Ryan Lutz wrote about his two TQ's, two wins and a second at Pro-Line Gas Champs

0 Nov. 17, 2015, 12:58 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Ryan lutz:
www.lutzinator.com

Proline Gas Champs @ Dialed In Raceway in Victorville, CA

Over this past weekend I headed out with the Ohio boys (Joe and Ramos), back to So-Cal for the ProLine Gas Champs. This time we ventured up to the high desert in Victorville to a newer facility named Dialed in Raceway. The track was once again built by master builder Levi Jackson and it was a ton of fun. This track more than most had lots of passing opportunities and made for some great racing action. Heading into the event I was finally able to build up my new Tekno EB48.3 and NT48.3. I was hoping the cars would break in quick so I could put in some fast runs.

All the racing was heads up format and you drew your starting position by picking a numbered ping pong ball out of a halloween candy pail. So sometimes you got luck and got to start up front, and others you were relegated to the rear of the pack. All luck of the draw. There were 3 qualifiers and while the turnout was a bit light, there was still some fierce competition in the form of teammate Bornhorst and Fisher, as well as Cav, Drake, and many other so-cal fast guys.

Lutz-Cav-Bornhorst-Drake

Round 1 of qualifying started out a bit slow for me with a poor run in truck. I drew the #1 ping pong ball and got out to the lead but a few laps in and I was just struggling to hold on. The track surface was a bit tricky and the new truck just wasn’t quite broken in yet and I wasn’t yet comfortable. I made way to many mistakes and fell back to 4th. In E-buggy I also was having a good run but the set-up was off for me and I settled for 3rd. Luckily in Nitro buggy I put in a hard fought run and came away with the TQ to up my spirit and put me in a better frame of mind heading into Q2.

Q2’s came and Truggy again was unfortunate. I believe i had some damaged parts from Q1 and didn’t catch them and they took me out in warmup laps. So Q2 was a DNS for me. In the buggy classes though I was finding my groove and took commanding victories by around 15 seconds. So after Q2 I had secured TQ in Nitro Buggy.

Q3 was what finished out the day. I was having another good run in Truggy to start but again was making mistakes and fell back and I think took 3rd. At this point I wasn’t to happy with my performance in truggy as it’s usually a shoe-in best class for me. But I knew it had to do with a fresh truck and a couple set-up items I didn’t have quite how I liked them yet. I was confident I would get it figured out for the main. In E-buggy I had a good start and got out to a commanding lead and took a big win to secure the TQ in the class. In Nitro Buggy Cav and I battled for the majority of the run and it came down to the last corner where he beat me out by a couple tenths of a second. But I retained the overall TQ.

So double A-mains were on tap for main day, but weather was threatening. All races all weekend were done by amount of laps and not by time. So the Nitro mains were set for 45 laps which worked out to around 23 minutes. In truggy A1 I got a good start from the #4 hole and within a couple laps was up to 2nd and reeling in Cav. I would erase his early 5 second lead and get on his tail only to make a mistake a fall back. I again erased another 5 second lead and this time I would take the lead for a few laps. However with a few laps to go someone crashed on the back triple right in front of me and I tagged them which set me up short for a double. I still mistakenly went for it and cased it and ended up on my lid. The marshall came to get me but in his haste flipped me back on my lid as he ran by. When he noticed, he tried to hurry back but slipped and fell in the marbles as I lay their helplessly watching Cav take over the lead and pulling away. I eventually got back going and once again caught back to within a second on the last lap. It looked like it could be a great finish but I traction rolled in the top left corner ending my threat and came home in 2nd.

Truggy 2nd Place

E-buggy was next and the start wasn’t as kind to me. I slightly overshot the back triple and flipped over falling back to last. However by the end of the first lap I had recovered back to 2nd behind teammate Bornhorst. He would end up making a mistake and I took the lead and would run a pretty clean remainder of the run to take the victory in A1 with Joe 2nd for a Tekno 1-2.

E-buggy TQ + Win

Nitro Buggy was another 45 lap affair. I had a solid start in Nitro and got out to a 5 second lead. But would make a mistake letting the pack catch back up to me. Cav and I would put in a couple close battles during the middle of the race

Close battle!

as everyone was struggling with the track condition and the strong winds! No one was immune from flying off the track here and there as the conditions had gotten very tough. But I started to find a groove and put in some clean laps and would suddenly find myself with a few laps to go and a 20 second lead on the field. So I cruised in to the victory in Nitro buggy.

Nitro Buggy TQ + Win

Next was the scheduled A2’s but the skies opened up right before Truggy A2 was supposed to start and the race was called. Thus all results ended with A1 finishes.

So overall a great weekend with 2 x TQ, 2 x Victory and a 2nd. My new Alpha Plus Dragon 3 engines ran great in both my Buggy and Truggy and I was very happy with their performance in this higher elevation (4,000+ ft) and constantly changing weather conditions. This engine is for real and the fact that it comes already broken in is icing on the cake!

Whip Action

Tire wise I ran soft long-wear AKA Impact in Buggy and Soft Impact in truggy.

Next up for me is the US Open at the Fear Farm this weekend. Hopefully we can get a better overall turnout there as it will be a great warmup event for the Nitro Challenge coming up in February.

Thanks to Rugspin Graphix for the awesome photos!