Denney tops timed practice at Indoor Nats

Team Associated’s Tanner Denney will be the top seed for qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals in St. Louis after he used his new B5 to post the fastest 5 laps after the single round of timed practice.  The 18-year-old set an average lap of 14.364 to just pip team-mate Steven Hartson by 3/1000th of a second with Team Losi Racing’s Taylor Larsen third fastest around the SmacTrac track.

Having felt he was lacking a little on power steering on his B5 in the final free practice, Denney added a washer to change his ackermann and said the change gave the buggy ‘all round smoother steering’. Starting the day with a brand new straight out of the bag set of JConcepts Dirt Webs, the majority of drivers here subjecting their tyres to a sanding before use, he said they feel really good and other than freshening up his shocks he will go into Q1 with the car as is.  Asked what he has found to be the biggest different between the B4 and the B5, this being the cars debut race weekend, he said ‘it jumps better’ and that the ‘B4 chassis slap’ is gone.  He added that the B5 also drives more like the mid motored Centro conversion B4.

Having JConcepts Barcodes all round on his B5 in free practice for the timed run Hartson switched to green compound Rips on the front.  Gaining more steering from the change, the 4WD World Champion said he also slowed down his driving a little for the 3-minute run which seemed to work and led to him avoiding the track piping he was having problems with earlier in the day.  For tomorrow he plans to run everything as is saying he ‘think(s) all is good for qualifying’.

Just 6/100th off the pace of the two Associated drivers, 15-year-old Larsen was very happy with his day.  Running a rear motored TLR22, he said its been ‘really good’ and he hasn’t had to change anything in terms of set-up and the plan for the first qualifier is to just continue as is. Running JConcepts Dirt Webs, which he scrubbed in back home in preparation for this event, he said for the level of traction the tyre wear is very low and he will continue with the same set of tyres for tomorrow.

Setting the fourth fastest time Michael Twilling was the fastest mid motor car.  Running an Associated B4 Centro he said it was ‘very good’ adding he is ‘really happy’ with how its been running.  Making an early change to the anti squat to try and ‘lock down’ the rear end out of the corners he said the rest of the day was about breaking in tyres.  Scrubbing in a set of JConcepts Dirt Webs at his home track before the race, the Oklahoma driver said he was delighted he did.  Planning to leave the car as is for tomorrow he said he is ‘pretty pumped about it’.

‘Pretty descent’ was how Brent Thielke summed up his day in 2WD, the Associated team manager taking his B5 to the 5th fastest time. ‘Learning about the new car every time’ he gets it out on the track, he adjusted the link height together with moving the battery position to the rear which he said made it feel ‘more comfortable’ on the track.  Working closely with Denney both looking for a similar feeling from the car, for Q1 he will be following the change the No.1 seed made to his steering ackermann.

Completing the Top 6 was local racer Chris Baumgartner.  Another driving a Centro B4 he said he is ‘very happy’ with how it is working.  Having had to think about whether he made any changes to the set-up over the day, none being made, he said for tomorrow he might adjust his ride height.  Benefiting from local track knowledge he said tomorrow is due to be around 30 degrees warmer than today which temperature change ‘effect(ing) the traction a lot’.

In 4WD Buggy it was Hartson who set the pace ahead of Xray’s Josh Wheeler with Denney completing the Top 3. Hartson also topped Mod Truck.

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