Maifield wins Dirt Nitro Challenge

Ryan Maifield took a convincing victory at the 14th running of the world famous Dirt Nitro Challenge, the Associated driver winning the blue ribbon Buggy A-main of the Arizona event comfortably over Top Qualifier Jared Tebo and team-mate Ryan Cavalieri. For outgoing champion Ty Tessmann who last night successfully defended his Truggy title a difficult race following a strong start by the factory HB driver left him 6th at the end of the 45-minute encounter.

Overall not a very entertaining race the start did produce a good battle between Maifield and World Championship Top Qualifier Elliott Boots. Starting from 4th on the grid the talented British driver who was making his US race debut this weekend went to the front on lap 2 leading Maifield for 6 laps. Unfortunately on lap 9 the Kyosho team driver would retire with a broken MP9, unearthing a large rock in the front single double double section it damaged the buggy causing it to go straight on into the straw bails at the end of the back straight later in the lap pulling a rear kingpin from its insert. Afterwards the 19-year-old said when he hit and uprooted the rock, sending his buggy up into the air, it didn’t feel right and the contact with the bail just finished off the damage that had been already done. With Boots out Maifield would lead the rest of the race totally untroubled.

Winner of Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s signature race back in 2009, Maifield who after finishing 2nd in the Truggy Main yesterday said he was up for the Buggy win, was very happy with his performance adding everything went exactly to plan. Starting from second on the grid and taking the lead on the opening lap when Tebo ended up on his roof, he said the opening few laps with Boots had him nervous as he was ‘hauling ass’. With the demise of Boots, Maifield was able to pace himself saying that the biggest battle was not between the drivers but with the track, which at the end of four very long days of racing was beginning to get very rough. Running JConcepts Metrix tyre in red compound, Maifield said he was happy with how his equipment performed which worked really well in the tough conditions.

Tebo said after the race that he is never happy to finish second but following his terrible opening lap and engine wows he couldn’t be too disappointed with his recovery. Forced to wait to be marshaled as the entire field went by his stranded MP9, the 2011 DNC winner said his engine kept running on into the corners and he had to keep pumping the brake to get it slowed down enough. Saying it probably looked to onlookers that he was ‘driving like a maniac’ he said his AKA shod buggy drove well, backed up by his fastest lap of the race, but the engine issue cost him any chance of the win.

Making it two Associated’s on the podium, Cavalieri said his stuff was really good and it was mistakes that cost him a shot of the win. Starting 7th on the grid he said having made his way up to second he felt great and was able to hold station with his team-mate. Around the 20-minute mark the current electric offroad World Champion made a series of mistakes which he said put him out of his rhythm and he lost contact with Maifield dropping back to third behind Tebo. Overall a rather dull race, Cavalieri and Tebo did liven things up a little in the closing laps. Getting passed Tebo on the penultimate lap, Cavalieri on the same lap got his landing off the huge step-up wrong, his Orion powered RC8 having to ride the pipping. Running off the track this meant he couldn’t take the triple allowing Tebo to jump over him for second which he would hold to the finish.

One of the drives of the final came from Team Durango’s Carsten Wernimont. Having bumped up from the B-Main, the 16-year-old started 14th and through a steady solid drive came home an impressive fourth just ahead of Xray’s Renaud Savoya and Tessmann. Wernimont said he couldn’t be happier with how the race went. Failing to finish last year’s final he said the goal was just to try and go the full distance and with his DNX408 working really well the result far exceeded his expectations.

Having made a great start to the race from 12th on the grid holding third at the end of lap 1, Tessmann said he struggled with a lack of forward grip. This caused him to case the double on the next lap dropping the Canadian back to sixth. Describing the track as ‘brutal’ he said after the positive start it ‘went down hill from there’ leading him to get a little frustrated resulting in a number of driver errors. Dropping back as far as 12th, he got back up as far as 5th, eventually crossing the finish line in 6th almost 2 laps down on new Champion Maifield.

Mike Truhe, who won the B-Main to secure his spot in the final, would finish as the top TLR driver in 7th. Team-mate Adam Drake, who started 3rd, had a tough final which eventually came to an end with just 4 minutes to go as he broke the rear suspension on the landing off the step up. It was a weekend not to remember for TLR young star Dakotah Phend, not making the Truggy Main, the 16-year-old just scrapped into the Buggy final but on 25-minutes he broke a rear shock tower.

Another grueling Dirt Nitro Challenge completed, with snow, hail, high winds and cold nights, Red RC would like to thank Proline for providing with our office for the event and JConcepts for making sure we had an internet connection. We look forward to next year’s endurance test which should see some extra celebrations as Joey puts on his 15th Dirt Nitro Challenge.

Buggy A-Main Result
1.(2) Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 68/45:14.639
2.(1) Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 68/45:38.534
3.(7) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 67/45:01.539
4.(14)Carson Wernimont – Durango/OS Speed – 66/45:02.956
5.(5) Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 66/45:04.572
6.(12)Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 66/45:15.390
7.(13)Mike Truhe – TLR/TOP – 65/45:23.993
8.(10)Drew Moller – Kyosho/Orion – 65/45:33.421
9.(11)Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 65/45:36.608
10.(9)Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi – 64/45:27.786
11.(8)Cody King – Kyosho/Reds – 62/45:31.796
12.(3)Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi – 59/41:07.819
13.(15)Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 35/24:57.328
14.(4)Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/6:07.536
15.(6)Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS – 4/3:00.744

View our event image gallery here.

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

View our event image gallery here.

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

View our event image gallery here.