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Maifield last lap win from champion Tessmann
Ryan Maifield snatched a last lap eBuggy victory over defending champion Ty Tessmann at the Dirt Nitro Challenge to successfully convert the first of the three TQ starts the TLR driver has secured this weekend at the Fear Farm. Leading the first 3-minutes of the race, a mistake by Maifield at the second step up would hand team-mate Dakotah Phend a lead. Starting 7th on the grid, the 19-year-old would only stay out front for a lap before he crashed coming into the right side triple. Allowing Tessmann to the front the Canadian looked like he would successfully defend his title as Maifield trying to put a pass on his team-mate at the berm caused the two cars to tangle. But with a lap to go the race would come alive as Maifield caught a slowing Tessmann making contact with the HB twice before the World Champion got out of shape allowing Maifield through for the win into the final corner. While further crashes would drop Phend back to 7th, a recovering Ryan Cavalieri who started third would complete the podium for Team Associated.
With the crowd appreciative of the exciting finish, Maifield was ‘stoked’ to add his first DNC eBuggy title saying the track conditions were ‘really crazy’. ‘Super tense’ early on in the race, the Arizona driver said couldn’t find his rhythm adding this was compounded by the electric buggies having ‘so much fricken power’. Describing his error on the left side step as ‘retarded’, he said he was searching all over for the right line through the difficult section and once he started using the far end side his 8ight 4.0 was dialled, as highlighted by his penultimate lap on which he set the fastest lap of the race. Catching Tessmann, who he said drove a good race’, Maifield said ‘While I didn’t set out to get into him it was the last lap and we had a big enough gap over third so I went for it. When we did hit I let him go. Then he cased the step-up and I could get by. Describing the race as ‘intense’ he said his car and electrics where dialled adding he ‘had plenty of battery left’.
Running two short packs in his Orion powered D815, Tessmann said the race was the best his car has been but he knew because of his batteries he had to drive more conservatively than before. However at the end his power started to fade with him having a cut out at the step-up leading to his late error. Declaring himself happy with how he drove he added ‘it just wasn’t to be’ but after his performance he said ‘Truggy will be good’. Commenting on the two incidents with Maifield, he said ‘he bonzai’d me. The first time it back fired and he took out Dakotah but he got me with the second one’.
Getting passed Tessmann on lap 1 before settling into third, Cavalieri said his race started off good until he crashed at the step up. Dropping back to 7th, he said with ‘bobbles from a few guys in front’ helped him make his way back to third and he was able to ‘hold on to it’ until the end. Behind Cavalieri, 2014 Champion David Ronnefalk would finish 4th the HB driver having held a podium placing before a mistake with 2-minutes to go. Tekno’s Joe Bornhorst and Kyosho’s Jared Tebo completed the Top 6.
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Denney, Rivkin & Savoya complete DNC Truggy grid
The 15 drivers who will battle it out to become the Truggy Champion at the 17th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge tonight is complete. With the B-Main offering the Top 3 a place on the back of the A-Main grid, it was pole sitter Tanner Denney who controlled the 30-minute encounter from start to finish, the new TLR signing winning by 6.5-seconds from former team-mate Spencer Rivkin and TLR’s other new recruit Renaud Savoya. Finishing 4th, the 2013 Top Qualifier Adam Drake will for the first time since the DNC moved to the Fear Farm not be on the grid for the main event. It was a disappointing race too for Drake’s Mugen team-mate Barry Pettit, running a competitive 3rd just after the 10-minute mark last year’s direct A-Main qualifier would suffer a plug failure.
Booking his first DNC Truggy A-Main start, Denney said ‘I started 1st, drove smooth and didn’t make any mistake other than just one bobble so it was a good race’. Running Pro-Line X3 Holeshots on his 8ight-T 4.0, he said ‘it got sketchy towards the end allowing Spencer to catch me but I was putting around’. His first race with Reds Racing and fitting a new engine for the final, the 20-year-old said it ran great despite having only two tanks on it before the race.
Not happy with his own performance over the race, Team Associated’s Rivkin said ‘I made a few driver errors and didn’t drive very well but I still bumped up which was the main thing and now I have a chance to win the A-Main’. Running blue compound JConcepts Reflex tyres on his RC8T3, the 17-year-old said his truck ‘was good’ but he plans to make a few changes ‘right before the Main’ for the cooler conditions, the B-Main running in what are distinctly much hotter conditions than those experienced in qualifying.
Finishing just 3/10ths off Rivkin, Savoya described his race as ‘great’. The Frenchman, who was a buggy podium finisher in 2014, started from 8th on the grid said he found his race form after switching to a JConcepts Silencer body for the final. Struggling with a lack of steering in qualifying, he said his RC Concept powered 8ight-T 4.0 now had extra steering in the 180 corners which allowed him to be competitive. It was ‘the best feeling (he had) with the truck’ but due to his starting position he struggled to get the full benefit of the new found pace saying ‘driving in the middle of the pack was tough’. Getting some clear track he would close on the leaders over the final 10-minutes but with Drake 15-seconds behind and it being ‘fricking fast at the front’ he settled for the final bump position on what he added were difficult conditions due to the track and the heat.
