More photos in the ROAR Nats Galleries

More photos in the ROAR Nats Galleries

More photos in the ROAR Nats Galleries

The final race of the day, the grand finale – the big finish – different names but Adam Drake can now call himself a worthy three-time ROAR National Buggy Champion – a feat no other driver has managed in 1/8 offroad.

The final started out with Tessmann on pole after a mighty semi performance – the newly crowned back-to-back truggy Champion sending shivers through his competitiors spines. Tessmann led  them out, a tiny bobble on the first lap ensured that Drake was on his tail, but never really close enough to send one down the inside ‘Austin Blair style!’ – anyway, Tessmann built a lead of around 6-7 secs, it became apparent that Drake had kept pretty quiet about his fuel mileage advantage, with Tessmann pitting around the 7:30 – 8 min mark, Truhe 9 and Drake going 10mins setting up an old school final.

For much of the final Tessmann had a fairly comfortable gap – Drake assuming the role that some thought impossible – reeling him in, indeed it didn’t come down to on track racing or in the pits but Tessmann losing a rear center driveshaft pin on the back straight, cue a collective gasp amongst the crowd (perhaps even a few drivers), Gord and Leann, pitting for their son tried in vain to fix the problem but Ty was soon sadly walking down boulevard of broken dreams – managing to win truggy and coming close to doing the same in buggy.

Meanwhile upfront, Drake’s pace meant he had a pretty good half a lap’s worth of lead of the fighting Truhe, Maifield and King, Truhe soon managed to drive his way into a brilliant second place, whilst the last podium spot went to Cody King – Billy Fischer with 10 to go was in contention but broke his car with 1:30 left, Maifield limped around on the last lap to claim 4^th and a great 5^th for Drew Moller, evergreen AKAman Mark Pavidis chose the adage of ‘first you must finish’. All in all a sad end to Tessmann’s title defense, not to mention the dramatic semis but it came down making sure your car could finish, Drake – a wily fox made his pit strategy work wonders for him as well as a complete podium lock out for Pro-Line – the tyres to beat this weekend.

Sunday Photo Gallery

Overall Buggy Results (PDF)

The first semi saw only five of thirteen drivers cross the finishing line, Ryan Lopez ending up 6^th one corner from the finishing line, the biggest upset came when Cavalieri, running comfortably 4^th flamed out, he would make it out a few seconds behind Drew Moller with a slim chance of making it in retrospective but another engine cut a lap later saw a very disappointed 4x World Champion walk off the drivers stand and head for the pits – an end to a weekend to forget for Cavalieri having missed out on the truggy main, the nature of the track and some bad luck costing him.

The second semi if anything was even more dramatic as Phend made it to lap 2 before his throttle servo expired on the step up jump – Top Qualifier: OUT. Despite this massive disappointment Dakotah handled it very maturely, composing himself before watching the rest of the semi unfold. Unfold it did as Dylan Rodriguez was the next to retire, he’d make it back out later on but to no great gain, after the palpable gasps of ‘No Phend in the final’ had died down, Tebo who was in hot pursuit with Maifield and Truhe flamed out, pitman Joe Pillars helplessly trying to resuscitate the stricken buggy in pitlane. A long lonely early walk back to the pits is how his 2013 nationals campaign ended, the track and hard landings appears to be taking a huge toll on cars, the one-hour final is sure to test the cars to their limits and beyond.

Final Starting Grid:
1. Ty Tessmann
2. Adam Drake
3. Ryan Lutz
4. Ryan Maifield
5. Mike Truhe
6. Cody King
7. Billy Fischer
8. Josh Wheeler
9. Drew Moller
10. Carson Wernimont
11. Tyler Vik
12. Mark Pavidis
13. Jake Dellinger

