February 18, 2016

Chassis Focus – Ryan Maifield

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Chassis – TLR 8ight-T 4.0
Engine – Reds R5 Team
Tyres – JConcepts Reflex green
Fuel – Sidewinder
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts Finnisher

Remarks – Having been testing the all new 8ight-T 4.0 from TLR for a few months now, Ryan Maifield already has a base setup for the car in these conditions. The car, which is 11mm narrower than its predecessor, has only had some minor changes made to its setup with the Arizona native using softer springs front and rear. A result of the new driveline being straighter than the 3.0 he has had to go up in the centre diff oil from 10K to 15K to get more drive to the rear wheels.

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February 18, 2016

Chassis Focus – Ryan Cavalieri

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Chassis – Associated RC8T3
Engine – MX B2R
Tyres – AKA Grid Iron soft
Fuel – MX Racing Fuel
Radio/Servos – Airtronics
Body – Kit body

Remarks – Ryan Cavalieri is making his race debut with the newly released RC8T3 from Team Associated and took the top spot after seeding. Essentially the final kit car he has opted to used Factory Team rear aluminium hubs and because the car is underweight is using 100 grams of weight in the rear of the car. Arriving with a base setup on his car he has mostly made changes to the roll centres and damper oil changes to compensate for the higher temps in Arizona.

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February 18, 2016

Chassis Focus – Ryan Lutz

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Chassis – Tekno RC NT48.3
Engine – Alpha Plus Dragon 3
Tyres – AKA Grid Iron soft
Fuel – Byron Fuels
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Body – Kit body

Remarks – Running the kit standard truggy from Tekno Ryan Lutz started practice with the same setup he used at the US Open race at this same track back in November. Back then the track was smoother so he has made the diffs a little lighter to handle the bumps better and to compensate for the heat he has run slight stiffer oil. Other changes include using the 1 stop stiffer than kit springs all round and for aesthetics Ryan likes to use the version 2 rear wing mount which is slight taller than the latest version.

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February 18, 2016

Track Focus – Dirt Nitro Challenge (Fear Farm)

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Track Name – Fear Farm
Organiser – Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen
Country – USA
Location – Phoenix, Arizona
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous DNC hosted – 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015

The Fear Farm, so named after the themed haunted house that is located on the grounds of this large sports complex, plays host to its 5th Dirt Nitro Challenge with this being the 17th running of the Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s signature event.  Having based previous builds on a theme which in the past have included ‘Burm’ and ‘Triples’, Joey has themed this year’s track ‘Dub Step’, the key feature being two big step ups.  With Joey’s normal signature of being ‘big jumps’, this year he said he has gone for a more European style track and rather than move dirt to create big jumps he has more went with the natural elevations that exists from previous track builds.  Describing it as fast he has focused on more sweeping corners in combination with the elevation changes.  He is particularly proud of his two ‘flat lanes’ in the centre of the track which he said ‘is unusual for (him)’ but planning to use this as the starting grid, 10 cars on one lane and 5 on the other, he said this should make qualifying more important.  Describing the overall look of the layout as ‘not intimidating’, he said initial feedback from drivers was that it ‘looks easy’ to which he replied ‘ovals look easy too but its not easy to win in Nascar’.

Defending DNC Buggy Champion Ryan Maifield said the ‘layout is cool’.  The TLR driver said the surface is already super gnarly making the it ‘pretty technical’.  A super hot day in Phoenix yesterday, the Arizona native said the dirt which is old farming soil needs a lot of water to bind together and rain prior to the event is usual a big bonus but that didn’t happen and only having a water truck to wet the track yesterday in the hot temperature the single round of practice has already taken a toll on the surface.  He added that with the surface as it is it is good that the track is not as ‘crazy’ as previous years in terms of the layout.  He said the double after the finish line dropdown is one area he is finding a little tricky due to its position from the drivers stand but pointing to the double straight section he said ‘the flow of this centre section is rad’.

