Cavalieri on pole for Buggy Main

Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri will start the 1-hour Buggy Main at the ROAR Nationals from pole after winning the first of the Semis in a faster time than Jared Tebo who starts second. Cavalieri lapped everyone up to second placed Ty Tessmann in the 30 minute encounter, being the only driver to run a 29 second lap in either Semis.  Top Qualifier Tebo took his Kyosho a relatively easy win crossing the finish line over half a lap up on newly crowned Truggy Champion Ryan Maifield who will challenge for the double from 4th on the grid behind Tessmann.

Lining up as the top Losi on what has been a great day for the youngster, Dakotah Phend will carry number six and is joined by his senior team-mate Adam Drake.  The former champion starts 8th behind current World Champion Cody King who beat him to third in the second of the Semis.

Runner up last year, Jesse Robbers makes it two Hot Bodies in the final with his CR8 prototype starting from the eight spot ahead of the only Mugen, which will be driven by Taylor Peterson.  Making it into final as one of the fastest drivers outside of the Top 5, bad boy Jeremy Kortz is next up with his Hobao.

Completing the 12 drivers who can still become the 2011 Buggy Champion are Associated duo JR Mitch, the other fastest finisher, and Clint Wachter who was fifth in the first Semi.

Crowned champion the last time Thunder Alley hosted the Nationals and on the podium 12 months ago Mike Truhe was one of the big casualties of the Semis along with 2006 World Champion Mark Pavidis.  Truhe, who suffered a broken shock in the Truggy final, was forced to retire after just three laps when the carb on his N-Vision engine jammed.  In contention for a bump up spot Pavidis ran out of fuel just as the race entered the final 10 minutes.  Also stopping on track was Travis Amezcua ending a disappointing event for the factory Mugen driver.

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Maifield wins Truggy

Ryan Maifield is the 2011 ROAR Truggy Champion after taking his Associated RC8T to a convincing victory over outgoing champion & Top Qualifier Jared Tebo with Hot Bodies’ Jesse Robbers completing the podium at Thunder Alley in Southern California.

In a race that provided plenty of early excitement as Tebo, Maifield, Ryan Cavalieri and Cody King battled it out for the lead, Maifield took command of proceeding as the race reached the halfway point.  With Tebo, Cavalieri and Maifield all taking turns at leading, a pass by the latter on Tebo at the 21 minute mark was the deciding moment of the race.  Pulling a pass on the Kyosho which saw the two collide in the air, the 2007 Champion took to the front from where he was never headed again.

After the race Maifield said the main was all about tyres and sacrificing his early pace his choice of JConcepts Crossair yellow compound worked perfectly, a fact that was backed up by his ability to set the fastest lap of the race on lap 80 of 91.  Enjoying his early battle with Tebo, Cavalieri and King, the Arizona ace said he lost his nerve a little when he had a crash of his own doing in the burm which caused him to get out of his rythm for a while.

Finishing second over 10-seconds adrift of the winner, Tebo said he did not have the right tyre for today’s dry conditions.  Running AKA Grid Iron in the Semi, they were bald after the 25-minute encounter leaving him no option but to run City Block in 45-minute main. Struggling for the start he said he will go back to work with AKA to make a new Truggy tyre and together they’ll be back next year to regain the title.

Third placed Robbers said the track was really difficult to drive in the final.  After a bad start that left him second to last he worked his way back through the field and in the end was involved in the most interesting battle of the closing stages of the race.  Describing the conditions as ‘so hard’ he said he had to keep telling himself to back off and that worked as he found a way passed Cavalieri with three minutes to go to take the final step on the podium from last year’s runner up. Having led the race for seven laps Cavalieri said he just made a few mistakes and thats what cost him the race.

Ty Tessmann, the only driver to top Tebo in qualifying, struggled in the conditions which he said had a level of high traction he was just not used too.  In the end the Canadian had to settle for fifth.  The youngest driver in the final Dakota Phend completed the Top 6 with, the promising 14-year-old the highest place Losi.  Team-mate Mike Truhe lost five laps early in the race as had to change a broken front shock on his 8ight and he was classified 11th.

Other drivers to hit trouble where Dylan Rodriguez and Billy Easton.  The only Mugen in the final Rodriguez was enjoying a solid run until he lost throtlle due to an unknown electrical fault.  Serpent driver Easton had a steering rod come undone on his Cobra T which he was able to fix leaving him to finish 10th on the same lap as Truhe.

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Kyosho take both Truggy Semis

Team Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and Cody King have won the Semi finals for Truggy at the ROAR Nationals with defending champion & Top Qualifier Tebo set to start the 45-minute main from pole.  The first of the 25-minute Semis saw King cruise to a rather easy win over Hot Bodies duo Ty Tessmann and Jesse Robbers while Tebo had to fend off close attention of Associated’s Ryans Maifield and Cavalieri in a more lively and faster affair.  As a result Maifield and Cavalieri, who posted the fastest lap, will line-up 2nd and 3rd respectively on the grid with Cody fourth.

