Amezcua & Tessmann top opening practice session
A relaxed opening day to the 2011 US 1:8 Offroad Nationals at Thunder Alley saw Mugen’s Travis Amezcua and Hot Bodies Ty Tessmann top the single round of controlled practice for Buggy and Truggy respectively. Amezcua was fastest from Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri, Tessmann, Kyosho’s Mark Pavidis and the Losi of former US Champion Mike Truhe while in Truggy Tessmann set the pace over Adam Drake, Ryan Cavalieri and Chad Bradley.
Running Ninja’s new JXB02 engine in his MBX-6, Amezcua said today’s run was all about learning the track, a layout which he feels is going to reward consistency. Very happy with the smooth power delivery of his new engine he doesn’t plan on changing anything for the first of the two practice runs that make up tomorrow’s schedule, after which stage track conditions should start to settle and he can work on fine tuning his set-up for qualifying.
Second fastest in Buggy and third in Truggy Cavalieri said he was ‘pretty happy’ with the opening day describing the track as really fun to drive. Unfortunately for his Associated team-mate Ryan Maifield engine trouble in his buggy meant he spent a lot of time in the pitlane during his run forcing the Warm-up race winner to fit a new engine for tomorrow’s practice.
Fastest in Truggy, which had to contend with the fresh track as they got the event underway today, Canadian Tessmann took his D8 around in the third fastest time. Having come directly to California from racing electric Touring Cars at the Reedy Race in San Fransisco last weekend, the talented teenager said his truggy was really good but he expects the track is going to change tomorrow and based on this he plans some changes to his D8 buggy.
Despite having little or no time to prepare for the Nationals due to a heavy work load at AKA, former World Champion Pavidis was really pleased with his run. Fourth fastest, the Kyosho driver said the layout created by track owner Rob Jackson, father of top racer Levi Jackson, is really good as it caters for everyone and not just the Pro drivers. Kyosho team-mate Jared Tebo, the defending champion of both classes, did not feature high up on the time sheet but the Worlds Top Qualifier said everything ran very smooth and is looking forward to the track getting grooved up tomorrow. World Champion Cody King, who had a problem with the transponder in his buggy, said the opening run was just about getting in laps and learning the track and he was happy with how that had gone.
Describing his practices as ‘solid first runs’ Mike Truhe was fifth fastest in buggy ahead of his TLR team-mates Matt Castellano and Adam Drake while Associated’s JR Mitch, Xray’s Josh Wheeler and JQ’s Marty Korn completed the Top 10.
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