DNC: Tessmann wins thrilling third round, Tebo overall Pro Truck TQ [REPLAYS]

Though the Top Qualifier only gets a small trophy and nominal advantage on the starting line for the 45-minute final on Saturday evening, the battle for the third round - and the overall - was fast and furious. HB-HPI Racing teammates Ty Tessmann and David Ronnefalk swapped positions with Kyosho’s Jared Tebo throughout the seven-minute heat, pushing each other lap after lap in what was the fastest of the three rounds by over twelve seconds. The battle reached its crescendo as the tone went off, with the top three turning their fastest times of the race on the final lap!

 

 

 

“My truck was a lot better,” said Ty Tessmann, who turned the fastest lap of the week (35.545) to edge Tebo and Ronnefalk at the line. Running a new set of M3 Holeshots, Tessmann said that even though the track was still being watered throughout warm-up, which created “mass confusion,” the track had a lot of grip this morning and was “really tacky.” Tessmann drove a mistake-free race and monitored Jared Tebo’s pace, as the two were separated on the track by just a couple of seconds. “I was trying to push a lot harder at the end since [Kenny Brosh] was announcing that it was close,” said Ty, who said that he wasn’t too concerned about losing out on the overall TQ via the tiebreaker of combined times. “There’s a little more pressure starting at the front,” he said, “but I don’t know if it will make much difference.”

 

 

“It was good, really good,” said Jared Tebo, who finished just 15-thousandths of a second behind Tessmann but earned the overall TQ honors by virtue of his two fastest times. Citing a few issues with traffic and a hair-raising moment over the back triple in which he came up short, Tebo said, “It was a great run - and a lot of fun being that close with Ty and David.” The former champion knew that the three drivers were close at the start of the race but didn’t note where they had all began, so he wasn’t able to tell if he was gaining or losing time. “We were all pushing so hard and I didn’t really try to keep track,” said Tebo, “but just focused on going fast.” Tebo made the front shock position change he considered after last night’s round, but didn’t really like its effect on his Kyosho ST-RR Evo - so he’ll revert back to the round two setting but change the shock oil instead. The Pro Truck overall top qualifier said he feels no extra pressure leading the pack into turn one, saying “I like starting up front.” Admitting that his heart rate rose a bit before the start of the race, Tebo acknowledged the pace of the race and how it unfolded. “We all did our fastest laps on the last lap,” said Tebo, “that’s how you know we weren’t driving safe - we were all going for it.”

 

 

“It was good until I came up short on the uphill triple,” said David Ronnefalk of his late-race mistake. “I heard I was in the lead and went too tight on the turn before, landed short and bounced off the pipe,” said David, who pointed out that he had a chance to secure the overall TQ last night before an accident involving other cars. “I should’ve done it yesterday but ran into traffic, and this one was my own mistake,” said David, who was happy to qualify in the top three in his first race with the HB D8T. David added, “It’s so close with Ty and Jared it’s crazy.”

 

 

“I’m pumped!” said Joe Bornhorst with yet another impressive qualifying run, despite not making any changes to his Tekno RC NT48 - not even running a new set of tires. Already looking forward to Saturday’s Pro Truck final in his DNC debut, Joe was excited about his chances for a good finish but will simply try to do what he’s been doing to this point. “I have full confidence I can drive it like I did in qualifying for the whole 45 minutes,” said Bornhorst, who plans no changes to his truck but will go through it leading up to tomorrow’s final. While other drivers ran tires with smaller treads in qualifying, Bornhorst preferred AKA Impacts which will be what he runs in the main event - simply choosing between Soft and Super Soft depending on track conditions. “It makes it easy that my qualifying tires will be my main event tires as well,” said Joe, who added, “I just like them.”

 

 

“It was pretty bad - I got lucky, I guess,” said Ryan Lutz, who attributed his lack of comfort on the overall gear ratio of his Tekno RC NT48. “I feel like we’re in between gearing from where we need to be - a 14-tooth clutch bell is too tall, the 13-tooth is too short, and we don’t have a spur gear to get us in the middle,” said Lutz, who said that the 14-tooth bell made his truck feel as though he didn’t have the punch needed to make the jumps. Reverting back to his round one clutch setup after going too stiff in round two and suffering from a lack of engagement, Lutz also went to a stiffer rear spring to stop the truck from collapsing on corner exit. He’ll try a 13-tooth bell in the A-Main warm-up tomorrow, hoping for enough top-end for the straightaway as it would “definitely be a benefit in the infield.” Despite being uneasy with his own performance, Lutz couldn’t help but be positive for the team’s overall outlook. “Joe is doing excellent,” said Lutz, who added, “from Tekno to go from never making a main to this, now I feel like Joe and I could be in the finals at every race we go to.”

 

Here’s the top 20 from round three:

 

 

Final qualifying results:

 

 

Here are the replays of the top three heats after the resort: