Team: Associated
Neighbours: Spencer Rivkin (front), “Dyno” (left)
Charger: Orion Touch
Tools: MIP/Team Associated/Makita drill
Setup Tools: Upgrade RC buggy setup board, Tuning Haus truggy setup board, GHEA ride height gauges
Car Stand: Upgrade RC
Transport Bag: OGIO
Features: AKA mini pump bottle/CA Glue, Kicker wireless speaker, Mx fuel can, Simple Green spay bottle, iPhone6+, LV wallet, Prada sunglasses case, Starbuck’s iced coffee.
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With Ryan Maifield having wrapped up the overall Buggy TQ at the Dirt Nitro Challenge in the second qualifier, the third & final round was all about determining the starting order behind the defending champion. Despite a poor concluding heat it would be Dakotah Phend who gets second on the grid for a TLR 1-2 as their rivals failed to deliver. With a P3 each, only Ty Tessmann and David Ronnefalk could demote Phend from the second he held all day behind his team-mate but needing a TQ to separate the two TLR driver at the front of the grid they could only manage 5th and 8th respectively in Q3. Maifield, showing no signs of letting up despite having bagged his third class TQ of the Fear Farm event earlier in the day, would make it a clean sweep as he again put his 8ight 4.0 at the top of the times. The slowest of Maifield’s three TQ runs in buggy, it would be the closest of the qualifiers with long standing rival Ryan Cavalieri getting to within half a second while an impressive drive from TLR’s Cole Ogden gave him a P3 for the round. Cavalieri’s P2 time would secure the Associated driver 3rd on the grid with Tessmann set to start 4th and Ronnefalk 7th in front of Ogden.
Pleased to get second overall, Phend said for Q3 he ‘just tried some tyres for the final and they didn’t work’ leaving his 8ight ‘way too edgy’. Struggling to the 10th fastest time, the 19-year-old said he would ‘rather try now and know they (the tyres) don’t work rather than find out in the final’ adding the poor result was ‘no big problem’. Planning to run different tyres in the Sunday A-Main practice, he said with the track ‘not super abrasive’ it gives all drivers more tyres options for the 45-minute encounter and overall he is pretty confident he can fight for his first DNC title.
‘The transponder counted’ joked Cavalieri as he put in his best showing the day, the former champion adding ‘we had that speed all day’. Suffering transponder issues in Q2 which left him with no time, he changed both his receiver and transponder leaving him with no issues over the final 7-minute qualifier. Needing a result from Q3, he said ‘I could have pushed harder but needed a result. I’m happy to be right there (in terms of pace)’. ‘Pumped with third’ on the grid, the Californian feels his complete package is ‘looking good for the final’. Cavalieri’s team-mate Spencer Rivkin managed only a 7th in Q3 but his earlier P6 & 4 run means the 2WD World Champion starts 5th with Jared Tebo, who ended qualifying with a P4 run, completing the Top 6 line-up.
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Ryan Maifield pulled off the TQ triple at The Dirt Nitro Challenge as he added the overall buggy TQ to yesterday’s Truggy and eBuggy haul. Having topped the opening round of buggy qualifying at the Fear Farm, the reigning champion again led a TLR 1, 2 from Dakotah Phend to wrap up one round early the overall TQ for the blue ribbon class at the 17th running of the Joey Christensen event. Again it would be HB that provided the closest challenger this time Ty Tessmann finishing third as David Ronnefalk, 3rd in Q1, ran out of fuel on his penultimate lap.
Having inherited the TQ in the opening round after a late error by Spencer Rivkin, in Q2 Maifield controlled the pace from start to finish over the 7-minutes. Making ‘quite a few changes’ to his 8ight 4.0 having found it ”edgy’ in Q1, this made the buggy ‘super predictable’. Also making changes to ‘smooth out’ the power of his Reds Racing engine he said this also ‘helped a lot’. Sticking with Tessmann at the start of the run as his benchmark, he said when they called the Canadian second he ‘chilled’. With no laps being called until the end, he said he didn’t know how he was on pace compared to team-mate Phend who ran a TQ pace the round earlier but ‘luckily (he) was going fast enough to beat Dakotah’. ‘Stoked to TQ all three (classes)’, he said ‘hopefully in the mains I’ll have good runs’ adding ‘the driver without mistakes is the one whose going to take the win’.
