Drake takes first Truggy Qualifier at DNC

Adam Drake set the pace in the opening round of qualifying at the World famous Dirt Nitro Challenge, the Team Losi Racing driver taking the first of 3 scheduled qualifiers by 3.7 seconds from defending Champion Ty Tessmann and Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz, the Top 3 being the only drivers to complete 12 laps of Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s track creation for this the 14th running of the famous track builder’s signature event. Having suffered hail & snow during yesterday’s practice day which meant drivers got just a single practice run on the track, today’s weather in Phoenix, Arizona, was much more favorable with a 2 hour delay to the start of proceedings enough to dry the track off enough to get the event underway. Eventually starting at 10am such is the size of the entry including an increased number of European’s, today’s action at the Fear Farm is not set to be completed until the early hours of Friday morning.

A podium finisher in Truggy last year behind Tessmann and Ryan Cavalieri, Drake was pleased with his opening run despite a ‘rough first few laps’ due to traffic. Happy with the set-up of his 8ight T 2.0 and his choice of Proline M3 Holeshot tyres, he said his only concern was the tuning of his Novarossi engine which he said started to run a little lean by the end of the 7-minute run. Planning to stick with the same set of tyres for Q2, he added the only change he will make to his truck is a an adjustment to the front swaybar. Asked about this year’s track layout Drake said it wasn’t as crazy as previous years and while not ‘super’ technical it was fast which meant it was easy to get out of your rhythm and ’cause chaos’ but overall he said it was another great track from Joey.

Tessmann, who started off a great 2012 season at this event last year when he did the double, the Canadian going on to become US National Champion and finish runner-up at the 1:8 Buggy World Championships in Argentina, summed up his Q1 by saying ‘it could have been better’. The HB ace said his set-up wasn’t right with the truggy difficult to drive and this lead to a number of moments including one which required him to be marshaled. Running Proline M3 Holeshot tyres he said he was happy with this choice and he will continue with them in Q2 which with a better chassis set-up should allow him to put in a better second run, 2 of the 3 heats counting towards the final qualifying order.

A ‘Good start’ was how Lutz summed up his first run referring more to the end result of being 3rd fastest rather than the actually way the run went. With his truggy squirmy on landing, he said he needs to improve his set-up with a shock oil change his main focus. Choosing AKA Grid Iron tyres in soft compound and running in the same heat as Tessmann, Lutz was on target to top the run until an unfortunate incident on his final lap which lost him almost 4 seconds. As he came up to pass a truggy which was trying to make to the timing loop with a broken shock, the driver of that truggy tried to get out of Lutz’s way but ended up spinning into his path. With no where to go the Durango hit the truggy resulting in him suffering a broken shock shaft. Luckily with only three corners to negotiate to get to the loop Lutz was able to make the finish.

TLR young star Dakotah Phend set the fourth fastest time, just missing out on a 12 lap run. The teenager had a costly tangle during the run with TLR team-mate Ronda Drake but having set himself the goal of a top 5 finish for the round he declared himself happy with the end result. Running Proline Holeshot tyres he said his truggy felt ‘real good’ and was ‘on pace’ so he plans to leave everything as is for his next run.

Clashing drivers was a common feature of Q1 with the most high profile one being between Associated’s Cavalieri and Kyosho’s Jared Tebo. The pair came together twice during the run the second time costing both drivers a number of seconds. Cavalieri would take 5th for the round with 2011 Double winner Tebo getting 7th. ‘Unfortunate’ was how Cavalieri summed up the incident adding it ‘should have been better’. Running soft AKA Grid Iron tyres, he plans to make a few adjustments to the rear end of the truggy and if the track continues to dry out he will also switch to Impact tyres for Q2.

Surprise of the opening qualifier was A-Main Hobbies team driver Austin Blair who set the 6th fastest time. Running an RB powered Kyosho, the 18-year-old from California said it was a good run but added hat if he can tidy up his driving a better run is possible. Running super soft AKA Grid Iron, he said he just plans to clean up his truggy for Q2 and leave everything in terms of set-up as is and instead work on his driving. Team-mate Dylan Rodriguez also made the Top 10 with the 8th fastest time driving his OS powered Kyosho despite making a wrong call on tyres. Using Proline’s Blockade the Las Vegas driver said it was ‘not amazing’ and he will switch to the Holeshot for his next run.

Making his debut since signing for Reds Racing engines, Cody King set the ninth fastest time despite running most the the qualifier with the rear wing trailing off the back of his Kyosho. In the first group of Pro drivers to hit the track which is continually drying, King was very happy with his pace saying that being able to run 9th without a wing he should be good for the next one adding that his truggy and engines felt good in Q1. Running Proline’s Holeshot tyre he said depending on how the track changes he might switch to the Blockade for Q2. King’s team-mate Elliot Boots is making his US race debut this weekend. The World Championship Top Qualifier and British National Champion is running one of King’s spare Truggy’s, which explains the one colour yellow bodyshell, described his experience of the US so far as ‘massive’. Getting just 5-minutes of track time yesterday he said his first qualifier didn’t go great as he made a few mistakes and had some traffic issues ending up in 21st but he isn’t daunted by the track and with a bit more mileage should be in the mix especially when the racing moves onto Buggy.

Completing the Top 10 was last year’s Top Qualifier Ryan Maifield. The Associated driver described Q1 as his ‘practice’ as he only completed one lap of the track yesterday. The first group to go out after the snow yesterday, he decided to wait for the second half of what were originally 10-minute practice runs. Going out at 5-minutes it was then announced for drivers to finish their laps, the Arizona driver not getting the message that the remaining practices groups had been reduced to 5-minutes. In terms of the qualifier Maifield said without the few crashes it was ‘OK’. Running JConcepts green compound Hybrids on his RC8T he said they felt fine and his plan for Q2 is just a few small tweaks to his set-up and to drive better.

Truggy Qualifying Round 1
1. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi – 12/7:31.788
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 12/7:35.524
3. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 12/7:38.260
4. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 11/7:01.362
5. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 11/7:01.749
6. Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB – 11/7:02.164
7. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 11/7:04.379
8. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS Speed – 11/7:04.644
9. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds – 11/7:04.759
10.Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 11/7:05.663

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