Truhe, Wernimont & Phend bump to Main event

Mike Truhe, Carson Wernimont & Dakotah Phend have booked their places on the grid for the Main event at the 14th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge after finishing 1, 2 & 3 respectively in the B final of Pro Buggy at the Fear Farm in Phoenix, Arizona. The 20-minute encounter saw Phend, who set the fastest lap of the race, control proceedings for 13-laps before a series of errors dropped the young TLR star back to third behind fellow 2012 DNC finalist Wernimont and Truhe. Wernimont would lead the way for 7-laps before his Durango dropped behind the TLR of Truhe. Although Wernimont would get back to the lead for a lap later in the race it was Truhe who would take the win by 2.3-seconds to book his place in the 45-minute Main having missed the cut 12-months ago. Despite clearly struggling at the huge step-up, Phend would finish third 3.6-second in front of A-Main Hobbies driver Tyler Vik to claim the 15th & final spot on the grid for the title deciding final.

Along with pole starter Curtis Door other names who will play no further part in the event include World Championship finalist Taylor Peterson who looked in contention early on for a bump up but in the end only finish 6th behind Door. Xray team-mate Martin Bayer, who took 7th in last year’s A-Main, took a gamble on stopping only once for fuel feeling he did not have the pace to make the Top 3 otherwise but just as his pitman Renaud Savoya called him for his stop his LRP powered XB9 ran dry and came to a halt. Having started out the day in the J-Main, A-Main Hobbies driver Austin Blair’s fairy tale run was to come to an end. Bumping up 8 times, the 18-year-old from Californian had a terrible start to his ninth final of the day from which he could not recover eventually finishing 10th, 2-laps down on the winner.

Final A-Main Buggy Grid
1. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP
3. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi
4. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi
5. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion
6. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS
7. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion
8. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds
9. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi
10.Drew Moller – Kyosho/Orion
11.Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed
12.Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed
13.Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP
14.Carson Wernimont – Durango/OS Speed
15.Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion

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Tessmann bounces back to defend Truggy at DNC

Defending Dirt Nitro Challenge Champion Ty Tessmann came back from a difficult qualifying at the 14th running of the world famous Arizona event to take victory in Truggy ahead of Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and another driver experiencing a below par qualifying Ryan Maifield, a change of radio transmitters since qualifying bringing both drivers right back into contention. For Top Qualifier Adam Drake a wrong set-up meant he could only manage fourth at the end of the 45-minute encounter.

The opening laps of the race saw a great battle between Drake and Tebo the pairing swapping the lead before 2011 Champion Tebo was able to establish himself as the leader. The Kyosho driver held that position until lap 34 when Tessmann, who started 7th, put his OS Speed powered HB out front. Tebo would retake the lead two laps later and head the field for the next nine laps until he made his final fuel stop during which Tessmann, who stopped 2-laps earlier, took over a lead he would hold to the end to win by 10-seconds.

Having struggled in qualifying with a lack of feeling in his truggy, something that would later be traced to a faulty transmitter, Tessmann said his Proline M3 Blockade D8T worked perfectly in the final. Describing the start as a ‘little hectic’, the US National Champion said once he got up to fourth he just waited his time as he knew his truggy was good enough for the win. Faster in some sections than Tebo who was in turn quicker in other areas of the Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen created track, the Canadian said it eventually came down to a few more mistakes from his rival. A massive confidence boost for Tessmann’s team, Ty said while he starts even further down the grid for tomorrow’s Buggy main he thinks its now game on for a repeat of his 2012 DNC double.

Tebo said his race started out ‘awesome’ with everything working perfectly but following his 3rd fuel stop of four made during the race his Orion engine went super rich on the top end. With a lack of power the 26-year-old said he had to drive on the throttle more to keep up the revs which meant his truggy was very loose leading to a number of mistake and any chance of the win.

Starting from 11th on the grid, Maifield said finishing third felt like a win after how bad qualifying had gone. Discovering his problems were radio related after he changed transmitter in the second buggy qualifier and was immediately on the pace, this year’s Truggy encounter was a reverse of the event 12-months ago when having TQ’d the Arizona ace finished last after retiring just 8-minutes into the race. Running green compound JConcepts Stackers on his LRP powered RC8T, Maifield said he knew he had a big task ahead of him for the race but everything worked really well, a fact that was endorsed by being able to record the fastest lap of the race. ‘Pumped’ by his performance he said starting tomorrow’s buggy A-Main from 2nd it ‘should be good’.

