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Tessmann fuels his way to DNC Truggy win
Ty Tessmann has resumed his reign as Truggy Champion of the Dirt Nitro Challenge after an action filled 45-minute final in which both Ryan Maifield and Ryan Cavalieri both ran out of fuel while leading. Starting second behind Top Qualifier Maifield, the first lap was an indication of the intensity of the racing that was to come over the first half of the race, as Tessmann bumped his way passed for the lead in front of the drivers stand. Taking the lead at the 25-minute mark, 2-minutes later Cavalieri would come to a halt leaving Maifield to lead from Tessmann and a very impressive Joe Bornhorst. With Tessmann dropping back after collecting a back marker who was badly marshalled by spectators, Maifield then looked set to cruise to an easy win but with the final round of stops coming up the TLR driver would also come up short on fuel. With Tessmann now clear of Bornhorst, the Canadian would go the extra lap to claim his 5th Truggy title but the action continued to the last lap where Spencer Rivkin forced his way passed Tekno’s Ryan Lutz to snatch the final podium placing.
‘The first 30-40 minutes went by like that but the last 5-minutes seemed to go on forever’, was how Tessmann summed up his 9th DNC title win. The 23-year-old said ‘I remember Maifield got up on 2-wheels in front of the drivers stand and I bumped him to go into the lead but it was just a blur after as we fought back & forth’, the pair even making contact as they were released from one of the pit stops. The Buggy World Champion said his race took a big set back when after the right side triple he collected a truck that had been marshalled by spectators into his path. With his tyres going off, he said all he was doing then was ‘driving around waiting for a mistake from Maifield’. On hearing Maifield had flamed out he said he just tried to make sure he didn’t ‘do anything stupid’ adding he knew going into the race fuel would be close and while he paced himself with that in mind he said his OS engine ran ‘faultlessly’.
Taking a hugely popular 2nd place, Bornhorst said ‘I don’t really know what to say right now’. Gathering his thoughts, the 22-year-old added, ‘I knew I had the same pace as those guys and that if I could pace myself off them and stay with them for the first half of the race I would be there at the finish’. While he was on shorter 7:30 fuel stops compared to his rival’s 9-minute stops, he said his safer tyre choice of tyre Pro-Line X3 Blockades came good at the end compared to the smaller pins used by his rivals. Describing his NT48.3 as ‘perfect’ in the final he said his pit crew of Mick Egleberger and Sean Ramos were ‘awesome’, it clear that Bornhorst was still somewhat shocked at being able to run with the sport’s biggest names for the 45-minutes.
Giving Team Associated’s new RC8T3 truggy a podium finish on its debut, Rivkin said the race ‘started kind of slow’. Bumping up from the B-Main to start 14th, the 17-year-old said a quick set-up change right before the start was ‘the icing on the cake’ with his ‘truck and tyres working awesome’. Working his way through the field he said his pit crew kept him well informed and pushed him on. Running on JConcepts Reflex in green compound, the right rear tyre would come undone from the wheel which his crew would change during his final stop on 9 minutes to go, with the 2WD World Champion informing his team-manager Brent Thielke afterwards ‘that was a blue compound you put on’. Commenting on his pass on Lutz he said ‘Ryan ran wide at the step up and I just went through on the inside’.
Going on to finish 5th after his flame out, Maifield said ‘we haven’t been close on fuel all weekend and I don’t why it ran out’. Describing it as ‘a bitchen race with Ty and Ryan’, he said while his crew had told him to conserve fuel once he got his big break over Tessmann he was just cruising. His first race with Reds Racing, he said ‘I did as much testing as I could in preparation for this race but apparently it wasn’t enough’. He added his 8ight-T 4.0 is ‘the best truck I have had in a long time and we will work on getting mileage better’. Feeling his ‘buggy is better’, the reigning DNC Champion said run time shouldn’t be an issue as everyone will be stoping at 7:30 and he is looking forward to a good day tomorrow.
Cavalieri was also at a loss as to why he ran out of fuel. The former back to back Truggy Champion said I was pacing myself as my truck was getting better & better over the race and with the other stops going fine it ran out of fuel with half a lap to go’. He said while he ‘took it a little easy at the start’ he is ‘not really sure how it happened’. Dropping to 13th after the flame out he would end the race 8th in between Cody King (7th) and Tanner Denney (9th).
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Video – eBuggy Main Final
Maifield last lap win from champion Tessmann
Ryan Maifield snatched a last lap eBuggy victory over defending champion Ty Tessmann at the Dirt Nitro Challenge to successfully convert the first of the three TQ starts the TLR driver has secured this weekend at the Fear Farm. Leading the first 3-minutes of the race, a mistake by Maifield at the second step up would hand team-mate Dakotah Phend a lead. Starting 7th on the grid, the 19-year-old would only stay out front for a lap before he crashed coming into the right side triple. Allowing Tessmann to the front the Canadian looked like he would successfully defend his title as Maifield trying to put a pass on his team-mate at the berm caused the two cars to tangle. But with a lap to go the race would come alive as Maifield caught a slowing Tessmann making contact with the HB twice before the World Champion got out of shape allowing Maifield through for the win into the final corner. While further crashes would drop Phend back to 7th, a recovering Ryan Cavalieri who started third would complete the podium for Team Associated.
