Denney, Rivkin & Savoya complete DNC Truggy grid
The 15 drivers who will battle it out to become the Truggy Champion at the 17th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge tonight is complete. With the B-Main offering the Top 3 a place on the back of the A-Main grid, it was pole sitter Tanner Denney who controlled the 30-minute encounter from start to finish, the new TLR signing winning by 6.5-seconds from former team-mate Spencer Rivkin and TLR’s other new recruit Renaud Savoya. Finishing 4th, the 2013 Top Qualifier Adam Drake will for the first time since the DNC moved to the Fear Farm not be on the grid for the main event. It was a disappointing race too for Drake’s Mugen team-mate Barry Pettit, running a competitive 3rd just after the 10-minute mark last year’s direct A-Main qualifier would suffer a plug failure.
Booking his first DNC Truggy A-Main start, Denney said ‘I started 1st, drove smooth and didn’t make any mistake other than just one bobble so it was a good race’. Running Pro-Line X3 Holeshots on his 8ight-T 4.0, he said ‘it got sketchy towards the end allowing Spencer to catch me but I was putting around’. His first race with Reds Racing and fitting a new engine for the final, the 20-year-old said it ran great despite having only two tanks on it before the race.
Not happy with his own performance over the race, Team Associated’s Rivkin said ‘I made a few driver errors and didn’t drive very well but I still bumped up which was the main thing and now I have a chance to win the A-Main’. Running blue compound JConcepts Reflex tyres on his RC8T3, the 17-year-old said his truck ‘was good’ but he plans to make a few changes ‘right before the Main’ for the cooler conditions, the B-Main running in what are distinctly much hotter conditions than those experienced in qualifying.
Finishing just 3/10ths off Rivkin, Savoya described his race as ‘great’. The Frenchman, who was a buggy podium finisher in 2014, started from 8th on the grid said he found his race form after switching to a JConcepts Silencer body for the final. Struggling with a lack of steering in qualifying, he said his RC Concept powered 8ight-T 4.0 now had extra steering in the 180 corners which allowed him to be competitive. It was ‘the best feeling (he had) with the truck’ but due to his starting position he struggled to get the full benefit of the new found pace saying ‘driving in the middle of the pack was tough’. Getting some clear track he would close on the leaders over the final 10-minutes but with Drake 15-seconds behind and it being ‘fricking fast at the front’ he settled for the final bump position on what he added were difficult conditions due to the track and the heat.
In the eBuggy B-Main, Drake would win the 10-minute encounter comfortably ahead of pole starter Steven Harris who had a close battle with Mark Sousa with all three Mugens progressing to the Main event. While he would set the fastest lap of the final, new Mugen signing Mike Truhe, who qualified directly for the Truggy A-Main, would miss the cut finishing fourth 2.7-seconds back on Sousa.
View our complete image gallery here.
