Chassis: TLR 8ight 3.0 – 2013 ROAR 1/8 Buggy National Champion
Engine: Novarossi Plus 21-4BTTS – World Champion, EFRA 9901 exhaust
Tyres: Pro-Line Blockade X2
Fuel: Nitrotane
Radio & Servos: Spektrum & Hitec HS–8380TH (Steering), Hitec HS-8370TH (Throttle)
Notes: Fuel mileage of 10+ minutes in final, pitstop 1 @ 10:30, #2 @ 20:30
Pitman: Casey Peck
The second round of the Estonian Nationals took place this past weekend at the Luige Racetrack. In the EP class it was Rainer Ressar, while driving for VP PRO, who claimed overall TQ before going on to dominate two out of the three finals securing him the overall win ahead of Tõnu Tooming and team mate Anre Tamme. Rainer stated that the Striker SF tyre was his best choice on the high grip track. Unfortunately Rainer broke his rear diff bearing during the nitro final forcing him to retire from third place.
One of the most recognizable items dropped during the Worlds, the Silencer body style, has now been designed for perfect fit and finish on the Hot Bodies D812 buggy. A brand-new, ground up design, the Silencer, has new elements created for the highest speed circuits. A narrowed, Finnisher stance cockpit allows more fuel tank access, a smoother high-speed transition and increased flow around the engine heat-sink.
Elliott Boots.com reports from round 2 of the BRCA Nationals, this time held in Coventry -
Semi Final
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 4th and a great 5th 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.
The first semi saw only five of thirteen drivers cross the finishing line, Ryan Lopez ending up 6th one corner from the finishing line, the biggest upset came when Cavalieri, running comfortably 4th 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 2nd 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.
