Saturday is when qualifying starts to get crazy at any event that uses ROAR qual-points - especially for those drivers who didn't have a solid finish on Friday. With the Space Coast R/C track changing all weekend long, and starting to generate more grip than ever on Saturday morning, this year's ROAR Nationals was no exception. The finishing order in every class was anything but predictable, though one driver in particular has been putting on a show that you truly have to see to believe (that's why we're broadcasting the race live, by the way).
Racing Truck Modified
Ryan Cavalieri and Dakotah Phend split the two rounds on Friday, but Cavalieri got the advantage on Saturday morning when Dakotah’s truck blew a transmission. Defending champion Jared Tebo made it close, as his personal best lap was just .02 slower than Hartson’s best lap of the race, but Cavalieri held on to take the round win.
“My truck was good,” said Ryan, who switched to Red Dirt Webs on the rear but didn’t think they were as good as the Blue compound tires he ran yesterday. He heard Dakotah’s truck break down and knew Tebo was closing in, but Ryan said, “I just tried to drive my own race.”
After missing out on the 19-lap run by less than four-tenths, Billy Fischer said the third-place finish was “by far” his best run of the weekend in any class. “But (Racing. Truck doesn’t have as many entries (as the Buggy classes. so it doesn’t count as much,” said Billy. He relaxed after a rough day yesterday, made substantial roll center changes to the rear of his Centro CT4.2, and swapped his MX compound front and rear tires - putting the Suburbs on the front and Ions on the rear.
TLR’s Cody Hollis said his run was “decent” as he finished sixth for the round, having switched his TLR 22T to mid-motor configuration overnight and running it for the first time. Cody copied Dakotah Phend’s setup and ousted up Blue Dirt Webs on the front and rear, though he’ll be switching to Red compound fronts for the fourth round.
1. Ryan Cavalieri - 19/6:14.298
2. Jared Tebo - 19/6:15.165
3. Billy Fischer - 18/6:00.399
4. Michael Schoettler - 18/6:03.961
5. Matt Chambers - 18/6:08.781
6. Cody Hollis - 18/6:08.901
7. Cody Turner - 18/6:09.747
8. Steven Hartson - 18/6:10.009
9. Leon McIntosh - 18/6:11.725
10. Eric Clark - 18/6:13.822
11. Brandon Marsh - 18/6:16.014
12. Adam Rayls - 18/6:19.142
13. Ben Ellis - 18/6:19.291
14. Ryan Eckert - 18/6:19.673
15. Tanner Denney - 17/6:00.829
16. Landen Lewis - 17/6:10.764
17. Kory Ferguson - 17/6:22.574
18. Tylor Weaver - 15/6:01.060
19. Dakotah Phend - 4/1:18.917
20. Richard Crawford - 0/0:00.000
4WD Buggy Modified
With many of the faster drivers crashing in the second round of 4WD, the running order changed every lap - and it led to a crazy finish, with the top five qualifiers (including two drivers from the ‘B’ heat. separated by less than nine-tenths of a second.
Surprise round winner JR Mitch took full advantage of the mistakes by other drivers, putting in a clean run and taking the TQ despite not having the absolute fastest laps. “I didn’t know what to expect being in the back of the ‘A’ heat,” said JR Mitch, “but it worked out - I had a clear track at the end of the race and some of the other guys had issues.” The fast Floridian put Blue Dirt Webs on the front of his TLR 22-4 but will likely go back to Reds for the fourth round.
Ryan Cavalieri said that his B44.3 was “the best it has felt - finally made good changes to it” after struggling with the setup yesterday. Together with engineer Kody Numedahl, Ryan ran bigger shock pistons, different front and rear springs, less anti-squat, added 70 grams of ballast to the rear of the chassis, loosened the ball diffs he chose to run as he feels they offer better traction, added a washer under the rear camber links and moved the entire link outward. “It was a good, clean run with just a little bit of traffic in the last minute.” said the 2012 class champ.
“It was good that time,” said defending champion Ty Tessmann of his Hot Bodies D413, who thought that the X3 Electrons he ran on the rear were too soft, so they got “mushy and wiggling” by the end of the six minute run. “I twas just trying to get a clean run in since I did not finish the second round last night,” said Ty, who crashed at the top of the hill and needed a turn marshal. With the weather expected to heat up for the fourth round, Ty said he would switch to the MX compound.
“That was a rough one - just too many mistakes” said Dakotah Phend after sweeping yesterday’s qualifiers in the class. “I was driving hard and the car was really good, but the track was different and it got me a couple of times. Phend said he’d likely switch from X3 to MX for the fourth round, then went back to enjoying his Subway sandwich with his mascot Godzilla.
“It was really, really close!” said Drew Moller, whose run in the ‘B’ heat was good for fifth despite being less than a second off of the TQ. “My car was good. I bumped up the Torque Reducer on my speed control to make it smoother on the loose track. It’s pretty close to last night, about the same. I had two little bobbles, just tapped the pipe and got out of shape after the triple. On another lap I tapped the pipe in the sweeper at the top of the hill.” Moller will freshen up his diff oil for the fourth round.