Making further changes to his Orion powered example of the 8ight, Phend said he ‘felt more comfortable’ with the car second time round. The 19-year-old said the track was ‘more grooved up and a lot more slippery but overall he and his car are ‘getting better & better’ each run. Suffering ‘one big mistake’, that cost him 3-seconds on the third lap, looking to make it a Team Losi Racing 1-2 on the grid for Sunday’s 45-minute Main, he said ‘I dont think I’ll change anything as the car is really good’.
‘It started good. I thought I was in the clear with Maifield behind me but then he was right there’, was how Tessmann summed up Q2. Four laps in the 2-time DNC Buggy Champion would case the far right triple allowing Maifield past after which he said he followed him for the rest of the heat. Considering his mistake which cost him over 2-seconds, the World Champion said he was happy with a 3rd. Having struggled with his tyre choice in Q1 he said a switch to Pro-Line X3 Holeshots made his D815 ‘much better’. With his main goal for the third & final qualifier ‘no mistakes’ he will ‘maybe run lighter shock oil and M3s (tyre compound)’ for the cooler night time conditions.
Despite a ‘first lap tumble’, Rivkin said the second heat went ‘really good’. The Associated star said his RC8B3 was ‘so easy to drive (he) could drive it blind folded’. Admitting to getting a little anxious towards the end, the 2WD Offroad World Champion said ‘Maifield put in a good run and deserved it (the overall TQ)’. Confident in his car he said he would ‘go for it in the last round and see how it shapes out’. His senior team-mate Ryan Cavalieri would have a bad run, transponder issues leaving him with no time for the round.
Making his first nitro race outing with Team Losi Racing, Tanner Denney posted the fifth fastest time. Describing track conditions as ‘really hard’, changing to a softer tyre, going from X3 to M3 Holeshots, as well as a stiffer rear swaybar, he said his 8ight was a lot more stable and forgiving. Looking to the final qualifier the 20-year-old said, ‘hopefully I can keep it going for Q3’.
Completing the Top 6 Jared Tebo summed up the second round of qualifying as ‘a lot better than the first one’. With all four tyres coming unglued on the first lap, in Q2 the Kyosho driver ‘had a good run’ except for a ‘really big mistake’. Getting his MP9 up on two wheels he said as he corrected it it clipped the piping sending his buggy bouncing across the track and into a spin all of which resulted in the loss of almost 4-seconds. The 2011 Champion, that win coming at the Nitro Pit before the event moved to the Fear Farm, said as his buggy ‘felt OK’, he doesn’t plan to make any changes for the final qualifier needing a good run to book a direct spot in the A-Main. Behind last year’s podium finisher his team-mate Cody King would post the 7th fastest time followed by TLR’s Cole Ogden and HB’s Tanner Stees, with Adam Drake rounding out the Top 10 for Mugen.
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Chassis – HB D815
Engine – OS 2101B Tessmann Edition
Tyres – Pro-Line Holeshot X3
Fuel – VP
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Protek
Body – Pro-Line Type-R
Remarks – The Fear Farm is the home track for Arizona native Tanner Stees, the young HB driver very familiar with the surface here, a track at which he does a lot of testing with his D815. Making only slight changes to his car for the different conditions using thicker oil during the warm temperatures, to settle the car on the bumpy surface he has gone to 5 hole 1.5mm shock pistons from his usual 6 hole 1.3mm pistons. In terms of tires he has stuck with Pro-Line Holeshot but played around between M3 and X3, the latter being the compound of choice so far.
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Chassis – TLR 8ight 4.0
Engine – Reds R5 Team
Tyres – JConcepts Triple Dees Green
Fuel – Sidewinder
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts Silencer
Remarks – Reigning DNC Buggy Champion Ryan Maifield has done a lot of testing with the 8ight 4.0 ahead of this race and came to this year’s DNC with a good base setup. Having changed away from that for the opening round of qualifying he has changed back to the setup he started with for the 2nd round. An interesting point is that Ryan has been playing with oil mixtures in his Sidewinder fuel, switching between 50/50 castor synthetic oil mix and a 20/80 mix, the former with more castor oil proving better for the engine in the dusty and high temperature conditions.
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