Tessmann top Truggy seed at US Nationals
Ty Tessmann will be the top Truggy seed when qualifying for the US National Championships gets underway at Thornhill Racing Circuit in Texas tomorrow. The factory HB driver and defending champion ended the seeding day top of the time sheets thanks to his opening run, with the second only netting the Canadian a fourth. After a DQ in the first practice, Ryan Lutz took his Durango to the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the final practice to end the seeding second overall. Although he couldn’t improve on his morning pace having posted the second fastest time, Serpent’s Mike Truhe completed the final Top 3 of the seeding.
Chasing a hat trick of National Truggy titles this week, Tessmann described conditions as ‘loose but controllable’. Describing the increasingly polished track as ‘a little skatey’, he said he second time round he had to brake earlier and was unable to get on the power as early as in the morning. Running Proline Holeshot X2 tyres on his own version of the D8T he said for tomorrow he will play around with ‘tyre stuff’ adding a lot was going to depend on how much watering the track was going to get between now and the morning.
Having had his first time disallowed after being declared under weight, Lutz said he had ‘some fun chucking’ his truck around with him ‘drifting it like the old days’. Leaving the truck the same as he ran it in the morning, he said he felt really comfortable with drifting it around and the approach ‘worked for (him)’. Happy with where his truck’s performance is at, he said after ‘having a bit of fun’ with it he will refresh all the oils in preparation for Q1.
Running his set of Pro-Line Holeshot X2 tyres for a second time Truhe said that left him struggling but overall he feels he has a ‘solid’ truck for qualifying. Happy with the feel of the TOP powered 811T he said he has a few changes he would still like to try in his mind but for Q1 he will stick with what he has and wait to see where the pace is at, all the title contenders set to run in similar track conditions having been spread out across all the heats during practice.
Setting the second fastest time of the second practice, Mugen’s Carson Wernimont ended the seeding 4th overall. The 17-year-old described his latest run as ‘not too shabby’ saying having changed nothing from the morning he ‘just drove it better’. Suffering a little traffic early on he was ‘able to get couple of clear laps at the end.’ Feeling he has a good base line for qualifying he added that he didn’t feel on the edge with the truck implying there is still a bit more to be got from his AKA shod MBX7T.
Despite improving his pace in the second practice, setting the third fastest time, TLR’s Dakotah Phend would drop one place in the final seeding to 5th. The 17-year-old wasn’t too concerned saying the seeding was ‘not really too important’ and the main thing was that he was ‘comfortable’ with the feel of his Orion powered 8ight. With ‘everything working good’ he said for the opening qualifier he will leave all as is.
Making it six different brands of chassis in the Top 6, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield was another to have his opening run time counted in the final seeding. With the ‘track slower’, Truggy’s most crowned champion said running the same set of JConcepts tyres for a second time was ‘not great’ and switching to a thicker rear sway bar he said he didn’t like it. While he believes he can’t compete with Tessmann he does feel he has a Top 5 car and for Q1 he will revert to the set-up he ran in the first seeding practice which netted him the 3rd fastest time.
Securing 7th in the seeding, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo was pleased with his first run on an unwatered track. Setting the fifth fastest time of the second practice, he said the truck is good and he just needs to drive it a little harder. In the square 180 corners he said he is making it into two corners rather than punching it and power sliding the truck around, something he said he will do tomorrow.
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