.

Thanks to everyone who took part and who helped to make this probably the best Buggy Blitz series so far. Thanks also to Mark “Muzzy” Musgrove from Schumacher racing for his support, Schumacher Racing for the series sponsorship once again and to Shaun Thompson of PBM Racing for running the track-side shop at every round of the series. The dates for the 2018/19 championship are already confirmed for the 3rd Saturday of the month from October – March and entries will be open very soon. Further details are available on wbmcc.co.uk or on the WBMCC Indoor Off Road Championship page on Facebook.