Phend claims first nitro title in thrilling Truggy final

After 45-minutes of intense racing Dakotah Phend is the new US National Truggy Champion.  The TLR driver claimed his first nitro title from the defending champion Ty Tessmann after a thrilling race in Hutto, Texas, where they shadowed one another the entire race.  In a completely different league to the other 13 finalists, the race came down to the final corner with the pair tangling as Tessmann, who was chasing a third consecutive title, made a last attempt to deny the Top Qualifier his first win.  After marshalling it was Phend who would get the win on the dash to the line by 3/10ths of a second.  Over a lap down Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz completed the podium at Thornhill Racing Circuit.

‘Feels awesome, I have been working really hard for this’, was a very happy Phend’s reaction to his win of what many industry onlookers described at being one of the Top 3 races of all time.  Describing the race as ‘crazy’, the 17-year-old said after Tessmann got ahead on lap 4 he just tucked in behind the Canadian.  Stopping simultaneously at the first fuel stop after that Phend always came in a lap earlier than Tessmann making for plenty of excitement every time the HB driver exited the pitlane from his stop such was their closely matched pace.  On his third time leading the race the Michigan driver would make his biggest error of the race.  On lap 49 of 59, he would get his Orion powered 8ight T on two wheels coming into the tracks huge step up after coming in a ‘little fast’.  Although he was able to save it he could not complete the step up which allowed Tessmann back to the front.  Saying his aim was to pressure Tessmann into a mistake, he said his rival ‘drove awesome’ and he just went for it on the last lap with a great pass on the sweeper leading on to the back straight.  Asked about the last lap contact, Phend said it was just close racing and that he had ‘very high respect’ for him.

Tessmann was understandable disappointed at losing out by so little after such an exciting race. Saying the race ‘really didn’t feel like 45-minutes’, he said it was not just the race that was intense but that everytime he came into the pits it ‘seemed hectic’ with one of his stops seeing him tangle with the Mugen of Barry Pettit.  Very happy with how his OS Speed powered D8T performed over the last two minutes he said it became difficult to drive and he wasn’t sure why.  A very clean race for how closely the two ran together,  Tessman like Phend acknowlegded the respect these two world class drivers showed one another.

‘Very good’ was Lutz’s response to the question of how his race had gone.  Happy with how his Alpha engine DNX408T raced over the 45-minutes he said it ‘worked out as good as it could have’.  Starting the race from 6th on the grid, he initially did ‘a lot of battling with the two Ryans’ but once he got a gap on the Associated pairing he just focused on finishing out the race with no crashes and he managed to do that, crossing the line 2.1 second ahead of Ryan Maifield.

Maifield said his 4th place finish was alright as he did the best he could with the equipment he had available to him.  The 3-time former champion said himself and team-mate Ryan Cavalieri had an ‘awesome race’ battling for the ‘vintage truck win’ referring to Associated’s aging RC8T chassis.

Finishing just 6/10ths behind Maifield, Cavalieri said he really enjoyed the race but added for the overall win they where at a ‘little disadvantage with the car they had’.  The multiple electric offroad World Champion said ‘I did my job’ running the race without any crashes but in the end it was ‘just the truck’ that held them back.

Completing the Top 6 was 2010 Champion Jared Tebo who felt the race ‘went as good as it could have went’.  Starting 10th, the Kyosho driver got hit on the opening lap by the Serpent of Mike Truhe which lost him a couple of spots.  Really happy at making 9-minutes from his Orion engine he said he was ‘shooting for third’ as his STRR Evo was ‘good’ but having to get out of the way of the leaders a number of times due to his pitstop timing he said he lost too much to Lutz and then a mistake, his only self inflicted error of the race, dropped him sixth.

A-Main Truggy Result
1.(1) Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 59/45:03.143
2.(2) Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 59/45:03.482
3.(6) Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 58/45:08.759
4.(8) Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi – 58/45:10.868
5.(7) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 58/45:11.492
6.(10)Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 58/45:25.402
7.(9) Michael Truhe – Serpent/TOP – 58/45:37.498
8.(14)Barry Petitt – Mugen/OS Speed – 57/45:14.847
9.(13)Josh Glancy – TLR/Novarossi – 57/45:26.271
10.(4)Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 57/45:30.990
11.(15)Billy Fischer – TLR/Novrossi – 56/44:55.039
12.(3)Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 54/42:59.761
13.(5) Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 54/45:33.207
14.(12)Austin Blair – Mugen/OS Speed – 39/30:44.851
15.(11)Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 6/456.908

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