Hartson TQ’s opening 2WD qualifier

Steven Hartson has TQ’d the opening round of 2WD Buggy at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals, the Team Associated driver taking his new B5 to the fastest time in the first of the three qualifiers at SmacTrac ahead of TLR’s Cody Hollis.  Having set the pace in yesterday’s timed practice, Tanner Denney looked on target to continue where he left off setting the TQ pace until he came across traffic that would hamper his run leaving him drop back to finished a slightly frustrated 3rd.

Hartson was happy to kick off qualifying at the St. Louis event with a TQ run but like all the top drivers found conditions a little more tricky today compared with practice.  Describing the track as loose and dusty, the Californian driver said after a slightly slow start having being balked twice by his out of shape team-manager Brent Thielke, the rest of the 5-minute run was clean.  Running the same set of JConcepts Rips fronts and Barcode rears on his Reedy powered buggy, the 4WD World Champion said the pin of the rear tyre was too low for today’s noticeably different conditions and for Q2 he will sand a new set of Barcodes.  In terms of chassis set-up he said he will leave his B5 as is confident the taller pins will give him the extra rear grip he looking for.

Describing the track as ‘slick’, Hollis put his run down the fact he ‘didn’t wreck’.  Running in the B heat, the Oklahoma driver fitted a swing rack steering to his mid motored TLR22 for Q1 which ‘smoothened out the steering’ as well as giving him more turn in.  Asked if he planned to adjust the car for Q2 due to the loose track conditions he said overall he’s happy with how the car is working and the plan is to ‘try get another good one’ in the books.

Denney said after his traffic issues he ‘blew’ it.  Describing his Reedy powered B5 as ‘awesome’, the Arizona driver said the first half of the race was great. Claiming one bobble as his own doing, the 18-year-old said he tried to be patient in traffic but ‘kept getting screwed’.  Adding to his troubles with traffic he said the track changed with the groove being just the width of the car meaning if you had to get out of it you were in trouble in the dust.  For Q2 Denney said the only thing he plans to do is just charge his car adding he hopes he has better luck with the traffic second time round.

Driving an Associated B4 Centro, JConcepts backed Daimon Borkowicz set the fourth fastest time.  Running in the C heat having struggled with set-up in practice, the 13-year-old said heeding set-up advice from Denney had given him a much better car today.  Targeting a Top 5 finish, he said he was pretty happy with his time adding that the change to a stiffer shock set-up really helped.

A ‘Good start’ was how JR Mitch summed up his 5th fastest time for the opening round.  The Team Losi Racing driver said he kept his run consistent although he said by the end of the run the dusty track conditions made his mid motored TLR22 start to get loose by the end of the 5-minutes.  Set to leave everything as is for Q2, he said he just plans to drive a little harder.

Completing the Top 6 was local driver Chris Baumgartner. Also sixth fastest in timed practice he said his prediction that today’s slightly warmer conditions would bring increased traction was ‘completely wrong’.  Driving a B4 Centro, he said he had a lack of rear traction but keeping the run clean he was able to get a decent result.  After chatting with Denney, he said for Q2 he will try a few set-up changes the factory Associated driver suggested.

Setting the 9th fastest time behind Luke Richards and Michael Twilling, Thielke said his B5 was well balanced and smooth to drive but crashes on the first two laps cost him any chance of a good run.  Loosing a further 4-seconds when he tangled with a slower car later in the run, he said as this is the first race weekend for Associated’s new 2WD buggy platform he will make a few adjustments for Q2 adding its important to see how changes affect the car even though in Q1 he was really happy with the car’s performance.

TLR young gun Taylor Larsen, who was 3rd fastest in timed practice, did not have a good start to qualifying, his rear motored TLR22 completing the Top 10.

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