With the crowd appreciative of the exciting finish, Maifield was ‘stoked’ to add his first DNC eBuggy title saying the track conditions were ‘really crazy’. ‘Super tense’ early on in the race, the Arizona driver said couldn’t find his rhythm adding this was compounded by the electric buggies having ‘so much fricken power’. Describing his error on the left side step as ‘retarded’, he said he was searching all over for the right line through the difficult section and once he started using the far end side his 8ight 4.0 was dialled, as highlighted by his penultimate lap on which he set the fastest lap of the race. Catching Tessmann, who he said drove a good race’, Maifield said ‘While I didn’t set out to get into him it was the last lap and we had a big enough gap over third so I went for it. When we did hit I let him go. Then he cased the step-up and I could get by. Describing the race as ‘intense’ he said his car and electrics where dialled adding he ‘had plenty of battery left’.
Running two short packs in his Orion powered D815, Tessmann said the race was the best his car has been but he knew because of his batteries he had to drive more conservatively than before. However at the end his power started to fade with him having a cut out at the step-up leading to his late error. Declaring himself happy with how he drove he added ‘it just wasn’t to be’ but after his performance he said ‘Truggy will be good’. Commenting on the two incidents with Maifield, he said ‘he bonzai’d me. The first time it back fired and he took out Dakotah but he got me with the second one’.
Getting passed Tessmann on lap 1 before settling into third, Cavalieri said his race started off good until he crashed at the step up. Dropping back to 7th, he said with ‘bobbles from a few guys in front’ helped him make his way back to third and he was able to ‘hold on to it’ until the end. Behind Cavalieri, 2014 Champion David Ronnefalk would finish 4th the HB driver having held a podium placing before a mistake with 2-minutes to go. Tekno’s Joe Bornhorst and Kyosho’s Jared Tebo completed the Top 6.
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New in the Pits – JConcepts
JConcepts are debuting a number of new items here at the 2016 Dirt Nitro Challenge, the first of the recently released Triple Dees and the Lil Chasers. Available in a variety of compounds they work very well on slightly damp track conditions and are working very well here this weekend with Ryan Maifield taking the top spot in both buggy classes this weekend. The next new item is the Hybrid polycarbonate rear wing which is a pre trimmed wing that comes supplied with a two depths of plastic rear gurneys and two versions of each depth that can be mounted with or without the centre centre divider and all are mounted to the wing with a rear plastic brace to added strength and durability. Finally there is a set of Titanium turnbuckles for the TLR 8ight 4.0 for light weight and high strength.
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Denney, Rivkin & Savoya complete DNC Truggy grid
The 15 drivers who will battle it out to become the Truggy Champion at the 17th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge tonight is complete. With the B-Main offering the Top 3 a place on the back of the A-Main grid, it was pole sitter Tanner Denney who controlled the 30-minute encounter from start to finish, the new TLR signing winning by 6.5-seconds from former team-mate Spencer Rivkin and TLR’s other new recruit Renaud Savoya. Finishing 4th, the 2013 Top Qualifier Adam Drake will for the first time since the DNC moved to the Fear Farm not be on the grid for the main event. It was a disappointing race too for Drake’s Mugen team-mate Barry Pettit, running a competitive 3rd just after the 10-minute mark last year’s direct A-Main qualifier would suffer a plug failure.
Booking his first DNC Truggy A-Main start, Denney said ‘I started 1st, drove smooth and didn’t make any mistake other than just one bobble so it was a good race’. Running Pro-Line X3 Holeshots on his 8ight-T 4.0, he said ‘it got sketchy towards the end allowing Spencer to catch me but I was putting around’. His first race with Reds Racing and fitting a new engine for the final, the 20-year-old said it ran great despite having only two tanks on it before the race.
Not happy with his own performance over the race, Team Associated’s Rivkin said ‘I made a few driver errors and didn’t drive very well but I still bumped up which was the main thing and now I have a chance to win the A-Main’. Running blue compound JConcepts Reflex tyres on his RC8T3, the 17-year-old said his truck ‘was good’ but he plans to make a few changes ‘right before the Main’ for the cooler conditions, the B-Main running in what are distinctly much hotter conditions than those experienced in qualifying.
Finishing just 3/10ths off Rivkin, Savoya described his race as ‘great’. The Frenchman, who was a buggy podium finisher in 2014, started from 8th on the grid said he found his race form after switching to a JConcepts Silencer body for the final. Struggling with a lack of steering in qualifying, he said his RC Concept powered 8ight-T 4.0 now had extra steering in the 180 corners which allowed him to be competitive. It was ‘the best feeling (he had) with the truck’ but due to his starting position he struggled to get the full benefit of the new found pace saying ‘driving in the middle of the pack was tough’. Getting some clear track he would close on the leaders over the final 10-minutes but with Drake 15-seconds behind and it being ‘fricking fast at the front’ he settled for the final bump position on what he added were difficult conditions due to the track and the heat.
In the eBuggy B-Main, Drake would win the 10-minute encounter comfortably ahead of pole starter Steven Harris who had a close battle with Mark Sousa with all three Mugens progressing to the Main event. While he would set the fastest lap of the final, new Mugen signing Mike Truhe, who qualified directly for the Truggy A-Main, would miss the cut finishing fourth 2.7-seconds back on Sousa.
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