Tebo secures Truggy TQ honours

Jared Tebo is the Top Qualifier for the Truggy class at the ‘The Dirt’ Nitro Challenge having secured the honour by backing up his opening qualifying performance with another TQ run in the second. The US Truggy Champion once again headed a Kyosho 1-2 at the top the time sheets improving his time by 6 seconds while team-mate Cody King set a new fastest lap time of 44.399 on his way to second.  Defending champion Ty Tessmann again set the third fastest time with his Hot Bodies despite losing 5 seconds with a mistake on lap 3.  Tebo said the extra time came from a combination of him being more settled, better gearing and having got his Maxima fuel released from customs, the World Championship Top Qualifier having borrowed fuel for his Q1 run.  With overall TQ honours sewn up he plans to use the third & final qualifier to test a slightly different set-up on his Orion powered Inferno ST-RR.

Mike Truhe described his second qualifier as ‘a lot better’, the Tem Losi driver setting the fourth fastest time.  Only tenth in Q1 after a number of driver errors, he still had one incident losing around 4 seconds on the opening lap. Other than making a small adjustment to the clutch on his N-Vision powered 8ight-T for Q2 he said the truggy is working really well and he just needs to try getting an error free run.  Team-mate Adam Drake and Matt Castellano set the 6th & 7th times respectively.  Drake was happier with the traffic this time round saying it was a much cleaner run while Castellano, the last driver to record 10 laps, said he lost time with a crash on his final lap.

For the Team Associated drivers it was a troubled round.  Ryan Cavalieri managed the fifth fastest time but believes he has a radio problem similar to that he experienced at the Neo Race 2 years ago which was later traced to a faulty throttle pot.  Pitting next to the Upgrade RC stand Cavalieri has borrowed one of the radio they are using to display their decal sets and hopes this will put him back in the game in Q3.  Ryan Maifield set the 9th fastest time behind Chad Bradley and ahead of ‘The Car’ designer Joesph Quagraine who is running a Mugen truggy. The Motorama winner is not happy with the Reedy engine he ran in the opening two qualifiers and will switch to the same engine he ran in the final at the World Championships in Thailand last November.

After a strong run in Q1 when he set the 5th fastest time, Mugen’s Dylan Rodriguez was again running a hot pace until he landed on a rock which caused his OS engine to cut.  There are a number of big name drivers here at the ‘The Dirt’ Nitro Challenge who are not part of the truggy action because their team’s don’t have a car.  Team Durango’s Renaud Savoya and Ryan Lutz are looking forward to tomorrow’s buggy action but have kept themselves occupied today by competing in the small field of Short Course trucks with Team Durango’s DESC410R prototype.  European 1:8 Buggy Champion Savoya said the track here is not really suited to the smaller 1:10 trucks.  Making the trip from Portugal former European Champion and JQ Products team driver Miguel Matthias is another not taking part today due to a lack of truggy.  One driver who has access to a Truggy but has opted out of running today preferring instead to use the time to get his nitro and 1:8 electric buggy ready is Mugen team driver Travis Amezcua.

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