TLR will be represented by Mike Truhe and the youngest of the starters, emerging talent Dakotah Phend, who start in 7th and 8th spot. Adam Drake’s chances of progressing ended just as he completed the first lap with his Novarossi powered 8ight flaming out.  Rejoining the race he was to suffer a second flame out finishing a distant 10th.

Making its debut at the Nationals Serpent’s new Cobra-T will be represented in the final after a busy morning for Billy Easton.  Qualifying in the Quarter finals he bumped up to the Semi before going on to finish fifth after a close battle with JR Mitch and Josh Wheeler, who having to wait on the result of the second Semi, go to the main event due to being the fastest drivers to finish outside the Top 5.

Some big names failing to progress from the Semi include 2010 finalists Travis Amezcua and Ryan Lutz, Lutz suffering a broken rear drive shaft on his Alpha powered Mugen.  Mark Pavidis came close to bumping up but will be reeling from a Stop & Go penalty he got for jumping the start as he finished 6th in the second of the Semi’s just 2.4 seconds behind SoCal ace Dylan Rodriguez who lines up last on the grid as the sole Mugen.

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Defending Champion claims TQ double at ROAR Nats

What can best be described as an uneventful evening at the final day of qualifying for the ROAR Offroad Nationals, defending champion Jared Tebo continued his domination to add Truggy to the Buggy TQ honour that he wrapped earlier in the day. With Hot Bodies Ty Tessmann having taken the opening round of Truggy qualifying yesterday, the Canadian went into Q4 with a chance of denying Tebo a repeat of his 2008 performance, when the classes ran as separate events.  The 18-year-old could only manage third as Tebo topped the time sheets for a third time followed by Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri.

Despite being confirmed the Top Qualifier for Buggy after Q3, Tebo was not yet done proving he had the fastest package.  In an impressive display of his ability the Kansas City driver completed the clean sweep as he topped the final qualifier of these championships from Cavalieri and Xray’s Josh Wheeler, who enjoyed a great run to third. Tebo’s 100% domination of the buggy class has not been seen at the Nationals since Team Mugen’s Travis Amezcua pulled it off in 2006.

Although he will go into the record books as the Top Qualifier of the 2011 Nationals, Tebo’s job at Thunder Alley is far from done.  The first obstacle to successfully defending his title is the Semi finals from which the Top 5 from each and next fastest two drivers bump up up to the 45-minute Truggy and 1-hour Buggy Main.

Our coverage which has been made possible by Team Durango along with the support of Pro-Line, continues tomorrow when we will start with updates from the 1/2 Finals.

View the complete finals listing here.

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Jared Tebo sews up Buggy TQ

Continuing his domination at the ROAR Nationals, Jared Tebo has sewn up overall TQ honours for the Buggy class with one round of qualifying still left to run.  The defending champion put the honour beyond his rivals reach when he backed up TQ runs in Q1 & 2 with another time sheet topping drive in round 3 heading home Ryan Cavalieri and Jesse Robbers.

Expecting cooler conditions for the round, Tebo softened his AKA Impact shod MP9 which he said afterwards was the wrong call. Describing the track as getting harder to drive, the 24-year-old said it was really edgy making it very easy to crash, something he did twice allowing Cavalieri to challenge, only for him to also have a moment. Tebo rates the Associated driver as his biggest threat right now for the final but said if Ryan Maifield, who was fourth in Q3, can run with less mistakes he too will be in the hunt in the 1-hour Main on Sunday.

Describing the track conditions as being ‘in between tyres’ Cavalieri said his Proline Holeshot equipped RC8B had a little too much grip but overall it felt good.  Putting the slower times down to a hole which is developing on the step up the Californian said his focus for the final round will be on tweaking his tyre choice.

Third fastest, Hot Bodies’ Robbers said with the track getting bumpy and the traction being so high he took a very cautious approach which paid off in the end despite one mistake.  Running HB Megabite tires on his prototype CR8 he will adjust the set-up to reduce the amount of steering which should make the buggy easy to drive.

The round marked a big improvement from Team Losi Racing’s lead drivers with Adam Drake and Mike Truhe, setting the 5th & 6th fastest times.  Drake, who suffered with his engine flaming out in both classes yesterday, said his 8ight has been good every time but this was his first real clean run.  Describing the track as ‘super grippy’ the 2009 Champion said he plans to make small changes to try and make his buggy a little more comfortable to drive.

Team-mate Truhe, who won the title the last time Thunder Alley host the Nationals, summed up his performance with ‘a new day, a new approach’.  Having not featured yesterday the 2008 Champion totally changed direction with the set-up on his n-Vision powered example, which has made it more driveable and stable.  Saying that ‘real qualifying’ starts tomorrow, when all drivers will have to bump up from a Semi to make the Main, he plans to try a few more changes for this evening’s fourth and final qualifier.

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