Having secured a popular overall TQ, Drake was understandably disappointed to only finish fourth. Showing great pace over the opening laps, last year’s podium finisher said he ran too light an oil in his 8ight T which as everything warmed up left him struggling. Trying to make up for the drop off in performance the legend of 1:8 Offroad said he started to overdrive leading to a series of errors. With chances of a win gone he said he just settled into a steady pace to get him to the end. TLR team-mate Billy Fischer enjoyed a strong race. Having won the B-Main to secure 13th on the grid, the 1:8 eBuggy winner would finish 5th 4-seconds in front of team-mate Mike Truhe who just managed to hold off Cody King.

Overall it was not a good race for the front starting drivers. Starting second behind Drake, Ryan Lutz was a non-finisher. 15-laps into the race the Team Durango driver suffered a rear link arm failure. Loosing almost 10-minute as his pit crew fixed the DNX408T, Lutz rejoined the race but a rear axle failure would put a permanent end to his race with 8-minutes to go. 3rd on the grid and last year’s runner-up, Ryan Cavalieri looked set to again make the podium but in the final 15-minutes of the race the Associated driver started to struggle with his set-up. Running too soft a rear end set-up on his Orion powered Associated he said it became hard to drive dropping him back from 3rd to 8th by the finish.

Truggy A-Main Result
1.(7) Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 73/45:16.583
2.(4) Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 73/45:26.714
3.(11)Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 72/45:14.494
4.(1) Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi – 72/45:21.156
5.(13)Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi – 72/45:31.183
6.(6) Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP – 72/45:35.309
7.(9) Cody King – Kyosho/Reds – 72/45:35.819
8.(3) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 71/45:22.229
9.(8) Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB – 70/45:25.459
10.(14)Chris Wheeler – TLR/Bullitt – 69/45:23.681
11.(15)Taylor Peterson – Xray/Alpha – 69/45:33.459
12.(2)Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 44/37:46.539
13.(10)Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 36/25:01.652
14.(12)Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 29/18:53.341
15.(5)Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS – 21/13:21.165

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Fischer, Wheeler & Petersen complete Truggy grid

Billy Fischer, Chris Wheeler and Taylor Peterson will take up the final three spots on the grid for the Dirt Nitro Challenge Truggy final which takes place this evening at the Fear Farm in Phoenix, Arizona. Starting the 20-minute B-final from pole, Team Losi Racing’s Fischer put in a faultless race leading from start to finish winning by a comfortable 13-second margin over star of the day so far Wheeler. Having qualified in the D Final, Wheeler took his TLR 8ight T to second in that encounter bumping him up to the C Main. Finishing his second race of the day in 3rd this secured him the last spot on the grid of a B-Final loaded with top name international drivers. Storming his way to the front of the pack, by lap 5 Wheeler was in the all important Top 3 assuming 2nd just a few laps later which is where he would stay till the end to guarantee his fourth race start of the day.

World Championship Finalist Petersen was the last driver to book his place in the main event, the newly signed Xray driver benefiting from the misfortunes of team-mate Renaud Savoya. The French ace who ran a one stop fuel strategy looked to have his place under control after a rapidly recovering Dakotah Phend broke. With a large advantage over his closest challenger Savoya opted to do a splash & dash but a roll on his out lap causing his Orion engine to cut. Getting back to the pits his crew couldn’t get the engine to fire back up eventually a plug change being required to get him back on track but the damage was done and he would finish 10th and last of the remaining runners. Fellow European Elliot Boots came close to making the cut as he battled with Peterson but the Kyosho driver suffered a late mistake and would finish 2.3-seconds behind the 3rd placed American.

Final A-Main Truggy Grid
1. Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi
2. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha
3. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion
5. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS
6. Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP
7. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed
8. Austin Blair – Kyosho/RB
9. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds
10.Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks
11.Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP
12.Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP
13.Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi
14.Chris Wheeler – TLR/Bullitt
15.Taylor Peterson – Xray/Alpha

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