Truhe tops final qualifier

Once again Team Losi left the best for the last run of the day with Mike Truhe topping the final buggy qualifier at the ‘The Dirt’ Nitro Challenge just like team-mate Matt Castellano did yesterday in Truggy.  Minor changes to his nVision powered 8ight throughout the day all came together in Q3 giving him a more consistent and driveable buggy. He missed out on becoming only the third driver to run a 10 lap qualifier by 7/10th of a second.  It was a strong round for TLR’s star drivers with Adam Drake enjoying his best run, setting the fourth fastest time with his Novarossi powered example.

Defending champion manufacturer Team Associated, who are chasing their fourth consecutive Nitro Challenge buggy win, used the night conditions of the final qualifier to test set-ups for Sunday’s race which they feel will take place in similar cool conditions.  The Ryans set the 2nd & 3rd fastest times with three time winner of this event Cavalieri getting the better of 2008 winner Maifield by 2.5 seconds.

Having dominated Q1 & Q2 Kyosho’s Jared Tebo pulled up early after two incidents with the same back marker cost him any chance of a TQ run.  This left Cody King the top MP9 in 5th, the World Champion showing the outright speed is there as he set the fastest single lap time for the round.  A little frustration by his Q3 problems with traffic, Tebo said he still has work to do with the tuning of his Orion engine which is lacking a little in terms of power.

Former event winner Jeremy Kortz enjoyed his best outing setting the sixth fastest time ahead of Ty Tessmann and a much improved Lee Martin.  Martin, who is racing under contract to Tamiya USA in 1:8 offroad, said he was finally getting to terms with the set-up to use on his OS powered 801X.  In the 1:8 Electric buggy class Team Associated driver 19-year-old Steven Hartson TQ’d the round ahead of Drake to secure pole for the A-main.

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