Maifield wins exciting DNC Buggy final

Ryan Maifield has won the big one at this year’s 16th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge.  The TLR driver would claim his 2nd buggy title at the Fear Farm but more significantly his first big nitro win for his new manufacturer when on the penultimate lap of the exciting 45-minute A-Main he got ahead of former team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  A race that saw four different leaders, Maifield went to the front ahead of defending champion Ty Tessmann 4-minutes in until a mistake at the 10-minute mark would drop him to third.  His challenge then looked to be over as he fell further down the order to sixth.  A driver famed for his late charges, the Arizona ace never gave up and as a gusting wind added to the challenges of the tough track conditions in the closing stages, Maifield was there to capitalise to take his second major title of the new season having last month claimed his first ever Reedy Race of Champions win.  Unfortunately for the stars of last night’s epic Truggy final Tessmann and new champion David Ronnefalk their races would hit trouble.  Holding a comfortable lead with just 8-minutes to go Tessmann would suffer a problem with his battery connector and losing over a minute in the pits fixing it the World Champion would be leaving with no titles this year finishing up 7th overall.  Trying to recover from a frantic start, Ronnefalk would twice run out of fuel after communication issues with his pit crew.  With Maifield and Cavalieri  separated by just 0.684, joining them on the podium would be the other of America’s offroad establishment trio Jared Tebo.  Leading a total of close on 1/3 of the race, Dakotah Phend would just miss out the podium by half a second, the wind being the downfall to the 18-year-old’s quest for a first DNC title.

A home race for the Arizona ace with his victory proving a popular one, Maifield said ‘to win buggy class was all the more sweeter after the bad luck of the World Championship’.  Describing the Main as ‘a really fun race’ he said he enjoyed his battles with both Tessmann and Tebo.  Making contact with Tessmann as they fought over the lead, he said ‘I got into Ty but it was just racing and I let him go’ back into position adding it was a ‘bummer’ the Canadian had a problem with his car.  Also describing TLR/Orion team-mate Phend as ‘super fast’, Maifield said when he dropped down the order he ‘kept the head down’ knowing anything can happy in ‘these crazy ass races’.  Admitting that while luck ‘sure didn’t at the beginning, it fell (his) way at the end’.  Asked about the significance of his first big TLR nitro win, he said ‘I stepped into a great progamme and that’s why I wanted to work with them’.  Running JConcept’s blue compound Diamond Bar tyres on his 8ight, he said going into the race the mileage from his Orion engine was ‘questionable’ but leaning it out ‘quite a bit’ he ‘throttle drove it’ allowing him to go 9-minutes between stops.

Cavalieri said the ‘start was really aggressive’ and he ‘got shuffled around quite a bit’ but once he settled-in the race went good for him.  A former champion, but never at the Fear Farm, the Associated driver said after moving to the front when Tessmann hit problems he tried to drive a conservative ending but the wind was ‘gnarly’ causing him to have a bobble that would drop him behind Maifield.  Trying to put pressure on Maifield he said his great rival ‘didn’t make that mistake’ he needed to go back to the front.  Running AE’s RC8 Prototype chassis and having made the switch to MX engines, he said the result is a good start to the new year .

Double winner of the 2011 DNC held at the Nitro Pit, Tebo said he ‘so badly wanted to get a podium’ and overall he was very happy with the result having started out 9th on the grid.  Describing his new MX engine powered MP9 as feeling great in the final, he said ‘a couple too many crashes’ cost him a chance at challenging for the win.  Running AKA’s super soft Grid Iron tyre, the Truggy Top Qualifier, who on Saturday night missed the podium, said they were great and that is what he should have run in Truggy.  Packing up after 5 long days at the track, Tebo said he was leaving Phoenix ‘happy’ having been able to fight for the win in all three classes.

