Ronnefalk heads HB 1-2 in first DNC Truggy qualifier

New HB signing David Ronnefalk headed a HB 1-2 in the opening round of qualifying at the Dirt Nitro Challenge in Arizona, the Swede taking his D8T truggy to the fastest time around the Fear Farm track from defending champion & team-mate Ty Tessmann.  Just 2/10ths off Tessmann, TLR’s Ryan Maifield completed the Top 3 with former team-mate & Mugen debutant Adam Drake setting the fourth fastest time, the Top 4 the only drivers to complete 12 laps over the 7-minutes.

His first nitro outing with his new team, Ronnefalk was pleased to kick off proceedings with a TQ run.  Describing it as a clean run he was particular happy with the fact that the run contained ‘no stupid mistakes’.  Running soft compound AKA Grid Iron tyres on his D8T he said his shocks where a little soft but the rest of the set-up was fine. Suffering a bobble on his penultimate lap he said this resulted in the cars steering dying momentarily before coming back.  With everything checking out ok when they got the truggy back to the pits, for Q2 he will fit a new power switch.

Having set the pace in practice and chasing a fourth consecutive DNC Truggy title, Tessman described his first qualifier as ‘alright’.  The Canadian lost time with a crash in the whoops and also felt he lost time early on in the run due to how much they watered the track.  Running Pro-Line X3 Holehots on his D8T he said the truck set-up felt good and the only change for Q2 would be deciding in the right tyre for the conditions of the track, a round taking over 5-hours to complete so plenty of time for the conditions to change.

Maifield said he started off the run a little too conservative but overall described it as an ‘ok’ opening round.  Happier with how he drove over the last few laps, he said his choice of JConcepts Green compound Chaser tyre was a little hard for the conditions and for Q2 the plan for now to go with a softer compound but the biggest improvement would come from ‘not driving like at pussy at the start’.

A driver whose every movements have been the centre of the rc world’s attention since his shock split from TLR, Drake said he just drove ‘super cautious’ as he ‘felt like all eyes where on him’ to see how he would perform at the controls of the Mugen.  While happy to get a fourth for the round, he said he was lacking confidence in his driving leading to a super timid drive.  Suffering one get together with another car he also ‘screwed up’ on his own on the last lap’.  Running Pro-Line X3 Holeshots on his MBX7T, for Q2 he plans to again make a clutch change as well as changing the cars wheel hexes so as to make it more narrow.

Setting the fifth fastest time, Joe Bornhorst ‘played it safe’ and was pleased to put in ‘a clean first round’.  The Tekno driver said the track was a little wet starting out but his AKA Impact tyres came in over the run.  Happy to stick with his tyre choice he said he would obviously have to keep an eye on how the track is looking ahead of Q2.  In terms of his truggy he said he would make a clutch change so as to get better bottom end power from is Alpha engine.

Behind Bornhorst, Tanner Stees made it three HBs in the Top 6 for a team that went from being the smallest team in the pits last year now having a huge presence with a cluster of fresh new tents to house all their new signings.  The 16-year-old said it was a pretty clean run with just one mistake at the end of the back straight.  Running Pro-Line M3 Holeshots on his D8T he intends the run everything as is for Q2.

‘Terrible’ was how Jared Tebo summed up his Q1 run to the 7th fastest time.  The Kyosho driver said his Inferno ST-RR Evo was good but he just ‘drove terrible’.  While he has ‘got to improve (his) driving’, Tebo said with a better bottom end tune on his new Mx engine he had a lot of extra power and he now plans to make a number of chassis set-up changes so as to maximise the potential of the increased power.

‘Make do I guess’ was how Ryan Lutz described posting the 8th fastest time.   Running AKA Impacts on his on Tekno he said they ‘watered the track a little’ and the tyres were the ‘wrong choice for the water’ with it taking 4-minutes for them to come in  Having a little issue with the truggy wanting to come around on the exit of the corner he will make a rear end set-up change for Q2.

Posting the 9th fastest time ahead of last year’s podium double finisher Dakotah Phend, new HB recruit Drew Moller said the run was ‘alright’.  With his D8T pushing at the beginning, he said considering this he was happy that he kept the run clean. For Q2 he will go up in the front diff oil to try to improve steering.

