Tessmann top 4WD seed at Cactus Classic

Team HB’s Ty Tessmann is the top seed for 4WD Buggy qualifying at the 28th running of the Pro-Line Cactus Classic. The Canadian topped controlled practice on the sugared SRS Raceway track when he posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the days two runs.  Behind the US National Champion, Dakotah Phend set the second fastest time as he also improved on his morning time while Kyosho’s Jared Tebo, who was fastest in the morning, completed the Top 3.

Making changes to his D4-13, Tessmann said they made for a ‘big improvement’ with him able to improve his 3-laps by 7/10ths of a second.  Adjusting the anti-squat and laying down the rear shock it made the buggy ‘easier through the bumps’.  Also changing his shock oil due to the temperature change between the first and second run, he said after the second run he is feeling confident going into qualifying, 2 of the 4 rounds on tomorrow’s schedule.  Planning to leave his set-up as is he said the only change would be to the shock oil depending on the weather at the time of the first qualifier.

Having adjusted the rear camber link on his TLR22-4, Phend said this made the buggy less ‘tippy’ allowing him to ‘drive it a little harder’.  Pleased with where his set-up is now at, the 17-year-old’s focus for Q1 is to ‘try and get a clean run’ adding that he will ‘just run at (his) own pace’.

Re-running the same tyres he used to top CP1, Tebo said while over three laps he was unable to improve, in terms of outright pace he was able to post a fastest lap time.  Describing the difference between new and used tyres as ‘quite a big difference’, he said his close to final production prototype ZX6 feels good and for the first qualifier all he plans to do is fit a fresh set of tyres.

Another driver to run his tyres again in the second practice, Joern Nuemann ends the days as the fourth seed.  The Team Durango driver said he ran the tyres to see what the difference was and while they started out good by the end of the 5-minutes his DEX410 began to get loose.  Describing his buggy as easy to drive but still ‘very fast’, the German is looking forward to the opening qualifier for which he will leave his set-up as is, just fitting a new set of Pro-Lines.

The fastest of the Team Associated drivers, Ryan Cavalieri will be the 5th seed for qualifying.  Despite running his tyres for a second time which he said weren’t as good, the former World Champion was able to better his morning time.  Saying that ‘overall the car is good’, he plans to go into the opening qualifier with the B44.2 as-is on a fresh set of rubber.

Completing the Top 6, Ryan Lutz said his Durango has been close to the pace all the time and he has been making minor tweaks to find that little bit he is missing.  Normally running his steering end point beyond the full lock to counteract for movement in the servo saver on his 1:8 buggy, he discovered he didn’t readjust for that on his DEX410 which doesn’t run a servo saver.  Causing the steering to bind, he reduced it for CP2 but this led to the buggy feeling ‘too mellow’.  For Q2 he will make a set-up change to get move steering back following the end point adjustment.

Having made his Schumacher stiffer for CP2, Carson Wernimont will revert back to his morning set-up.  Unable to improve on his CP1 time which seeds him seventh, he said the harder arms and alloy chassis made the K1 Aero difficult to drive.  With the previous set-up ‘a lot more forgiving’, he said he is confident that he can use that to good effect in Q1.

Defending champion Ryan Maifield finds himself only 8th fastest.  Asked what he was struggling with he joked ‘the corners, the jumps and the straight’.  With his B44.2 ‘hard to drive and not fast on lap times’, he plans to copy Cavalieri’s set-up.  Having watched his team-mate, he said his car looked a lot more comfortable to drive.  In addition to the set-up change, the Arizona driver will also switch to a softer JConcepts tyre.

Team Serpent’s Mike Truhe managed the 9th fastest time.  With Serpent not yet having a 4WD Buggy, Truhe is running a Durango this weekend which was built for him by its designer Gerd Strenge.  Pleased to put in a top 10 time, having focused his attention on his 2WD Serpent over the past two day of open practice, he said he still needs to do a little work on the shock set-up of the DEX410 ahead of Q1.  Team Novak’s Billy Fischer completed the Top 10 ahead of former TLR team-mate Dustin Evans, Kyosho’s Cody Turner and Durango’s Travis Amezcua.

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Phend tops opening 2WD practice at Cactus

TLR’s Dakotah Phend has topped the times for the opening round of 2WD Buggy controlled practice at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic in Arizona. The 17-year-old posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of Team Novak’s Billy Fischer with reigning 2WD Champion Jared Tebo completing the top three, the Kyosho driver over 7/10ths of a second off the pace set by Phend.

Running his mid motored TLR22, US National Chamion Phend was pleased with his car saying it ‘was hard to drive’ and that the biggest thing was ‘remembering not to overdrive it’.  Running Pro-Line Scrubs on the front and Surburbs on the rear, he said he is happy to leave everything the same for the days second & final round of controlled practice.

Having switched to running Associated chassis in electric for 2014, Fischer was pleased to post the second fastest time, doing so in the closing stages of the 5-minute run.  Using new foam in his Pro-Line tyres, he said they were too stiff taking ‘too long come in’.  Planning to cut them from the tyres and reuse them in CP2, now that they have bedded in, he said the conditions here at SRS Raceway suit his driving with it being his smooth style rather than outright pace that sees him sitting second in the current ranking which will determine the heats for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Team Associated’s Tanner Denney claimed the fourth fastest time, the 18-year-old very happy with his B5M.  Running JConcept’s Dirtweb tyres all round, red compound in the rear and orange in the front, he said in addition to his 3-laps he was also very happy with his overall time for the 5-minute run.  Describing his mid motored buggy as ‘easy to drive’, he said he will try to get a little more steering for CP2.  Running a number of new optional parts on his new chassis, one of which allows him to adjust the spindle height, he will raise them for his next run to get the buggy to turn in better.