Having claimed podium finishes in all three Pro classes at last year’s DNC, there would be no podium celebrations this time round for Phend.  The 18-year-old, who had an extra stop over his rivals as he ran  7:30 fuel intervals, said the race started off well as he made a good start and was part of the group of 8 cars that where covered by 5-seconds after 15-minutes of racing.  With himself and Tessmann eventually able to pull clear, when the latter hit trouble it left him with a few seconds lead over Cavalieri.  However then the wind arrived and catching his 8ight badly a few times he would relinquish his position.  Describing his car which was running on Pro-Line M3 Lockdowns as ‘awesome’, despite no podium finish he said he was happy with how he drove as he did everything he could and came close to pulling off the win.

A driver whom has become expected to dominate at least one nitro class at Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s event, Tessmann said things were a little sketchy at the start.  With the track breaking up there were holes coming onto the straight which he couldn’t see and he didn’t know were to go to avoid them causing his D815 to get out of shape numerous times one of the moments handing Maifield his earlier lead.  After getting passed Phend, Tessmann was about to pull away slightly with ‘the race going as expected’ before the car unplugged itself. Rejoining after his issue he would finish 7th overall.

The first European to win a nitro title at the DNC,  Ronnefalk said it was ‘probably the worst start (he) had ever seen’.  Describing it as ‘a big mess’, the Swede felt he came off worst out of it dropping from 4th on the grid to the tail end of the 15 car field.  Unfortunately this would be the least of his problems in the race as the call for his first stop was made just as he passed the entry to pitlane and the extra lap left him to run dry.  Posting the fastest lap of the final, the 2 time European Champion would run out of fuel again on his next stop.

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Wernimont, Wheeler & Rivkin complete A-Main grid

The grid that will decide the winner of the 16th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge is complete with Carson Wernimont, Josh Wheeler and Spencer Rivkin bumping up from the B-Main to completed the 15 car grid.  Initially it was former champion & pole sitter Mike Truhe who led the way before a bobble at the whoops, a section that would catch out every driver over the 30-minutes, would allow the Tekno RC of Joe Bornhorst to get by the Serpent.  Leading till the first round of refuelling, unfortunately for Bornhorst he would suffer a flame out in during his stop.   This promoted Adam Drake to the front but it would be short lived as he lost a wheel off his Mugen due to an issue with a wheel nut, rejoining the race out of contention with a new nut the issue would strike for a second time.  With 20-minutes to go Truhe was back at the front but again he would give it away through an error with Wheeler going briefly to the front and then Team Associated’s Tanner Denney. All the time Wernimont, who having bumped up from the C-Main was working his way to the front and setting the fastest lap once he took over the lead he stayed there to the end followed by Wheeler’s Xray and 16-year-old Rivkin who will make his first A-Main start at the DNC.  Truhe would miss the cut finishing fourth 2.7 seconds back on Rivkin.

Qualifying 27th after a combination of ‘poor driving’ and an engine cut in one of the three rounds, new Team Associated signing Wernimont was very happy with his B-Main performance.  Changing a ‘bunch of stuff’ for the C-Main which made his RC8 Prototype ‘decent’, he said further changes for the B-Main made for a ‘big turn around’ in performance with the 18-year-old declaring he thinks ‘the car can now even run at the front in the A-Main’.  Commenting on the track conditions, the Joey Christensen built track coming towards the end of being punished for 5-days by a record 800 plus entry, Wernimont said ‘a couple of areas are getting hairy’ and ‘you have got to choose your lines carefully’ but is he feeling pretty positive for the 45-minute encounter.

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Video – Truggy A-Main Final

Ronnefalk wins DNC Truggy title after epic HB duel

David Ronnefalk is the Truggy Champion of the 16th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the Swede becoming the first European to win the title after an epic duel with HB team-mate & outgoing 4-time champion Ty Tessmann.  The class of the field, the new for 2015 team-mates would put on a show for the crowd who lined the perimeter of the Fear Farm track as they battled over the lead.  Unfortunately with 2-minutes to go Tessmann’s D8T would start to act up with the culprit becoming clear when the front left arm finally let go.  Despite a wheel hanging off his truggy, the Canadian would manage to nurse it home in second for a HB 1-2.  Three seconds back, TLR’s Ryan Maifield would complete the podium with Top Qualifier Jared Tebo ending the 45-minute encounter in fourth.