1. JR Mitch - 20/6:12.083
2. Ryan Cavalieri - 20/6:12.377
3. Ty Tessmann - 20/6:12.781
4. Dakotah Phend - 20/6:12.869
5. Drew Moller - 20/6:12.946
6. Jared Tebo - 20/6:15.266
7. Dustin Evans - 20/6:15.619
8. Steven Hartson - 20/6:18.523
9. Billy Fischer - 19/6:00.096
10. Alex Miller - 19/6:01.351
11. Ryan Lutz - 19/6:01.523
12. Carson Wernimont - 19/6:02.526
13. Spencer Rivkin - 19/6:03.307
14. Daimon Borkowicz - 19/6:03.956
15. JP Richards - 19/6:04.478
16. Mike Gay - 19/6:05.389
17. Nolan Anderson - 19/6:06.814
18. Chris Viesins - 19/6:07.654
19. Cole Tollard - 19/6:08.411
20. Chad Due - 19/6:08.451
2WD Short Course Modified
There's no better parity at this race than in Short Course - with three different TQ's in the first three rounds. The tall, full-fendered trucks handle the track's rough surface and various obstacles more differently than any other division, and with a greater variety of different drivers and trucks up front than in other classes, the competition has been very interesting.
“I had a really good run with no mistakes…a clean run, finally!” said an excited Jared Tebo. Jared went to thicker shock oil for the second round yesterday but reverted to the previous setup for this morning’s round and doesn’t plan any changes to his mid-motor SC6 for the fourth run. Having tried other combinations earlier in the weekend and thinking they were slower, Jared will run another set of Medium Grid Iron 2’s in front and Soft Typos in the rear.
After finishing seventh for the round, Billy Easton was concerned with the handling of his Spyder SRX-2 SC. “It pushed a lot - bad understeer,” said Billy. Despite the lack of steering he had a clean run, saying, “I had only one incident, but I was slower per lap - it needs to be faster to do any better.”
Squeaking into the top ten for the first time, Cody Turner said his SC6, “was all right. I just drove super slow, trying to get a good run in.” Turner’s tone turned sarcastic when he said, “My weekend has been awesome.” He was hopeful, however, as he said, “I’m just going to try to make it happen today, I guess.”
1. Jared Tebo - 19/6:13.928
2. Ryan Cavalieri - 19/6:15.401
3. Kody Numedahl - 19/6:18.362
4. Ty Tessmann - 18/6:00.970
5. Dustin Evans - 18/6:01.338
6. Ryan Maifield - 18/6:03.206
7. Billy Easton - 18/6:05.288
8. Matt Chambers - 18/6:05.932
9. JR Mitch - 18/6:06.355
10. Cody Turner - 18/6:07.278
11. Max Flurer - 18/6:09.903
12. Mike Truhe - 18/6:10.726
13. Chad Due - 18/6:11.584
14. Kevin Motter - 18/6:13.908
15. Spencer Rivkin - 18/6:14.733
16. Landen Lewis 17/6:07.129
17. Jeff Keeton - 16/6:03.180
18. Brian Mellow - 16/6:08.288
19. John Cravotta - 16/6:15.264
20. Angel Echevarria - 16/6:24.702
2WD Buggy Modified
There's only one way to explain the third round of 2WD: mind blowing. Dakotah Phend has been the fastest driver here this weekend, but he turned it up to a whole new level on Saturday with a new track record.
After turning the first 20-lap run in 2WD this weekend, an elated Dakotah Phend said “That was really good. I didn’t have any mistakes or bobbles at all.” Phend chose the same X3 Electrons that he ran all day yesterday, but may switch to MX compound for the third round for the sake of drivability. Knowing that a 20-lap run would mean Cavalieri had to do the same in order to take the overall TQ based on combined times, Dakotah said, “I knew with a minute to go that I was close to a 20-lap run and that I had a lead, so I just tried not to crash. That run will be great if it comes down to a tiebreaker- it won’t really matter what my second-best time was.”
“My car was okay - just safe,” said Ryan Maifield, who edged former teammate Cavalieri by just three-tenths. “It was a really clean run, didn’t have anything happen,” Ryan continued. Maifield did not disclose what changes he made for the third round, but said that he’ll wait and see what the track is like before making changes for the fourth round.
After earning a fifth place finish for the second time this weekend, Kody Numedahl said, “I’m always quietly getting 5-10 point runs.” The AE engineer said his B5M was “super easy to drive, maybe a little pushy” and added that if he wasn’t right on the pipe coming down the hill toward the last double, he’d end up out in the dust. When asked if he would change his car he said “no, but I think Ryan will switch to the shorter camber link that I ran. I was only 3.5 seconds behind him - which is too close. I think my car was better than his.”
Spencer Rivkin said his B5M was also easy to drive, and that he had a pretty good run despite traction rolling after carrying too much speed after the triple and also doing a donut before the same jump a few laps later. He’ll keep his car the same unless the track gains more grip or gets dusty.
“My best 2WD run yet, and the fastest my car has been all week,” said Michael Schoettler, who added the track was definitely harder to drive than yesterday. With no changes planned for the fourth round, he said he’s “just gotta drive it.”
1. Dakotah Phend - 20/6:18.084
2. Ryan Maifield - 19/6:02.247
3. Ryan Cavalieri - 19/6:02.588
4. Dustin Evans - 19/6:04.718
5. Kody Numedahl - 19/6:06.000
6. Chad Due - 19/6:07.329
7. Steven Hartson - 19/6:07.545
8. Spencer Rivkin - 19/6:08.014
9. Michael Schoettler - 19/6:09.807
10. Ryan Lutz - 19/6:09.839
11. Travis Amezcua - 19/6:11.317
12. JR Mitch - 19/6:11.485
13. Ty Tessmann - 19/6:12.415
14. Cole Tollard - 19/6:12.829
15. Max Flurer - 19/6:12.987
16. Cody Hollis - 19/6:13.069
17. Daimon Borkowicz - 19/6:13.264
18. JP Richards - 19/6:13.264
19. Alex Miller - 19/6:13.769
20. Drew Moller - 19/6:13.961
8/23/2014
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