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2013 ROAR 1/8 Buggy Final
tags: Adam Drake, Mike Truhe, Ryan Maifield, Ty Tessmann
in: 1/8 Offroad, 2013 ROAR Nats, Event Coverage, Video
in: 1/8 Offroad, 2013 ROAR Nats, Event Coverage, Video
Rainer Ressar wins Estonian Nat Rd2
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.
New D812 Silencer Body from JC
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.
Lee Martin wins BRCA Rd 2
Elliott Boots.com reports from round 2 of the BRCA Nationals, this time held in Coventry -
We Headed up to Coventry for round two of the National Championships. Weather was on and off with rain for the Saturday qualifying. There was to be 4 rounds on the Saturday and one on the Sunday morning. The track was all dirt with a series of jumps and was very fast. We had two rounds of practice where we were testing tyres and shock setups. We got the car in a very good setup ready for qualifying. Looking at the lap times from practice it looked like Elliott was fastest with Lee Martin just a shade behind.
Qualifying went quite well with the track becoming quite bumpy and rough. Also we had to contend with a downpour of rain in between qualifying. We started round one qualifying on hole shot M4 as the track was a little wet and as it dried we decided to run our Bow tie in X3 compound and then we ended up on blockade X3 compound as the track was drying and becoming hard packed again but here were some nasty holes around the track. Throughout qualifying Elliott suffered a fair bit of traffic problems with back markers (as this was a very fast track with average 36 second laps – he was catching other drivers up very quickly) but it had cost him quite a bit of time. He was able to TQ two of the five rounds and get three second places. It was very very close in qualifying with Lee Martin. There were only seconds in it for the TQ spot and without the traffic problems I know we would have been on TQ.
Semi Final
Ending up second in qualifying put us on pole for the B Semi. We also added 10gram wheel weights to the front and rear of the car, which Elliott tested in the semi warm up and said it helped the car a lot landing off the jumps and through the bumpy section. Elliott led the pack away and was lapping within four minutes and took the win by well over a lap. He was using big blocks X3 compound which we were also testing for the 45 minute final. These tyres were very good through all the rutty bumpy sections and he was able to set some very fast lap times in the low 34′s which I think were some of the fastest of the weekend and with some spectacular driving style over the big jump, which kept the spectators very happy and smiling.
Main A Final
With a hard fast driving from the semi final Elliott missed pole position for the Main A by 100th of a second from Lee Martin! Unfortunately on one of his fuel stops on the semi he got caught on some piping coming in for his fuel stop, which cost him 3 or 4 seconds. Without that I am sure he would have been on pole for the main final. Lee Martin led the pack away and within less than a lap Lee and Elliott had broken away from the pack and now were entering into a 2 man race in which they were both setting some fantastic lap times. After two laps Elliott took the lead and this was the trend that was to continue throughout most of the final with Lee and Elliott swapping places for the lead in between fuel stops. Unfortunately Elliott was due in for his third fuel stop but didn’t quite make it and unfortunately ran out of fuel and had to be recovered quickly and get started and back out, which he drove very hard and was able to catch up to finish just behind third place. With a little bit more time he would have certainly got a podium finish but was happy with 4th place after having an engine stop. We ran the Novarossi Keepoff 7S which was producing some fantastic fuel mileage all weekend so it was a bit strange for us to run out of fuel on 8.5 minutes but looking at the way Elliott was driving, much harder to catch up and with the track gripping up, the fuel consumption must have dropped. Looking at lap times I am not surprised as he was able to put in the fastest lap of the weekend of 33.90 which was extremely fast. His MP9 TKI3 was outstanding all weekend. The car was faultless and got better and better as the weekend went on.
We now head (in 2 weeks) up to Wakefield for round 3 hopefully being able to come away with a TQ and win and also getting prepared for the European Championships in Reims at the beginning of July.
We would like to thank all the sponsors for the help and support for a great weekend, not quite the result we wanted but unfortunately that’s racing! You do need also to have some luck on your side which hopefully will return for Elliott shortly as his driving is brilliant at the moment.
ROAR Nats in photos
Drake wins 3rd ROAR Buggy Nats title
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.
Sunday Photo Gallery
Overall Buggy Results (PDF)
Tessmann on pole as Phend crashes out
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
Untouchable Tessmann wins truggy
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.
