Maifield heads TLR 1-2 in opening ‘Dirt’ buggy qualifier
Ryan Maifield headed a 1-2 for Team Losi Racing in the opening round of buggy qualifying at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the Arizona driver the only one to complete 12 laps of the Fear Farm track. Behind him last year’s triple podium finisher Dakotah Phend would set the fastest 11-lap run over the 7-minutes in a marked improvement from the 17-year-old who ended up only 27th overall in Truggy qualifying. Behind the TLR pairing it was defending champion Ty Tessmann that would complete the Top 3 despite losing over 4-second when he rolled his HB while on target for a TQ pace.
Asked about his qualifier, Maifield running in the X group of the 6 unseeded heats, said he ‘went for it’ and while he had a few bobbles it was fast with his Orion powered 8ight having ‘a lot of power’ something he said was a nice complaint. Having used eBuggy qualifying to work out his tyre choice, all drivers having only had one 6-minute practice on the track on Wednesday, he said his choice of JConcepts Chaser tyres in blue compound worked really well. Suffering a little with his brakes fading towards the end of the qualifier he said he will make a small engine adjustment to cure this for Q2.
Having come into the event feeling under the weather and suffering ‘a bunch of stupid stuff’ in Truggy, Phend said he managed to take on a new mindset for the change over to buggy qualifying and it worked out well. Last year’s Buggy Top Qualifier, he said despite the track getting rougher and it harder to get around without mistakes he was happy with how ‘super easier’ his 8ight was to drive. Running Pro-Line’s M3 Holeshot tyre, he said they were a safer choice for his style of driving and his big focus for Q2 was to keep his new found form going.
‘Was going pretty good until I crashed’, that was how Tessmann summed up his opening qualifier. The World Champion said everything in terms of his D815 and Pro-line M3 Blockade’s ran pretty much as expected although he will rebuild his shocks for Q2, his father Gord joking ‘we should have enough time’. With approximately 4-hours between rounds, this year’s DNC attracting over 800 entries for the 1:8 classes, Tessmann said changes would depend on how the track is looking nearer to the time of the day’s second of three scheduled qualifiers.
Setting the fourth fastest time Ryan Lutz seemed a little happier than he was with his truggy qualifying describing his first buggy qualifier as ‘pretty good’. The Tekno RC driver said ‘luckily 80% of the track is right turns’ as he had less left turn steering feeling something must have been binding on the buggy’s steering. Running AKA’s new Chain Link tyre he said they ‘seemed good’ and are ‘very forgiving’. Asked about any changes for Q2, he said it all depended on how the track was going to be and whether they were going to water or not jokingly referring to the event as the ‘Dirt Nitro we leave you guessing challenge’.
Former European Champion Darren Bloomfield was delighted with his opening run as he took his Agama to the fifth fastest time. Saying the result takes a lot of weight off him as he targets his first A-Main appearance at the DNC, the British driver said the run ended up a lot better than he thought. Running early on side by side with former finalist Elliott Boots and then towards the end of the run with Tessmann who he had to open up for twice after the champion made his mistake right in front of the him, he felt his driving was slightly compromised by this. Just 4-weeks on the market, Bloomfield said his new A215 ‘felt really good although a touch edgy’. still trying to learn how American tracks evolves over an event he said they used eBuggy to get a set-up for Q1. Happy with how that ran in the final qualifier, he said taking the weight of the electric buggy, which is heavier, into account they reduced the oil weight in the nitro buggy, adding they ‘guessed well’. Running Beta’s Vmax tyre he said he is tempted to try their small pin style Cube for Q2 but will wait to make that call.
Despite suffering two crashes on his way to posting the sixth fastest time, Barry Pettit described Q1 as ‘a decent opening round’. The Mugen driver said while the run started out a little slick due to the watering of the track his MBX7R ran good getting better & better over the heat. Running Pro-Line’s M3 Holeshot tyre he said while he would have to ‘wait & see’ what happens to the track over the remainder of the round, the Pro heats running first, he didn’t plan on making any changes being happy with how everything is performing.
With a few mistakes, Cody King said he wasn’t going to complain about getting points for 7th. The former World Champion said the track is changing quite a lot add he got lucky with the timing of his heat as the sun came out for the heats up after him. Planning to ‘make a few adjustments’ to his Kyosho for Q2 he said the track might turn out looser and so he might end up holding off.
Posting the 8th fastest time, Serpent’s Mike Truhe said he ‘went safe and it worked out good’. Describing it as being ‘as clean as can be’, he said the front shocks were too thick causing his S811 to be loose on-power although it was ‘not terrible’. Set to make a few minor set-up adjustments for Q2, the former double champion said he would take it from there and see how it goes. His first big race using Picco engines, Serpent’s US distributor taking on the distribution of the Italian manufacturer with both Alberto and Edo Picco on hand at the DNC for support, he said everything in that department was working out well.
Behind Truhe, new HB pairing Drew Moller and David Ronnefalk completed the Top 10. Moller would set the fastest lap of the round with a 37.173 while the run was effectively Ronnefalk’s first run in nitro buggy after he managed one lap in practice as his engine moved. The Swede said his D812 felt pretty good but compared to eBuggy the whoops section was a lot harder and by the end of the 7-minutes he had started to get it figured out and he feels good he can improve in Q2.
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