With the DNC marking back to back European Buggy Champion Ronnefalk’s first nitro outing with HB after his departure from long time sponsor Kyosho, the 18-year-old was understandably delighted to win his first nitro title having won eBuggy last year.  Describing his battle with Tessmann as ‘awesome’, he said he knew his AKA shod D8T was going to be amazing but that his strategy would involve one more fuel stop and staying out of trouble was going to be key to a good race.  Leading the race he would have one moment when he came to lap Barry Pettit and Austin Blair, him making contact with Blair’s S-Workz in the back triple double.  While this would cost him the lead to Tessmann luckily his truggy stayed on its wheels with Ronnefalk saying afterwards the incident could have had a very different outcome if it had went on its roof.  Running a seven & a half minute fuel strategy, with 15-minutes to go he would suffer a terrible penultimate stop. Catching a hole on the entry to the pitlane he would catch the piping for a slow entry and then on the exit he would spin out as he ‘hit a guy’s foot’ after which he ‘thought it was over’.  ‘(Pushing) like hell’ he said a few bobbles from Tessmann allowed him to catch him back up.  While they would come together a few times, many industry onlookers describing it as one of the best battles they had ever seen, Ronnefalk said ‘we each waited and it was a fair battle’.

Chasing a fourth consecutive truggy title, him being the only driver prior to Ronnefalks win to be crowned Truggy champion at the Fear Farm, Tessmann was disappointed he didn’t get to see out the battle with his team-mate.  Having problems twice turning in to the whoops section, the 21-year-old said he initially thought it was a servo problem but it was the breaking arm catching the wheel.  Figuring out at the first round of refuelling that Ronnefalk was on an extra stop Tessmann said he knew he had the benefit and it was all going as planned until he steering started to act up.  Enjoying his battle with Ronnefalk he said given the arm failure he was happy to come away with second.  Describing the track as ‘pretty gnarly’ he said tomorrow, when he will try to defend his buggy title from the TQ starting position, is going to be a ‘very difficult race’.

His first DNC outing with Team Losi Racing, Maifield said all in all he thought the race went pretty well.  ‘Close at the beginning’, running in the lead pack, he said he fell back due to having to stop on seven & half minute intervals.  Describing 8ight-T as super loose, it lacking side bite, he said ‘considering the truck was not working at it best’ and his time lost due to fuel strategy he was happy to end up with a podium.

Doing the double at the 2011 DNC before it moved to its current home, Tebo who led for the first 5-minutes said ‘it was really fun at the beginning but once the two HB got by I struggled with a lack of corner speed’.  Going back to the lead for a while at the first round of pit stops he said ‘I drove the best I could but we need some updates for our truck as it doesn’t carry corner speed’.

Putting together a very late deal to contest The Dirt Nitro Challenge with Mugen, Adam Drake would end the race 5th, a result the hugely popular 1:8 offroad icon would described as a ‘solid finish’.  Feeling that halfway into the race he was catching Tebo but he said he threw away the chance to battle with him him for the fourth place with ‘two stupid mistakes coming into the pits’.  Although he ‘got (his rhythm) back’ he said he had dropped to far back to do anything about Tebo.  Describing his MBX7T, Novarossi engine and Pro-Line tyres as having all been ‘good’ for the final, he added he is still learning every time he goes out and he is ‘happy to be learning moving forward’.

Completing the Top 6 was Ryan Lutz.  Another driver running for a different team 12-months ago, he said his truggy ‘felt like it was slipping the whole time’.  With his Tekno ‘handling well’ he just kept it going around for the 45-minutes although he thought his race was done after 4-laps.  On the front double double he ‘horrifically’ collided with another truggy with him thinking his NT48 ‘was smashed up’ but it wasn’t and he kept going. Behind Lutz, last year’s runner up Barry Pettit would finish 7th followed by Top Associated finisher Carson Wernimont, his AE team-mate Ryan Cavalieri retiring from the race with a broken truggy.

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