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.

View our event image gallery here.

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.

View our event image gallery here.

Tebo on target for TQ double at Thunder Alley

Defending double champion Jared Tebo looks to be on target to TQ both classes here at the US Off Road Nationals as he opened Day 4 at the top of the times sheets for the third round of Truggy Qualifying.  The Kyosho ace, who has topped every qualifier bar the opening Truggy round, which went to Ty Tessmann, took Q3 ahead of the Canadian Hot Bodies driver and Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri.

While Tessmann set the fastest lap of what has been the slowest round so far, with no driver making 15 laps, it was Cavalieri who mounted the biggest challenge to Tebo.  Jumping to the top of the timing with 2 minutes to go Cavalieri them but his Orion powered RC8T on it roof a few corners later. Team-mate Ryan Maifield took his LRP powered example to the fourth fastest time ahead of TLR young gun Drew Moller.

From the top heat both Cody King and Billy Easton retired during the warm-up.  King went out when his Kyosho lost a wheel pin in the warm-up while Billy Easton had to retire his Serpent before the start when a heavy impact to the rear side by another truck damaged the rear drive train.  King said afterwards it was better to loose the pin now than in a final but admitted the pressure is on for the final qualifier with only one decent run to his name when he finished fifth in the opening round.

View our event image gallery here.

Tebo again in Buggy Q2

Defending ROAR Champion Jared Tebo backed up his opening qualifying run with a second TQ run in Buggy to leave him top of the qualification standings at the end of Day 3 of the US Offroad Nationals.  Tebo’s Kyosho topped the time sheets for the final run of the day from the Associated of Ryan Maifield and World Champion Cody King.

The only driver to make 15-laps in Q2, Tebo said conditions were very edgy compared to the morning and he was not sure if that was down to change in temperature or the track being more bumpy.  Having changed the front shock oil on his AKA equipped MP9 the 24-year-old from Kansas City said his buggy was really good and other than some real minor adjustments his focus for tomorrow is to test tyres for Sunday’s finals.

Despite making changes to the down travel on the front end, which he said made his RC8B too aggressive, Maifield looked like he might challenge Tebo for the round. Setting the fastest lap for Q2, his chances of a TQ run ended when he got caught up in an incident which happened ahead of him on the track costing him around 2 seconds.  The pace setter in practice, Maifield summed up the first day of qualifying as ‘not bad but not as good as yesterday’.

Only 12th fastest in Q1 King was pleased with 3rd showing he could run the same pace as the top guys. With his Kyosho working well after changes, the 24-year-old Californian said he had a really good opening part to the run but then made a couple of bobbles but overall it was good to end the day on a ‘good note’.

Taking his Hot Bodies to fourth Ty Tessmann described the run as ‘pretty good’. Choosing Proline’s new long pin Blockade he said they worked well for the conditions but the set-up on his D8 still needs work.  With 22 groups to run before him tomorrow the 18-year-old plans to wait to see how conditions pan out before deciding what changes are required.

Behind Tessmann Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz took his Alpha powered DNX408 to the fifth fastest time just ahead of Ryan Cavalieri who said his Associated was good but maybe the driver needed to calm down a little.  Team-mate Steve Hartson enjoyed a good run with the eight fastest time behind Jesse Robbers’ Hot Bodies CR8. Rounding out the Top 10 Adam Drake was the fastest Losi in 9th and while Taylor Peterson was the lead Mugen in 10th ahead of Billy Easton’s Serpent.

Qualifying resumes in the morning with drivers having two more opportunities to make their mark.  Our coverage which is supported by Team Durango continues with news from Q3 for truggy.

View our event image gallery here.