ROAR NATS: Maifield defended E-Buggy title, Phend back on top in 4x4 short course, Tessmann won first E-Truck championship [VIDEO]

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com  

Last weekend, the ROAR National Championships for the electric 1/8-scale buggy, electric 1/8-scale truck and 4x4 short course truck classes was held at the AMain Performance Hobbies Silver Dollar RC Raceway in Chico, CA. The event wasn’t particularly well-attended, with just 60 drivers making up 108 total entries (58 in E-Buggy, 29 in E-Truck and 21 in 4x4 short course), but factory stars like Ryan Cavalieri, Joe Bornhorst, Tanner Denney, Adam Drake, Ryan Lutz, Dakotah Phend, Austin Blair, Ty Tessmann, Jared Tebo and defending champions Ryan Maifield and Spencer Rivkin were among them. (Cover photo: Joe Pillars, via Facebook)

During practice on Wednesday, Tekno RC’s Ryan Lutz posted an informal poll on Facebook asking his followers why the attendance was so low. The range of answers focused on a number of factors: the length of the event and cost of attending; the Northern California location being difficult to get to, not a popular vacation destination, and not where these indoor-friendly classes are most popular; and the conflict with other local and regional races.

Those that did attend were treated to a fast, technical layout which borrowed a few sections from the Manufacturers World Cup layout last month, mixed with more big jump sections and opened up to let the big brushless motors scream.

Photo: Joe Pillars, via Facebook

Defending champion Ryan Maifield crushed qualifying in the E-Buggy class, setting the fastest time in all four rounds with the margin of victory growing each round: from 1.4 seconds in the first round to 3.4 seconds in the fourth round.

Former 4x4 Short Course national champion Dakotah Phend had a similar string of good fortune, locking up the front row of the grid after three straight TQ runs — the first coming over AMain.com-supported NorCal native Kyle Turner, then edging out former teammate Maifield (running a TLR SCT-E with Yokomo stickers) in Q2 and Q3.

XRAY’s Ty Tessmann, racing 1/8-Scale Electric Truck for the first time, earned the Top Qualifying honors in the class by recording three round wins in four tries over Maifield - who broke Tessmann’s perfect streak in Q3.

After four rounds of qualifying were completed over Friday and Saturday, triple A-Mains were used to determine the overall finishing order on Sunday.

Maifield made short work of the E-Buggy class, leading every lap of the first two A-Mains to lock up the championship without issue. The drama came from behind him; second qualifier Ryan Cavalieri suffered mechanical issues that knocked him out of the race while running in the second spot in both of the first two A-Mains.

Fourth qualifier Tessmann made the most of the opportunity to score two second-place finishes, so even though Cavalieri won A3 while the Canadian crossed the line in fifth, Tessmann finished second overall.

The biggest news of the class — and, perhaps, the whole weekend — was Dreighton Stoub of Hudsonville, MI, who had qualified fifth. After fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the first two main events, Stoub held off some of the nation’s top pros to finish second in A3 and secure the final spot on the podium.

Photo: Joe Pillars, via Facebook

While Stoub presented the big surprise in E-Buggy, Arizonan TLR driver Tanner Denney was the one who mixed it up with international stars in 4x4 Short Course. In the first A-Main, Phend led the first five minutes with Maifield all over his rear bumper — and the two collided before the large tabletop adjacent to the front straightaway with just 50 seconds to go. Denney was close enough to move into the lead and held off Phend by 1.2 seconds for the win with Maifield another 1.5 seconds back in third.

Phend led every lap of A2, with Maifield again attacking his rear bumper most of the way. With just over a minute to go, Maifield was collected by a lapped vehicle that crashed on the back straightaway and Denney passed him for second. Denney got out of shape over tricky double-double one lap later and surrendered the second spot to Maifield. Maifield returned the favor with a bobble over the big front tabletop on the final lap to give up second, and that’s how they finished.

Phend and Maifield ran in 1-2 formation for the duration of A3 and finished 7.8 seconds apart, which secured the national title for Phend. Meanwhile, Denney dropped as low as seventh before fighting back to third; his finishes in the first two legs, however, were good enough for second overall ahead of Maifield.

Photo: Joe Pillars, via Facebook

On the third lap of A1 of the Truck class, Tessmann and Maifield — the top two qualifiers — collided over the back tabletop and handed the lead to Joe Bornhorst. Less than a lap later, Bornhorst went wide after the tabletop in the center and Tessmann snuck by to the inside. Maifield was the next to make a mistake, two laps later through the double-double, which allowed Cavalieri into the third position. At the halfway mark, Tessmann crashed after the double-double and Bornhorst drove off the track trying to pass for the lead, ultimately dropping behind Cavalieri and Maifield. Two laps later, Maifield tripled into the double-double and passed Cavalieri. Tessmann won the race by 1.2 seconds over Maifield, with Cavalieri slipping 3.3 seconds further back by the end of the race.

Tessmann led every lap of A2 with Maifield mere feet behind, crossing the finish line with cushion of less than seven-tenths of a second to secure the overall title. Cavalieri, who drove off the track in the center of the course on the opening lap, fought from his way back from fifth to third by the end of lap three and finished 6.2 seconds behind the leaders.

With Tessmann sitting out A3, Maifield led the first lap - and then retired from the race with mechanical issues. That left Cavalieri and Bornhorst to run first and second for the rest of the eight-minute race and they finished two seconds apart. Fifth qualifier Denney held onto third in the opening laps, traded spots twice with TLR teammate Phend at the halfway point, and finished just over seven-tenths behind Bornhorst at the end.

Despite his DNF in A3, Maifield finished second overall with Ryan Cavalieri third.

Photo: Joe Pillars, via Facebook

That’s it from Silver Dollar RC Raceway! The next race we’ll be broadcasting live is the ROAR 1/10-Scale Electric Off-Road Nationals from The Track in Gaithersburg, Maryland from August 10-13.

You can see our whole photo gallery from the race here:
www.liverc.com/photos/albums/142-2017_ROAR_1%3A8_and_Short_Course_Electric_Off-Road_Nationals/