‘From Race Control’ – Day 4 Truggy/eBuggy Mains

It is the penultimate day of action at the 15th Annual Dirt Nitro Challenge with today the day that the Truggy and eBuggy champions will be crowned. With 28 Mains on the schedule, the big races are Race 25, the 8-minute eBuggy A-Main, and Race 28, the 45-minute Truggy Main which will see Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann vie for three in a row at the Fear Farm. To allow the 12-direct qualifiers gauge the track conditions they can expect for tonight’s main event following Race 18, A-Main drivers will get a 10-minute warm-up.  15 cars will start the title deciding races with 3 drivers set to bump up from the 20-minute Truggy and 8-minute eBuggy B-Mains.

Tebo tops final qualifier at DNC

Last year’s Dirt Nitro Challenge Top Qualifier Jared Tebo finished off a long day of buggy qualifying with a TQ run, the Kyosho driver posting the fastest time of the day in Q3 to finish almost six seconds clear of Ty Tessmann who was in turn one second faster than Cody King. The result means Tebo lines up 3rd on the gird for the 45-minute final on Sunday behind Tessmann and Dakotah Phend who secured the overall TQ in the second round of qualifying. Having finished 1-2 in Q2, it was a troubled final heat for Phend and Carson Wernimont as both drivers suffered engine cuts.

In contention for a clean sweep of the heats setting the fastest lap of the round, coming up on the 4 minute-mark Phend rolled his TLR causing the engine to cut. While TLR team-manager Kevin Gahan tried to restart it, it failed to fire back up. Wernimont’s engine would also cut after a roll but the Mugen driver in this case was able to get the engine fired back up albeit just to finish out the run and use the track time to test tyres for the final which he will start 5th.

The biggest news of the third qualifier was that of defending champion Ryan Maifield. Running in the C heat, the Associated driver had a tough run with his prototype RC8 finishing behind Xray’s Tyler Vik with a time that was only good enough for 16th in the round. With a DNF in Q1, Maifield missed the cut by one spot ending up 13th overall meaning he will have to rely on working his way up from the B-Main.

Buggy A-Main Grid (3 to bump up from B-Main)
1. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 0 pts
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 6
3. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 7
4. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 7
5. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 8
6. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 9
7. Barry Pettit – Mugen/OS Speed – 11
8. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 13
9. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 15
10.Taylor Petersen – Mugen/Novarossi – 17
11.Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB – 17
12.Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 20

View our event image gallery here.

Q3 Buggy Qualifying times (Top 12)

1. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 10/7:33.897
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 10/7:39.789
3. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 10/7:40.754
4. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 10/7:43.211
5. Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB – 10/7:50.036
6. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 10/7:54.214
7. Barry Pettit – Mugen/OS Speed – 9/7:00.867
8. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 9/7:01.840
9. Mark Pavidis – TLR/OS Speed – 9/7:02.247
10.Drew Moller – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/7:02.962
11.Tyler Vik – Xray/FX – 9/7:03.220
12.Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 9/7:03.664