Phend rolls his way to Buggy TQ at US Nats

Dakotah Phend literally rolled his way to becoming Top Qualifier at this year’s US National Championship taking the third qualifier at Thornhill Racing Circuit despite running out of fuel coming out of the final corner.  Benefiting from the hill off the last corner’s step down, the Team Losi Racing star would take the penultimate qualifier from Q1 pace setter Ty Tessmann by 1.255 seconds, the HB driver himself having problems with a late mistake.  With the tie-breaker being the combined times of the two best runs, even if Tessmann was to take the final qualifier his running out of fuel in Q1 which cost him from going 10 laps means Phends two 10-lap TQ runs can’t be beaten.  Behind the two early title favourites, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield backed up his Q2 performance by again completing the Top 3.

‘That was a crazy qualifier’ was how Phend summed up the run that sees the 17-year-old Top Qualifier of the premiere class for a second year in succession.  After a ‘rough first lap’ and not getting into his groove right away, the Michigan driver said for the rest of the run he ‘just drove the best (he) could’.  Describing his 8ight as ‘really good’ he could not believe it when the engine cut 5ft before the line but thankfully he was able to roll it across the line to complete that all important 10th lap.   Asked about the short coming in fuel for his Orion engine, he put it down to the pace being so high and as a result the buggy spinning its tyres alot more.  Having TQ’d last year, also in Texas, he said it was ‘awesome’ to repeat the result adding for the Semi Finals his approach would be to make a ‘smooth start’.  Last year in Houston, the talented driver who is in search of his first nitro title never made it to the Main retiring during his Semi.

Tessmann said his run ‘was going good’ until he rolled over his D812 on the second last lap.  Happier with conditions today, feeling the track has more grip than yesterday, the 2012 Champion said his buggy was good but for the next one they will work on improving the consistency of his OS Speed engine.  Setting the fastest lap, towards the end of the 7-minute run he said the engine was leaning out and for the final qualifier they will change their Nitrotane fuel to a higher nitro level.  Having switched to 25% nitro so as to have less power to make the buggy easier to drive in the loose conditions he said they will revert to 30% so they can run the engine slightly cooler.

‘At least it getting more consistent’, that was Maifield’s reaction to this third for the round.  Finishing 1.3 seconds off Tessmann, he said the run could probably have been a little cleaner but in the end it was ‘not too bad’.  Running JConcepts blue compound Crossbow tyre on his Novarossi powered RC8.2, he plans to make a rear end change to the buggy to get ‘some extra forward bite’.

Setting the fourth fastest time after a not so good day yesterday with a 10th in Q1 and a DNF in Q2, Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz said ‘I finished and didn’t crash so that was good’.  Making a ‘wonderful start’, he said his Alpha engine started to go lean and in the end this resulted in the DNX8 Prototype becoming difficult to drive.  Happy with how the buggy ran early on he will leave it as is for the final qualifier and just focus on getting a better tune on the engine for the hot Texas weather.

Using Q3 to start working on a set-up for the finals, Carson Wernimont said his Mugen did what he wanted it to do.  While it started off slow he said it got faster and faster until he ran out of talent and spun under braking which he added probably cost him a Top 3 which would have improved his overall ranking.  For Q4, he will use the track time to test tyres for the final switching from AKA’s soft Enduro to medium Impact.

Austin Blair would complete the Top 6. The A-Main Hobbies team driver said his improvement in performance, yesterday netting him ‘nothing good’, came from him driving ‘a lot slower’.   Changing the diff oils on his OS Speed powered Kyosho, he said this gave it less steering and made it more calm to drive.  The 19-year-old plans to leave it the same for the final qualifier hoping he can repeat his Q3 performance through his driving.

Setting the seventh fastest time Kyosho’s Jared Tebo said it ‘was a really clean run but just not fast enough’.  The 2010 Champion said he is having a hard time pushing in the track conditions and he is not sure what to do in terms of finding overall pace.  Behind Tebo, Josh Wheeler took his Xray to the eight fastest time followed by the Serpent of Mike Truhe with new TLR signing Taylor Petersen posting his first Top 10 run.

