Tessmann is Top Qualifier at ‘The Dirt’
Ty Tessmann has wrapped up TQ honours for the buggy class at the Dirt Nitro Challenge. Having set the fastest time in Q1, the Canadian ace again set the pace in the second of the three qualifiers, this time going fastest ahead young TLR star Dakotah Phend, to secure his first pole position start at Joey Christensen’s annual signature event. The 19-year-old factory Hot Bodies driver, who is a former Champion of the event in Truggy, said he had a little problem with traffic which caused him trouble in the whoops section but otherwise he was really happy with the performance of his OS powered D8. With pole position for Sunday’s final in the bag, Tessmann will sit out the third qualifier and enjoy an early night while the his rivals battle it out for the other positions on the grid in tonight’s final qualifier which is not set to end until some time after 12pm here in Arizona.
15-year-old Phend was ‘really happy’ with his Q2 run as second together with 7th in Q1 should insure the US Nationals podium finisher a place in the Main. Running Proline Blockade M3 rubber on his Team Orion powered 8ight he said it was very easy to drive and for Q3 he just plans to leave it as is and just drive it.
Third for the round Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri was happy with his buggy and his own performance but like many of the top drivers he had problems with traffic. Running 14 car unseeded heats there is a growing call for future events to have a seeding based on consecutive lap times from practice. The US Buggy Champion said he plans to continue tweaking his swaybars and switch to a softer M4 compound set of Proline Holeshot tyres. Associated team-mate and Truggy Top Qualifier Ryan Maifield set the 7th fastest time after a few less that perfect opening laps.
Impressing with 6th in Q1, Team Durango’s Carson Wernimont once again showed his talents with an even stronger second round to take his DNX408 to the fourth fastest time. The 15-year-old said he was real happy with how is day is going and he hopes he can carry his form into the final round.
Having dominated this event last year with Jared Tebo, Kyosho haven’t been able to repeat that performance so far in qualifying. World Champion Cody King took his MP9 to the fifth fastest time just ahead of Tebo. The 24-year-old said he had one moment of his own doing and lost further time lapping traffic but his buggy felt ‘really good’ and he is not sure whether to risk making any changes for the final run. Defending Champion Tebo said he is just ‘not driving good’ and as a result had two crashes. Setting the 8th fastest time Austin Blair made it three Kyoshos in the Top 10.
Hot Bodies’ Jessie Robbers and new Xray signing Renaud Savoya completed the Top 10. Former multiple European Champion Savoya said he had to drive a careful round after over filling his rear diff when switching to 3K oil. This caused his RB powered XB8 to be unstable at high speed but the French ace feels the buggy has the potential to easily run in the Top 10 in Q3 with the critical thing being the right tyre to choose.
Elsewhere most of the paddock turned out to watch the final heat of the round to see if Adam Drake could force the overall TQ honours to go down to the final round but the challenge was short lived as the Team Losi Racing driver got put on his roof as he tried to pass a slower buggy.
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