In the eBuggy B-Main, Drake would win the 10-minute encounter comfortably ahead of pole starter Steven Harris who had a close battle with Mark Sousa with all three Mugens progressing to the Main event. While he would set the fastest lap of the final, new Mugen signing Mike Truhe, who qualified directly for the Truggy A-Main, would miss the cut finishing fourth 2.7-seconds back on Sousa.
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Maifield completes clean sweep of eBuggy
Having wrapped up the overall TQ in eBuggy in the second round of qualifying at the DNC, Ryan Maifield completed a clean sweep of the electric class when he made it three of out three in the third & final qualifier. Heading a TLR 1,2 in Q3, Maifield would top the times by a massive 6.3-seconds from team-mate Dakotah Phend with Tekno’s star of the day Joe Bornhorst completing the Top 3. In terms of the grid line-up, behind Maifield it will be reigning champion Ty Tessmann who will start second followed by Ryan Cavalieri, Bornhorst and Phend. The DNC’s first ever European winner David Ronnefalk, who claimed the eBuggy title in 2014 will start 7th behind Spencer Rivkin and ahead of Ryan Lutz.
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Maifield e-Buggy Top Qualifier at DNC
Ryan Maifield is the e-Buggy Top Qualifier at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the Team Losi Racing ace backing up his Q1 performance with another TQ in the second qualifier to wrap things up early at the Phoenix, Arizona, event. Again setting the pace from reigning champion & last year’s Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann, the gap this time round was a reduced 2-seconds. Fifth in the opening qualifier, Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri would set the third fastest time followed by former champion David Ronnefalk, Joe Bornhorst and Spencer Rivkin, the latter losing time with a big mistake over the 7-minutes.
Pleased to notch up his first TQ of what is a home race for the Arizona driver, Maifield said ‘(he) got a little tight at the end (of the qualifier)’ adding ‘leading a race is different as you can see where you’re at compared to the other drivers. In terms of his Orion powered buggy, he described it as ‘easy to drive’ adding ‘it floats over the bumps really well’ with the ‘power band also really nice’. Having been using eBuggy to gather tyre data for tomorrow’s nitro buggy qualifying, the defending Buggy Champion said he knows already from the two qualifiers what tyre he will use and so while he will run the final qualifier he doesn’t really have any changes or different tyres he needs to test.
Tessmann said a set-up change on his D815 left him with a better car but opting for a softer compound Pro-Line tyre this was not as good. For Q3 the World Champion said unless track conditions get worse he doesn’t need to do anything to the car and it would be just down to selecting the right tyre compound, it set to be much cooler than in the first two rounds.
Describing his P3 as ‘a solid run for eBuggy’, Cavalieri said his second qualifier ‘went great’. Making a rear sway-bar change on his RC8B3e, he said this made it ‘a lot better to drive’ with the buggy having ‘good speed’. Suffering ‘one little mistake at the beginning that lost him around a second he said he was able to ‘bounce back’ from that and planning a few more set-up changes for Q3 he is confident there is more to come.
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Maifield take Q1 of eBuggy
Ryan Maifield topped the opening round of eBuggy qualifying at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the TLR driver heading the times from reigning champion Ty Tessmann. Behind them 2WD Buggy World Champion Spencer Rivkin, who found himself in the C heat after a troubled practice yesterday, would complete the Top 3 followed by Ryan Lutz, Ryan Cavalieri and 2014 Champion David Ronnefalk.
Runner-up last year to Tessmann having started the final from 10th on the grid, Maifield said ‘overall the car is good’ but added he made things a little more difficult for himself immediately after taking the start when he crashed on the step down. Having to ‘buckle down’ after the error he said while he ‘had to push a little’ he was able to recover from the lost time and open with a TQ run. While eBuggy is one DNC title he hasn’t held before, it is clear that the Arizona drivers main focus is on defending his Nitro Buggy title with him saying for Q2 he ‘might play around with tyres to learn for tomorrow’, tomorrow’s action being qualifying for nitro Buggy.
Finishing 3.483 seconds off Maifield’s pace, HB’s Tessmann said his D815 was ‘better than yesterday’ but added in terms of the set-up he was ‘still working on it’. Suffering one spin out over the 7-minutes, the only driver who has been crowned champion in all three DNC classes said he is looking to ‘make (the buggy) more stable at high speed’.
‘Better than expected’ was how Rivkin summed up his opening qualifier which was just 1/10th off Tessmann. The Team Associated driver said ‘yesterday the car wasn’t my friend but we made a few changes this morning and it seems the right way to go’. Seeded in the 3rd fastest heat due to his bad set-up yesterday, the 17-year-old said running in such a heat he didn’t know how well he was going but planning to leave the car unchanged he will ‘try to do the same again in the next one’.
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