Q3 Buggy times – Top 10
1. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 10/7:44.343
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 10/7:45.598
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi – 10/7:46.937
4. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 9/7:01.226
5. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 9/7:01.240
6. Austin Blair – Kyosho/OS Speed – 9/7:01.603
7. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 9/7:02.004
8. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 9/7:03.959
9. Dylan Rodriguez – HB/OS Speed – 9/7:04.922
10.Taylor Petersen – TLR/Novarossi – 9/7:05.447

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First TQ run for champion Tessmann in Q3

Defending US National Truggy Champion Ty Tessmann claimed his first TQ run this morning at Thornhill Racing Circuit when he narrowly outpaced yesterday’s qualifying dominator Dakotah Phend in Q3.  With the two drivers running almost identical lap times, Tessmann with a 44.764 compared to Phend’s 44.778, the pair where separated by 1.2 second at the end of the 7-minute qualifier.  The championship’s most successful driver, Ryan Maifield, who has been Truggy Champion 3-times, enjoyed a good start to Day 2 of qualifying after a disappointing day yesterday as he completed the Top 3.

‘Didn’t make any mistakes this time’ was how Tessmann summed up his TQ run making reference to yesterday’s qualifying when he made more mistakes than usual.  Having had trouble with the tracks centre jump he said he was ‘getting the hang of it’ now.  Describing the pace of Q3 as ‘super close’, he said his OS Speed powered D8T and Pro-Line X2 Holeshot tyres worked well and he will run everything the same for the fourth & final qualifier. Set to decide whether he or Phend are the overall Top Qualifier, the Canadian said his plan is try to ‘do the same thing only in a faster time’.

‘Really close’, that was Phend’s reaction to the run.  Feeling the track was better than yesterday when he TQ’d both runs, he said it was down to who was more consistent between him & Tessmann as on outright pace there was nothing in it.  Running X3 Holeshots on his Orion powered 8ight T, he said the truck felt good and for the last one he will continue to run it as is.

Maifield called his run ‘not too bad’.  The factory Associated driver said while the ‘two guys are a lot faster, the rest of the field is really tight’.  Outpacing his team-mate Ryan Cavalieri by just a 1/10th of a second he said Tessmann & Phend have a distinct advantage from their trucks as the nature of the track layout means that the driver is less of an element.  Changing to a harder rim for Q3, he said this made the truck more precise to drive.  Also changing to a stiffer front shock along with making a roll centre adjustment he was much happier with how the truck was running today.  For the final qualifier the JConcepts driver will switch from the company’s Stacker tyre to the smaller pin Hybrid again fitted on a stiffer rim.

Exchanging banter with Maifield about their close times, Cavalieri, who was 4th fastest, said he ‘just left it and drove it’ and it was ‘pretty good’.  Missing his lines a couple of times, he said towards the end of the run he was able to run a number of consistent laps adding the track was starting to deteriorate a little.  For Q4, he will again leave his Orion powered RC8T CE the same unless the track changes significantly after the third round of Buggy qualifying.

Setting the fifth fastest time Ryan Lutz said the run was ‘a little better’, the Team Durango driver ending yesterday with a poor Q2 run.  A ‘decent’ result, he said he started the heat ahead of Jeremy Kotrtz with a good gap between them but a ”blistering’ first lap from the Agama driver meant he had to let him through.  Once he went passed Lutz said ‘it was like he forgot how to drive’ and he struggled behind him for three laps before Kortz had a big off.  Having changed to a lighter oil in the DNX8T’s front diff looking for more off power steering in the corners he said he maybe went a little to light and for Q4 he will ‘split the difference’.

‘Not as good as I had hoped’ was how Carson Wernimont summed up his run to the sixth fastest time.  The Mugen driver said he hit traffic and then at the end made a mistake that saw his OS Speed powered MBX7T get hooked up on the piping for a time.  Without that he said he had the pace for a Top 3 time.  For his final qualifier, the 17-year-old will make a number of changes with a view to working on a set-up for the Final.  Planning to change diff oils he will also try a different AKA tyre.

Q3 Truggy times – Top 10
1. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 10/7:32.289
2. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 10/7:33.483
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi – 10/7:39.231
4. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 10/7:39.355
5. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 10/7:39.504
6. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 10/7:39.728
7. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 10/7:40.163
8. Michael Truhe – Serpent/TOP – 10/7:40.707
9. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 10/7:41.611
10.Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi – 10/7:41.969

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 4, Qualifying

Yet another overcast but hot & humid morning at Thornhill Racing Circuit, today’s schedule sees the conclusion of qualifying at the 17th running of US National Championships. Two rounds of qualifying are on the cards for Day 4 of the event with the best 2 of 4 of the qual points rounds to count towards the starting order of tomorrow’s finals.  Yesterday saw an impressive performance from TLR’s Dakotah Phend as he took both Truggy qualifiers and the second of the Buggy qualifiers with HB’s Ty Tessmann taking the first round.

