Rodriguez claims final Truggy qualifier
A-Main Hobbies team driver Dylan Rodriguez claimed the 3rd & final round of Truggy qualifying at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the just turned 19-year-old putting in the fastest run of the day ahead of Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri and Kyosho pairing of Jared Tebo and Cody King. Having sewn up the overall TQ honours in Q2 after setting the pace in the opening two heats, TLR’s Adam Drake set the 8th fastest time in between defending Champion Ty Tessmann and Ryan Lutz whose Durango will start the final from 2nd on the grid. Drake topped his Q3 heat to set the provisional pace but lost it to Tessmann who had his time bettered by Mike Truhe who in turn lost the top spot to Cavalieri.
Running in the penultimate group of Pro Buggy, the day’s qualifying being completed at 1am, Rodriguez would better Cavalieri’s time by just over a second to TQ the round. Running in the same heat as Rodriguez and finishing second to the Las Vegas driver, Team Xray’s Martin Bayer became the only European driver to make the Top 10 in qualifying as he posted the fifth fastest time in Q3.
Having struggled with his truggy in the opening two heats, Rodriguez went for a heavier oil in his diffs for Q3 which he said made his Kyosho chassis ‘much more drivable’. Suffering one crash on the run when he crashed as he lapped traffic which required him to be marshaled Rodriguez said with the way his truggy is working now he is confident that a good result is on the cards for Saturday’s Truggy A-Main of which 12 qualifying directly with 3 to bump up from the B-Main.
Tomorrow’s action now switches to nitro buggy with a number of the top factory drivers hoping that they will have better fortunes in the blue ribbon class than they had in Truggy. Elliot Boots’ poor run of luck continued as his Kyosho truggy lost its receiver battery pack putting him on the side lines. Last year’s Top Qualifier Ryan Maifield along with 3-time European Champion Renaud Savoya were two others who failed to go the full distance in Q3.
Truggy Qualifying Round 3
1. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS – 12/7:26.087
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 12/7:27.108
3. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 12/7:27.533
4. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds – 12/7:27.875
5. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 12/7:30.661
6. Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP – 12/7:30.929
7. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 12/7:31.901
8. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi – 12/7:32.884
9. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 12/7:33.101
10.Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 12/7:33.468
Overall Truggy Qualifying Result
A-Main Grid (Top 3 in B Final to bump up)
1. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi – 0 pts
2. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 5
3. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 7
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 8
5. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS – 8
6. Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP – 9
7. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 9
8. Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB – 10
9. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds – 12
10.Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 21
11.Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 22
12.Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 23
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