Tessman opens DNC as he finished in 2014

Although drivers got just a single round of practice on the opening day of the Dirt Nitro Challenge, defending double champion Ty Tessmann picked up from where he finished up the 2014 event by topping the buggy times having earlier in the day set the pace in truggy.  Tessmann set the fastest 3-consecutive laps from Ryan Maifield, the only driver other than the Canadian to win a DNC title since Joey Christensen moved his event to the Fear Farm in 2012, with Ryan Cavalieri completing the Top 3.

The only driver to do all 37-second laps on his fastest 3-consecutive lap time, Tessmann would end up 1.2 seconds faster than Maifield. Describing the run as ‘really good’, the HB driver declared himself ‘really happy’ with both his run and his D812. The Canadian said the track was not as hard as he thought it was going to be with him finding the rhythm section much easier than when he ran his eBuggy earlier in the day. Asked about his set-up he said changes would depend on how the track looks come Friday morning after the Truggies have done their three rounds of qualifying tomorrow but for now its working really good and he has no plans to change anything.

Maifield, who couldn’t break into the 37-second lap times, said his TLR 8ight was good but his Orion engine was ‘not perfect’.  Having plenty of power he said it was set too lean on the top end causing it to run on a couple of times over the jumps. With a better tune for Q1 along with clutch adjustment he said with these ‘it should be fine’ and he was pretty upbeat for Friday.

‘Actually felt really good’ was the reaction of Cavalieri who seemed slightly surprised by his Top 3 pace.  The Associated driver felt he ‘drove better that round’ compared to his truggy and eBuggy outings as the track was no longer fighting him. With his driving getting better and better as the short 6-minute run went on, he said the rhythm section was still where the most work was needed to improve his lap times.

Echoing the feelings of most drivers that getting just one round was practice was ‘crazy’, Cody King took his Kyosho to the 4th fastest time.  Running a brand new MP9, the former World Champion said it got better and better as he put laps on it and he was easily able to run a steady pace.  Having most difficulty at the rhythm section, which is turning out to be the track most important section, he said so far no one is consistent there but with more track time we should start to see drivers develop better lines through it.

Posting the fifth fastest time Tekno’s Ryan Lutz said the buggy ‘needs some changes’.  Running ‘so many new parts’ on the buggy, the one practice makes it hard to gauge how they are all working but he hopes after discussing things with his team he can better the car for Q1.  Feeling his driving has improved since his Truggy run he said he still could ‘really do with a second practice’.

Completing the Top 6, Jared Tebo said while he did no have as many clean laps as he would like to have had the run was ‘pretty good’.  Really happy with his new MX engined MP9, he said he didn’t watch enough of the heats prior to his and he lost out on seeing that compared to earlier in the day it was possible to run much harder.

Setting the fastest lap of the round, HB’s 16-year-old future prospect Tanner Stees would post the 7th fastest time.  Describing his OS powered D812 as safe to drive the Arizona driver was pleased with how he drove and his lack of mistakes.  He added his worst spot on the track was the step down after the woops section where he is running to the outside and getting his buggy up on two wheels with this something he needs to work on his qualifying.  Unfortunately for Stees’ fellow teenage HB team-mate, David Ronnefalk, his buggy practice would be very short lived as the Orion engine in his D812 moved after just one lap.

Behind Stees, Carson Wernimont would record the 8th fastest time.  Initially describing the run as ‘decent’ he went on to elaborate that he ‘kind of drove like shit’.  The 18-year-old said it took him a little bit to get his timing on the jumps right but in terms of his prototype RC8 set-up he said its very nearly there with just is a couple of changes needed for Friday.

Another driver to feel his driving let down a ‘decent run’ was Barry Pettit.  The Mugen driver said he made too many mistakes, with his timing on the jumps needing work.  Describing his MBX7R as having ‘a lot of traction’, he said for Friday he will need to take some steering away so as to make it easier to drive.  Behind Pettit, new team-mate Adam Drake completed the Top 10.

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Video – Truggy Practice Rd1

Tessmann tops truggy practice at DNC

Defending Truggy champion Ty Tessmann set the pace in the one & only round of practice on the opening day of the Dirt Nitro Challenge at the Fear Farm in Arizona. After a 4-hour delay to the start of the 16th running of the Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen signature event, the HB driver set the fastest three consecutive laps over the SWorkz of Austin Blair, with new HB team-mate David Ronnefalk completing the Top 3.  Originally set to run two rounds of practice, a total of 56 heats making up one complete round of all the 1:8 classes, the delayed start means that the second practice has been cut and now instead of reseeding the heats for Q1, they will now be reseed for Q2 based on the Q1 results.

With Joey’s fourth track creation at the Fear Farm, proving very positive with drivers, Tessmann said while conditions for the first run were a little loose the track was fun to drive.  Happy with how his D8T felt over the 6-minutes of track time with no changes planned for the morning’s scheduled first qualifier, the Canadian said he still need to get the rhythm section figured out.  Chasing a fourth consecutive win in the truggy class at the DNC, he said he also needed to pull himself back a little through the S-section so as not to carry too much speed and lose time in the off camber corners.

A-Main team driver Blair, who over 3-laps of the 37-second lap track was half a second off Tessmann, said his S350T felt really good.  Feeling he got into a good rhythm with the ‘fun track’ quickly he said of course there was room to still try to clean it up further but for a first run he was very happy.  Planning to leave his truggy unchanged, the 20-year-old said the only adjustment he needed to make was to his Protek engine which he said could do with a better tune on it.