Phend holds overnight TQ at US Nationals

Dakotah Phend leaves the Thornhill Racing Circuit as the overnight provisional TQ holder of both Truggy and Buggy after concluding the opening day of qualifying with his first TQ run in buggy. Having topped both Truggy qualifiers, the 17-year-old would transfer that form to buggy topping the day’s final heat as he became the first driver to run a 10-lap pace in the championship’s premiere class. Third fastest in Q1, Phend topped the Q2 timesheets from another of the country’s young guns with Carson Wernimont taking his Mugen to the second fastest time. Having struggled in the opening qualifier, former Champion Ryan Maifield would take his Associated to the third fastest time while for defending Champion Adam Drake it was again a slow run as he posted only the 15th fastest time.

‘It’s been a really good day’ was how Phend summed up the first day of qualifying. Top Qualifier at last year’s championship but retiring in the Semi Finals, he said the track was really rough second time round. Realising during his warm-up laps how tricky conditions had become, he said he took the approach to ‘stay smooth’ so as to avoid any mistakes adding that for the entire 7-minutes he was just ‘trying to hold on to it’. Happy with how his 8ight handled the conditions, he said the 180 corners had become particularly difficult as the surface had ‘chunks missing out of it’ which he said when you hit them would ‘grab’ and unsettle the buggy. Setting a new fastest lap in Q2, the Michigan driver said for tomorrow he will leave the buggy unchanged with tyre compound the only thing he needs to consider.

Making some small changes to the front suspension on his MBX7, Wernimont said it made the buggy really smooth and easy to drive. Running a bodyshell of his own design which he will be releasing for general sale shortly, he said his buggy is setting up to be ‘a good main car’. Running soft AKA Enduro for Q2 he will switch his attentions tomorrow to working on a tyre for the Semi finals.  Planning to try a medium compound Impact, he said he wants to check for wear as well as seeing if the buggy is ‘happy on the tire’.

Maifield said his improved performance came from simply reverting back to the tyre he did all his testing for the race with and used at the Warm-up race. Running Q2 on JConcept’s blue compound Crossbow tyre with his Novarossi powered RC8.2, he said while they took a minute to come in, after that the ‘felt pretty good’. With ‘no real mistakes’ over the run, the 2006 Champion said it was a decent run and hopes to build on that tomorrow in the remaining two qualifiers.

Fourth fastest, Tebo said his Kyosho MP9 was really good but he threw away a potential P2 10-lap run with a late mistake. Admitting ‘Dakotah (was) a little faster’, on his penultimate lap he jumped too much to the outside on the back straight leading to a crash that would cost him in the region of 3-seconds. Describing the track as ‘just nearly out there’ the 2010 champion said his buggy ‘feels really good’ adding it would be ‘silly to make changes’. Instead he said he wants to grow his confidence with how the car is now as the finals are going to be tough going if you’re not.

Fastest in the opening qualifier, Ty Tessmann said they took a gamble and tried something others didn’t but it wasn’t good. Having run Pro-Line’s X2 Blockade, for Q2 they tried M3 compound which the Canadian said for the first few laps worked well, but the performance of its slightly softer compound went down really fast. Planning to leave his D812 set-up the same for tomorrow, the 2012 Champion said they will just try to choose a better tyre adding what that will be they will decide nearer the time of the run.

Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri would complete the Top 6. Changing the front springs on his RC8.2, the 2011 Champion said the feeling it gave was ‘not what (he) was expecting’. Pleased though that he is headed in the right direction in terms of the set-up, for Q3 he will go for an even stiffer spring.

Having impressed yesterday with his pace topping seeding practice, it wasn’t a good day for Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz. 10th in Q1 after issues with the traffic, he would suffer a DNF in the second round. Running a Top 5 pace, trying to save a mistake into the corner leading onto the front straight, he ‘gunned the throttle’ but with his DNX8 Prototype landing on its roof the engine sucked in air causing the engine to flame out as it was placed back on its wheels. Happy with how the buggy was running, Lutz will be hoping for better luck tomorrow.

Q2 Buggy times – Top 10
1. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 10/7:44.783
2. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 9/7:01.576
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi – 9/7:01.661
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 9/7:05.601
5. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 9/7:07.504
6. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 9/7:07.560
7. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi – 9/7:07.851
8. Michael Truhe – Serpent/TOP – 9/7:08.658
9. Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 9/7:09.281
10.Barry Pettit – Mugen/OS Speed – 9/7:09.848

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