Double victory for Phend at the Michigan State Championship Series Finals

 

 

After a full year of 6 rounds of racing, racers from all over gathered at AMS Raceway on Saturday October 19th for the final round of the 2013 season. Title battles were still going on for all classes, which meant that we could expect some very close racing all day long. On top of that, some special guests had shown up: Dakotah Phend and Ryan Lutz! On top of the racing excitement, both the series the sponsors had provided a LOT of raffle prizes for the series regulars! At the end of the day, the top 10 in every class in the overall standings were awarded with trophies!

1/8th Scale Nitro Buggy
Team Durango's Ryan Lutz managed to put in a TQ run in the first round with the first 15 lap run of the day. TLR's Dakotah Phend showed up late, due to a school related test in the morning, and went on a rampage with his first run and took over TQ by 9 seconds of Ryan Lutz and this run put him on pole position for the A main.

Anyone in attendance was on the sideline when the A Main was about to start, all excited to watch the battle! After the start of the 30 minute main, TLR's Phend took the lead, closely followed by Team Durango's Lutz, TLR's Tyler Jones and TLR's Dylan Gerard. While Phend was clicking off blistering laps, Lutz tried to keep up, but due to some mechanical issues, his car was not handling consistently and ended up making some mistakes, dropping back to 6th place. This left Jones and Gerard in 2nd and 3rd, trying to keep up with Phend. Lutz managed to recover from his mistakes and slowly moved up through the field all the way up to second place, but after about 10 minutes started experiencing glitching issues and decided to retire from the race. By this time, Phend was long gone, but Jones and Gerard were still battling over the remaining spots on the podium. At the end of the 30 minutes, it was a TLR sweep with TLR/Orion/Pro-Line/Horizon Hobby sponsored Dakotah Phend crossing the line in first, followed by TLR/JConcepts/Horizon Hobby sponsored Tyler Jones in second and TLR/AKA/Horizon Hobby sponsored Dylan Gerard in third.
 

1/8th Scale Nitro Truggy
After 3 rounds of qualifying, it was TLR's Jay Chura who managed to get the best run in to claim TQ.

After a clean start, it was TLR's Jay Chura leading the field, followed by Shane Snyder and Chad Shorkey. On lap 7, TLR's Mike Marshall managed to get by Shorkey to take over third. On lap 16, Jay Chura ran into issues, dropping all the way back to 7th, handing the lead over to Shane Snyder, followed by Mike Marshall and Chad Shorkey. At the end of the 30 minute main, it was Shane Snyder crossing the line in first, followed by Mike Marshall in second and Chad Shorkey in third, closely followed by the early leader Jay Chura in fourth.
 
 
 
1/8th Scale Electric Buggy
After 3 rounds of qualifying, it was TLR's Dylan Gerard claiming TQ honors.

After a clean start, it was Dylan Gerard in the lead, closely followed by Tyler Jones and Bradley Rippee. On the second lap, Jones managed to get by Gerard to take over the lead. On lap 8, Gerard managed to take the lead back, but would not be able to coast, as Jones was still right behind him. On lap 13, Gerard made a small mistake and Jones got by again and they would battle all the way until the end. After the 10 minutes, TLR's Tyler Jones crossed the finish in first, closely followed by TLR's Dylan Gerard in second. Local hero Bradley Rippee drove very well and claimed third place. Nick Vasquez finished in 4th, which tied him for the title with Paul Edwards, but came up short on the tie-breaker.
 

1/8th Scale Electric Truggy
After 3 rounds of qualifying, it was Rocky Whittaker claiming TQ honors.
 

2WD Short Course
After 3 rounds of qualifying, it was Team Durango's Edwin Hartman claiming TQ honors.

After the start, it was Team Durango/Pro-Line/TrakPower sponsored Edwin Hartman leading the pack, closely followed by George 'G3' Berridge and TrakPower sponsored Tony Carnes. Top 3 was slowly pulling away from the pack and Berridge took over the lead on lap 3 after a mistake by Hartman, which dropped him back to 3rd place. A few laps later, Hartman climbed back up into 2nd place, trying to close in on Berridge, but another mistake dropped him back to 3rd again. On lap 14, Hartman had to retire due to mechanical issues. Berridge and Carnes continued to battle up front. George 'G3' Berridge claimed the win as well as the 2013 title, followed by Tony Carnes in second and Bryce Bischer in third.
  
 
4WD Short Course
After 3 rounds of qualifying, it was Dakotah Phend who was the only one to put together a 15 lap run and taking TQ honors.

After the start, it was TLR's Dakotah Phend leading the pack, closely followed by Team Durango's Ryan Lutz and the rest of the field. While the leaders slowly checked out, the battle over 3rd place was going on between Tyler Jones, Mike Sontag and Brad Rippee. Out front, Lutz stayed within seconds from Phend, but was not able to get close enough to make a pass. At the end of the race, it was Dakotah Phend that crossed the line in first, followed by Ryan Lutz and Bradley Rippee in third.
 

Novice Class
Young Nick Chester managed to be the fastest in qualifying to claim TQ honors.

Nick Chester managed to lead the race wire-to-wire, ahead of Brayden Hart, to claim the 2013 MSCS title!
 

The organizers of the Michigan State Championship Series would like to thank all the racers that came out for supporting the series and helping it grow into the ultimate off-road series of Michigan. A very big thank you as well to the series sponsors: O'Donnell Racing Fuel, Duratrax Performance Tires, Pro-Line Racing, M2C Racing, Dirtburner Racing, Team Durango, TrakPower Speed Equipment, VP PowerMasters Fuel, Sumo R/C Racing Products and Advantage Racing Products. Also a big thanks to the crew at AMS Raceway for providing a great facility for us to race on!

For more race results and information about the Michigan State Championship Series, visit www.michstatechampseries.com.
 

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