His first nitro outing since making the switch from long time team Kyosho to HB, Ronnefalk said his truck felt really good a point backed up by him setting the fastest lap of practice with a 37.102.  Traditionally only racing truggy once a year at this event, the Swede said the HB had more punch lower down than he had with his Kyosho due to its gearing as well as having more steering.  Planning to leave his Orion powered example of the D8T unchanged for Q1, he said the track has turned out to be more fun to drive than it looked but added he still needs to get the rhythm section figured out.  He said this would make the track pretty easy but he has his concerns that the rhythms are going to blow out pretty bad.

Posting the fourth fastest time behind his former team-mate, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo was happy with his first run both in terms of how his truggy ran and how he adapted to the track.  Describing the track as ‘a really good layout’, the former DNC double winner, when the race was held at the Nitro Pit, said his timing on some of the jumps still need fine tuning with the triple after the straight away the main area he needed to improve on for tomorrow.  Making the switch to MX engines for 2015 season, Tebo said his truggy engine was a touch rich on the bottom end but he would rectify that for Q1.

Describing the track as ‘fun & challenging’, Barry Pettit posted the fifth fastest time.  Last year’s Truggy runner-up, the Mugen driver said other than going for a stiffer shock set-up on his MBX7T for Q1 he was going to wait for the track to come in before considering any other changes.  The 22-year-old said with just a single run with each of his three cars (Truggy, Buggy & eBuggy) it was going to be hard to get the track sorted particularly the timing of the jumps but once they go full into truggy qualifying tomorrow it should be easier.

Completing the Top 6 was Ryan Lutz, the factory Tekno driver one of the few not overly excited by the track layout,  Describing the layout as ‘OK’, he believes it wont be great to race on as there is a single line but added whether he is right or not ‘remains to be seen’.   Asked how he felt the practice went, he said ‘for my only run it was decent but I need to go up in the diff oils’.

Running his first nitro event for Team Associated, Carson Wernimont posted the 7th fastest time.  The teemager declared himself ‘pretty happy’ with the run considering the number of new parts they are running on the truggy, saying it was pretty close to what it needs to be in terms of set-up.

Taylor Peterson would be the fastest TLR in the single round of practice taking his 8ight-T 3.0 to the 8th fastest time despite his clutch screw coming out.  Not having raced for sometime, he said ‘the roller and corners kicked my ass but the track is really fun’.  For Q1 Petitt will run his truggy with stiffer rear shocks.  Setting the 12th fastest time, Ryan Maifield will also make the same change to his truggy.  Declaring ‘it was ok for the first round’, the TLR ace said he ‘thought (he) had it figured out for the last couple of laps’ and combined with his adjustments to the suspension all should be good for the morning.

Having only had the opportunity to run a few tanks prior to coming into the DNC running for Mugen, Adam Drake said his run to the ninth fastest time ‘felt ok’.  He said his MBX7T feels OK and he is just overdriving more than anything losing time at the end of the straight and with ‘over jumping stuff’.  Describing the face of the jumps as ‘so long’ he will make a clutch change on his Novarossi engine so as to get a more aggressive power band.

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Track Focus – Dirt Nitro Challenge (Fear Farm)

Track Name – Fear Farm
Organiser – Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen
Country – USA
Location – Phoenix, Arizona
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous DNC hosted – 2012, 2013 & 2014

Now in its 16th year of running, this is the fourth time Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen has held his signature Dirt Nitro Challenge race at the Fear Farm in Phoenix, Arizona, and the event is showing no signs of a let-up in its popularity with the 1:8 track alone attracting 800 entries, that’s 56 heats mostly containing 15 cars.  Such an entry is sure to add to the endurance test that DNC’s long days bring, something that was not helped by the first day of the 5-day event getting underway 4-hours late!

At first glance this year’s track is, by Joey’s standards, a rather simple looking layout. Anticipating another record entry, Joey said this was a key factor when creating the 2015 layout as he wanted a track that would better cater for a wider range of driver abilities. Describing the layout as ‘more technical than difficult’, he said the track does look easier than it is but the timing sections and the raised-up off camber hips are going to make ‘fast laps not so easy’.  With the forecast giving no rain for the duration of the event Joey has also been able to dig deep and create a lot of elevation changes.  One key change over last year is the direction which now runs clockwise with the first big elevation change coming at the start of the lap with a huge step up onto the main straight.

On site three days prior to the Superbowl, which took place at the nearby University of Phoenix Stadium on February 1st, Joey has been able to dedicate a week to the building of each track, 1:8, 1:10 and large scale, with him very proud of the fact all three tracks share the same configuration.  Raining for the first 4-days of the build, with this pretty much halting construction work, Joey said overall it was of benefit in terms of working the dirt.

Winner of both Truggy & Buggy last year, successfully defending his title double from the previous year, Ty Tessmann gave the track layout a big thumbs up saying it ‘looks cool’.   HB’s World Champion said he expects the track to be a little more challenging than it looks adding the timing sections and the ‘cool burm triple’ would be the most challenging aspects.  The Canadian added that there were a few areas where time could be made up but at the same time it would be easy to overshoot and give away time.  Overall the general opinion of the layout among the top drivers is positive with Adam Drake, who is racing after putting together a late deal to run for Mugen for the event, believing the layout will make for good racing.

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