View the event image gallery here.

Video – Buggy Practice Rd1

Tessman opens DNC as he finished in 2014

Although drivers got just a single round of practice on the opening day of the Dirt Nitro Challenge, defending double champion Ty Tessmann picked up from where he finished up the 2014 event by topping the buggy times having earlier in the day set the pace in truggy.  Tessmann set the fastest 3-consecutive laps from Ryan Maifield, the only driver other than the Canadian to win a DNC title since Joey Christensen moved his event to the Fear Farm in 2012, with Ryan Cavalieri completing the Top 3.

The only driver to do all 37-second laps on his fastest 3-consecutive lap time, Tessmann would end up 1.2 seconds faster than Maifield. Describing the run as ‘really good’, the HB driver declared himself ‘really happy’ with both his run and his D812. The Canadian said the track was not as hard as he thought it was going to be with him finding the rhythm section much easier than when he ran his eBuggy earlier in the day. Asked about his set-up he said changes would depend on how the track looks come Friday morning after the Truggies have done their three rounds of qualifying tomorrow but for now its working really good and he has no plans to change anything.

Maifield, who couldn’t break into the 37-second lap times, said his TLR 8ight was good but his Orion engine was ‘not perfect’.  Having plenty of power he said it was set too lean on the top end causing it to run on a couple of times over the jumps. With a better tune for Q1 along with clutch adjustment he said with these ‘it should be fine’ and he was pretty upbeat for Friday.

‘Actually felt really good’ was the reaction of Cavalieri who seemed slightly surprised by his Top 3 pace.  The Associated driver felt he ‘drove better that round’ compared to his truggy and eBuggy outings as the track was no longer fighting him. With his driving getting better and better as the short 6-minute run went on, he said the rhythm section was still where the most work was needed to improve his lap times.

Echoing the feelings of most drivers that getting just one round was practice was ‘crazy’, Cody King took his Kyosho to the 4th fastest time.  Running a brand new MP9, the former World Champion said it got better and better as he put laps on it and he was easily able to run a steady pace.  Having most difficulty at the rhythm section, which is turning out to be the track most important section, he said so far no one is consistent there but with more track time we should start to see drivers develop better lines through it.

Posting the fifth fastest time Tekno’s Ryan Lutz said the buggy ‘needs some changes’.  Running ‘so many new parts’ on the buggy, the one practice makes it hard to gauge how they are all working but he hopes after discussing things with his team he can better the car for Q1.  Feeling his driving has improved since his Truggy run he said he still could ‘really do with a second practice’.

Completing the Top 6, Jared Tebo said while he did no have as many clean laps as he would like to have had the run was ‘pretty good’.  Really happy with his new MX engined MP9, he said he didn’t watch enough of the heats prior to his and he lost out on seeing that compared to earlier in the day it was possible to run much harder.

Setting the fastest lap of the round, HB’s 16-year-old future prospect Tanner Stees would post the 7th fastest time.  Describing his OS powered D812 as safe to drive the Arizona driver was pleased with how he drove and his lack of mistakes.  He added his worst spot on the track was the step down after the woops section where he is running to the outside and getting his buggy up on two wheels with this something he needs to work on his qualifying.  Unfortunately for Stees’ fellow teenage HB team-mate, David Ronnefalk, his buggy practice would be very short lived as the Orion engine in his D812 moved after just one lap.

Behind Stees, Carson Wernimont would record the 8th fastest time.  Initially describing the run as ‘decent’ he went on to elaborate that he ‘kind of drove like shit’.  The 18-year-old said it took him a little bit to get his timing on the jumps right but in terms of his prototype RC8 set-up he said its very nearly there with just is a couple of changes needed for Friday.

Another driver to feel his driving let down a ‘decent run’ was Barry Pettit.  The Mugen driver said he made too many mistakes, with his timing on the jumps needing work.  Describing his MBX7R as having ‘a lot of traction’, he said for Friday he will need to take some steering away so as to make it easier to drive.  Behind Pettit, new team-mate Adam Drake completed the Top 10.

View the event image gallery here.