Tebo was content with his first practice run saying his RB6 felt ‘pretty safe’.  Describing the rear end as being ‘really hooked up’, he plans to make a little change for CP2 to try ‘free up the rear’.  Hoping a little less rear traction will allow him to push a little harder with time to be gained in the ‘short squirty areas’ of the track.

Setting the fifth fastest time European Champion Joern Neumann said his Durango was loose at the beginning before his tyres came in.  Running Pro-Line’s new Suburb VTR rear and new Transistor front, the German plans to adjust the rear toe-in on his DEX210 to try and get the tyres to come in quicker and improve his pace from the start of the run.

Completing the Top 6 was Ryan Maifield, the 2012 2WD Champion just outpacing his protege Spencer Rivkin.  The 15-year-old said his B5M was harder to drive than in yesterday’s open practice and he plans to switch to a set-up close to that which Maifield is running.  Running JConcept Dirtweb tyres, he said his big focus is ‘staying safe’ and ‘driving within his ability’.

Posting the 8th fastest time 4/10ths up on the Associated’s of Ryan Cavalieri and Kody Numedahl, Dustin Evans said his TLR22 was safe & easy to drive.  Looking to run a more aggressive front tyre for the second practice, he said to go fast the car needs to be edgy but that in turn makes it ‘hard to hang on to’ and its hard to get the balance right.

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Tebo fastest in first 4WD practice

Jared Tebo has set the pace in the opening round of controlled practice at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic, the Kyosho driver doing three consecutive laps 26/1000ths fastest than TLR’s Dakotah Phend with Team Durango’s Joern Neumann just a further 11/1000ths off around the high grip SRS Raceway in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Despite doing a ‘nose wheelie’ off the track at the start of the run which popped a ball cup, Tebo said his buggy was ‘really good’.  Running a prototype chassis, he said he did a lot of his set-up wok over the past two days when the track was available for open practice.  Switching to a gear diff and going up in shock oil for the first of today’s controlled practice runs which will determine the seeding for tomorrow’s qualifying, he said the changes worked well.  Asked if he planned any change for his second run he said he would wait til after his 2WD run to decide what, if any, changes he will try.  With 44 heats, there is a considerable wait between rounds.

Describing the track as a lot different to previous years saying that with ‘so much traction and high speed corners it is challenging’, Dakotah Phend was pleased with his first run of the day.  Describing his TLR22-4 as ‘awesome’, the buggy fitted with Pro-Line Scrubs on the front and X2 Suburbs on the rear, for CP2 he plans to make a rear camber link adjustment just to make it a little more stable for the ‘onroad racing’ like conditions.

Neumann, who was running Pro-Line’s new front Transistor and a Surburb rear tyre on his DEX410, said it was easy to drive and overall he was pleased to be on pace.  Describing the track as being like high traction carpet common to indoor racing in European, the Euro Offroad Series Champion said having found it edgy in the open practice he was now used to it.  For CP2 the German said he has no plans to make any changes.

Posting the fourth fastest time, Ryan Cavalieri said he was ‘pretty happy’ with his Associated B44.2 adding that he ‘thought it drove well’.  Running Pro-Line Scrub front & X2 Suburb rears, he said despite the challenging high traction conditions the buggy had good pace.  Another driver that did most of his set-up work in the open practice, adding a front sway bar and gear diff, Cavalieri plans to run CP2 with the same set-up as the morning’s run.

US National Champion Ty Tessmann said he wasn’t the fastest but overall was happy with how his D4-13 felt, him running his race car for the first time having used his test car the previous two days.  Running Pro-Lines new Transistor front tyre and Suburb VTR rear, he said the first few laps of the run were used to break in the tyres.  Commenting on the track the Canadian said it is hard not to over drive.

Completing the Top 6 in the current reseed ranking, Schumacher’s Carson Wernimont said his car felt ‘pretty good’ adding it was ‘super easy to drive and (he) was able to easily put in clean laps’.  Running AKA’s new Pinstripe front and Deja Vu rear tyre, the 17-year-old said they work really good and he will stick with them for the second run.  In terms of his car set-up he will try harder arms on his K1 Aero along with fitting an alloy chassis to stiffen up the buggy and try to make it more consistent.

Defending champion Ryan Maifield was seventh fastest over 3-consecutive laps but playing around with front tyres he said he felt more comfortable yesterday with his B44.2.  The Arizona driver switched from running JConcepts Barcodes to Dirtwebs for CP1. His first time to run the tyre on his track he said he didn’t like them as much as the Barcodes and for the second controlled practice he will revert back leaving his chassis set-up as is.

Setting the 9th fastest time just behind Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz, Dustin Evans said his buggy was good but he was just overdriving it.  Running the same set-up on his TLR22-4 as his Team Losi Racing team-mate Phend, he said he just needs to ‘back it down’ in terms of his driving adding that running cleans lines are key to going fast on this track.

For World Champion Steven Hartson, his first run of the track in 4WD lasted just 5-laps as he broke his Associated B44.2.  Having focused on his 2WD buggy for the past two days, he said of the few laps in did this morning in 4WD the set-up seems good although he went with too soft a front tyre.  Fitted with JConcepts Dirtwebs all round, he said he ran to front too soft and he will switch from Red to Orange compound for CP2.

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