Denney gets TQ run in Q2
After a frustrating opening qualifier this morning at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals in St.Louis, Tanner Denney made amends for his traffic woes by TQ’ing Q2 of 2WD Buggy at the SmacTrac event. Driving his new Associated B5, the Arizona driver took the round with a 21-lap run finishing 3.8-seconds ahead of Team Losi Racing’s JP Richards with team-mate Taylor Larsen third on a 20 lap run.
Describing conditions as ‘getting loose out there’, despite this Denney was happy with his run adding that all he did between runs was wash his tyres and charge his battery. While organisers starting blowing off the track for the start of each class for Q2, Denney said with 9 heats of 2WD by the time they get to run the track is again very dusty with there being a very narrow groove line. The only driver to run a 13-second lap and planning to again leave everything as is for the third & final qualifier, the 18-year-old said with a 3rd & a 1st he will ‘go for a little more’ for Q3.
Switching to a taller pin tyre for Q2, Richards said it made a ‘huge improvement’ to his mid motored TLR22. Switching to JConcepts Dirt Webs, the Reedy Race Open Champion said they suited the loose conditions, which left him only 16th in Q1, much better. Having a few issues with traffic, which he said on a track of this size is ‘kind of expected’, he said his own driving was not perfect. Planning to run his car as is he will try to clean up his driving in the hope of improving his chances of another strong run to secure a place in the A-Main.
Fitting a new diff to his rear motored TLR22, Larsen said this made it easier to drive. Only tenth fastest in Q1 after some early & costly mistakes, he said he just focused on staying ‘smooth and not wrecking’ for his second run. Feeling the track had come around more due to the blowing off of the track, he said he will just stay the same for Q3 adding a ‘Top 5 would be nice’.
Having TQ’d the first qualifier, Steven Hartson had a ‘rough run’. Crashing a number of times, he said a change to a taller pin ‘didn’t really work out’ with his B5 feeling ‘really loose’. Only 11th fastest, the Californian driver will switch back to the same set of tyres he ran in Q1 for his final heat. Only ninth fastest in Q1, Hartson team boss Brent Thielke enjoyed a strong run to set the 4th fastest time with his Reedy powered B5.
Having suffered ‘a few wrecks’ in Q1, 19-year-old Kyosho driver Mitchel Gardner said his second attempt was better allowing him to set the 5th fastest time. Making ‘a lot of changes’ to the set-up of his mid-motor RB6, he said it was ‘a little better’. Feeling the buggy is starting to get there for this final run he plans to adjust his rear roll centre.
Completing the Top 6 with a ‘solid run’, JR Mitch said while Tanner had one very quick lap he was pleased with his lap times which were comparable to his rivals. Having not had a good timed practice, the Team Losi Racing driver said a reseeding of the heats for the final qualifier should benefit him and he hopes to improve on his 5th & 6th points hauls.
Unfortunately for young Daimon Borkowicz he was unable to repeat his strong opening performance of Q1 when he was fourth fastest in both 2WD & 4WD. Leading his heat a series of errors would leave the JConcepts protege only 18th fastest.
In 4WD Buggy Hartson backed up his Q1 run with another fastest time in Q2. The World Champion set the pace two & a half seconds clear of the Kyosho of Gardner with the Associated of local racer Chris Baumgartner completing the Top 3.
View our event image gallery here.