Ty Tessmann used his P1 start position to its fullest extent as he completed a dominant lights to flag victory amidst the humid Texas conditions. Tessmann led away from the start, followed by Dakotah Phend, although it was apparent Tessmann immediately floored the gas pedal – pulling away at the start, Sebastian Vettel-style. After a couple of laps Phend began to fall back and soon suffered from problems, this promoted Mike Truhe whose TLR truggy looked fast and the only potential challenger, Ryan Lutz had a decent start but tagging Adam Drake badly he had to do a stop and go which dropped him back a bit into the pack .During the first half of the final Mike Truhe tried in vain to keep up with Tessmann’s relentless pace and awe-inspiring consistency which saw him churn out lap after lap of near perfection. However by the 30 minute mark Tessmann had a lap on everyone in the field – Ryan Maifield had briefly been running second, in a three-way battle for the position with Truhe and Tebo, but the Kyosho and Associated drivers expired within a few laps of each other, promoting Ryan Lutz, to third, Truhe looked to have a fairly comfortable 2^nd but was caught and passed by Ryan Lutz on lap 77, Lutz stuck behind Tessmann towards the end and the field watched as Ty deservedly crossed the line as 2x consecutive ROAR National Truggy Champion.

Whilst P1 for buggy qualifying concluded at the end of Q3, the rest of the spots in the semi and start order were all up for grabs – Truhe nabbing Q4 in a last lap dash effort, although on tiebreak Tessmann came out on top and will start in first in the other semi final. One of the most noteworthy items to discuss is the same top 4 as the truggy class (different order though) – looking at the equipment it does again point to tyres, in particular the TLR & Pro-Line combo – seems to work particularly well on this high bite track of Gulf Coast RC Raceway. That said, Phend dominated Q1 to Q3 and had a pretty dire Q4, not making it more than three corners before his car expired – it’s never good as a racer to have a poor run and then suffer a long wait before hitting the track again – having said that, Phend is probably young and carefree enough to put on his rather iconic shades and ‘its on’.

The question on most peoples’ lips… Phend or Tessmann ?

Defending Truggy Champion Ty Tessmann successfully held off potential challengers over four rounds of qualifying lasting two days here at the 2013 ROAR Gas Offroad nats outside Houston Texas, he leads an unprecedented 1,2,3,4 for Pro-Line, whose tyres are excelling on the high bite indoor-style conditions, likewise the TLR cars both in truggy and buggy seem to have a pace many others find tough to live with. Tessmann claimed TQ with a trait he is best known for – consistency, he TQ’d the opening qualifier and then made sure he drove at a pace which consistently saw him finish at the top,the result – P1 for the A main on Sunday (A,B,C mains for truggy and ROAR ladder for buggy).

The final heat of qualifying at the 2013 ROAR Gas Offroad nats saw a surprise TQ in the form of Mike Truhe – taking the top spot by just over a tenth of a second as Ty Tessmann had a slightly slow last lap, Cody King would go third for the round whilst Jared Tebo would take P4 – cheered on by his wife Megan and cutie Rosalynn – watching daddy steer his MP9 around a track showing signs of extreme grip now. Dakotah Phend – pacesetter from the word go in quali didn’t even make the start as his car rolled to a stop on the outlap – cue frantic actions to try and restart him before conceding defeat – whilst bad luck struck Phend (he’ll be glad to get it out of the way before finals), Ryan Maifield managed to have  a largely hassle-free run putting in a time good enough for 6^th overall. The result should see him back the semis after a drama-filled ROAR Nats.

Q4 Buggy
1 Mike Truhe – 16/7:12.939
2 Ty Tessmann – 16/7:13.094
3 Cody King – 16/7:16.217
4 Jared Tebo – 16/7:19.232
5 Ryan Lutz – 16/7:19.377
6 Ryan Maifield – 16/7:19.483
7 Carson Wernimont – 16/7:20.967
8 Billy Fischer – 16/7:21.373
9 Tyler Vik – 16/7:23.974
19 Ryan Cavalieri – 16/7:24.029
11 Barry Pettit – 16/7:24.905
12 Steven Hartson – 16/7:25.422
13 Ryan Lopez – 16/7:26.357
14 Drew Moller – 16/7:28.310