Phend on pole for Buggy Main

Top Qualifier & freshly crowned Truggy Champion Dakotah Phend is on pole position for the Buggy Main at the US National Championships. The Team Losi Racing star won his 30-minute Semi-Final in the fastest time ahead of Ryan Maifield, the Associated driver’s time securing him second on the grid for the title deciding 1-hour encounter.  Winning the first of the Semis, 2012 Champion Ty Tessmann will line up 3rd with his HB followed by the Mugen of Carson Wernimont who was second to the Canadian.

After a disappointing qualifying, defending champion Adam Drake has made it into the main event finishing fourth in his Semi to line up seventh one place behind Warm-up Race winner Cody King.  A field made of six previous champions, the race will see seven different manufacturers complete with TLR the best represented team with five 8ight 3.0s on the grid.

A-Main Buggy Grid
1. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi
3. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed
4. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed
5. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha
6. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing
7. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi
8. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novrossi
9. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion
10.Mark Pavidis – TLR/OS Speed
11.Austin Blair – Mugen/OS Speed
12.Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion
13.Josh Glancy – TLR/Novarossi
14.Tyler Vik – Xray/FX
15.Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed

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Glancy, Pettit & Fischer complete Truggy line-up

Josh Glancy, Barry Pettit and Billy Fischer complete the 15 truck line-up for the Truggy A-Main at the US National Championships after finishing 1,2,3 in the half hour B-Main at the Thornhill Racing Circuit.  Starting from pole position 17-year-old Glancy would take the win by 4.6 seconds from the Mugen of Barry Pettit but only after fellow TLR driver Adam Drake dramatically ran out of fuel just as he was about to make his final stop.  The master of run time, Drake was the only driver on a two stop strategy running just passed the 10-minute mark as he made his first stop.  Shadowed by Glancy’s Pro-Line shod 8ight T, with the clock just gone passed 20-minutes, Drake’s Novarossi would run dry two corners before the pitlane.  Costing the reigning Buggy Champion a full lap he would rejoin to eventually finish 10th.  Looking set to secure the final spot on the grid for the main event,  Taylor Petersen would get caught up in a mistake from Drake with 3-laps to go.  With his truck crossing lanes Petersen would get caught up resulting in a 53-second lap.  TLR team-mate Billy Fischer would be the one to benefit finishing the race 3rd almost 7-seconds clear of Mark Pavidis with Petersen ending up fifth.

View our event image gallery here.

‘From Race Control’ – Day 5, Finals

Having survived 4 days of hot & humid Texas weather, the 17th running of the US National Championship comes down to today. Last night the track got a natural watering when it rained in Hutto and the skies over Thornhill Racing Circuit this morning look like they might be ready to provide some additional dampening of the dirt. First of the champions to be crowned will be Truggy, the 9th champion of the class being decided over a 45-minute Main. With 12 drivers directly qualifying for the race the 15 truck grid will be completed by the Top 3 bumping up from the B-Main. For Buggy, the first Nationals being held in 1998, all drivers looking to battle for the title will have to come through the 30-minute Semi Finals with the Top 6 finishers from each progressing to the 1-hour Main.  The 15 buggy grid will be completed by the three drivers finishing outside the Top 6 with the fastest race times over the 2 Semis.