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July 11, 2015

Boots finally comes good to win EC title

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Elliott Boots is the 2015 1:8 Offroad European Champion, the driver renowned for his outright speed finally coming good to claim the first major title of his career.  Top Qualifier at the 35th running of the championships, the Kyosho driver would end the reign of former team-mate David Ronnefalk by leading home the HB driver by almost half a lap of the Ongaroring.  In front of a hugely supportive Italian crowd Alex Zanchettin would complete the podium in Sacile ahead of home hero Davide Ongaro.  Unfortunately for Ongaro’s Mugen team-mate Robert Batlle his race would end before it had even started when his front centre driveshaft came out during the final countdown to the cars being put down on the grid.

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Finding his first big title ‘quite emotional’ and struggling to hold back ‘tears of joy’, Boots said he was ‘unbelievably happy’ as he has ‘never won anything like it before’.  Top Qualifier at the 2012 World Championships, but failing to make it into the Main in Argentina, Boots came into the event with a new approach saying he has been working on his consistency and being ‘less erratic’.  Describing beating Ronnefalk as a ‘surreal feeling’, the 22-year-old said ‘no mistake basically’ was the key his victory.  Starting 3rd on the grid behind Ronnefalk and Ongaro, he said he knew he needed to stay with Ronnefalk at the start as ‘its when he gets away that he is dangerous’.  Admitting Ronnefalk was able to pull away slightly he said he just kept at it and when the leader made mistakes he was able to catch back up.  Not realising Ronnefalk was on one stop less he said his pit crew of Michael Cradock and Marco Rossi did a superb job of updating him and talking him through the race.  Giving Kyosho their third consecutive Euros title, the win marks the first title for Reds Racing, the Italian engine being the dominant brand of the event.

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Ronnefalk said he wasn’t disappointed with second.  His first year into a four year contract with HB/HPI Racing, he said ‘I’m still learning and every race is a new experience but we will be stronger next year for it’.  The 19-year-old said he felt overall the pace was there and had he ran a clean race it would have been a very close finish.  Having not had the right compound of the AKA City Block front and iBeam rear he had used in qualifying available to him for the final he said having run Impacts in Q5 knew they should be ok.  Running the new ‘long wear’ soft compound he said they proved to be a little slower and around 20-minutes got soft making his car twitchy to drive leading to mistakes.  Initially stopping for fuel at 6:40, he said with Boots having a little more speed they switched to 7:30 to make up the time by saving a stop.  With his Orion powered D815 coming to an abrupt stop on a landing at the back left corner of the track due to a rock and ending up on its roof this negated much of the benefits of the long runs but Ronnefalk said while risky it still helped him to stay ahead of Zanchettin for second.

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With this his first time to make the final at the Euros, 2014 World Championship finalist Zanchettin was delighted to finish on the podium a result that got him a huge cheer as he took the chequered flag.  Describing the race as ‘amazing’, he said while it was great racing in front of a home crowd, just like at the Worlds, it also brought a lot of pressure.  Starting the race undecided on whether to stop at 9 minutes or 7:30 he said when he saw others stopping at 7 he went safe. Suffering ‘two really bad mistakes’, the 20-year-old Italian Champion said his Reds Racing powered 8ight 3.0 was ‘really good’.  A late push would see him close in on Ronnefalk until a mistake on the last lap.

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Managing to snatch the lead just as the field came around to complete the first lap, Ongaro said while the result could have been better finishing fourth was still a great result.  Admitting the crowd played a bit on his mind over the race, ever pass or bobble he made getting a huge reaction from the packed grandstand, the 14-year-old said a couple of mistakes cost him time that he couldn’t recover.  Pleased to be in the mix with ‘some of the best in the business’ he said overall it was a great week for him.

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Setting the fastest lap of the 45-minute final Joern Neumann would finish 5th ahead of another of Italy’s emerging talents Riccardo Berton.  The Serpent driver had a ‘pretty bad start’, a crash losing him half a lap and dropping him to last.  Describing his Maxima powered S811 as running ‘perfect’, the German said after that it was a good race and he was able to work his way back up to the front.  While happy with his driver’s race, Neumann’s pitlane & Serpent designer Gerd Strenge was frustrated about having his Pro-Line fuel gun ‘robbed’ at the end of yesterday’s qualifying.  With all the guns individually number Strenge said he hopes who ever took it will return it to its rightful owner.

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