ROAR NATS: Tessmann dominated Q1

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

As with any race, it’s important to get off to a good start in the four-round IFMAR-style qualifying format at the ROAR Fuel Off-Road Nationals - and that put plenty of pressure on the top drivers in the first round of qualifying. The hot weather and tough track conditions made such a solid start a tall order for some, while giving a few drivers a chance to stand out from the pack - by finishing in the top three in the same order in both classes.

Dakotah Phend kicked off the ‘A’ heat with a spectacular start, but dropped out of the race at the 5:30 mark when his tires peeled off the wheels and ejected a foam insert.

“It was good - I ran everything the same as yesterday and this morning,” said Ty Tessmann, who sprinted away for the win by nearly 4.8 seconds. Running his D8T Tessmann Edition with the same tires and settings as he did yesterday, Tessmann trailed Phend for the first few laps until the defending champion dropped out. “I had to wait for the tires to come in, but after the first minute or so I was able to get going. I had a couple of wide corners but didn’t crash or anything.”

“It was really good! I ran X1 Holeshots and they were super dialed,” said XRAY’s Josh Wheeler after finishing second in the first round. Wheeler bumped up the shock oil in his XRAY XT8 prior to the start of practice and hasn’t made any changes since. “I didn’t have any hang-ups really. It was clean. I just tried to put in a smooth run and hoped for the best. A couple of people made mistakes and I moved up,” Wheeler said.

“It was pretty clean, I didn’t have any major issues at all,” said Ryan Maifield, who described his run as “pretty conservative” and mentioned that he may have missed a couple of corners in the closing laps and lost a few tenths to Wheeler. Maifield may swap his Blue compound JConcepts Reflex tires to the harder Red compound, perhaps in addition to or in place of going to stiffer clutch springs, in hopes that it will make his truck accelerate harder, as the multi-time former class champ felt that his TLR 8IGHT-T 3.0 was just as fast as Tessmann’s through corners but doesn’t quite the same drive out of the corner. “I’m pumped to get a top three in the first round, for sure,” said Maifield, “it’s not a bad place to start.”

Here’s a replay of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ heats from the first round of Truck.

Tessmann set the fastest time in Buggy as well by 4.65 seconds despite being slightly unhappy with his HB D815 Tessmann Worlds Edition. “It was a little bit soft in the back,” said the defending national and world champion, “so we might try a thicker rear sway bar for the next round.” Tessmann didn’t take the lead in the heat until the fifth lap as both Josh Wheeler and Jared Tebo got off to a faster start, but once out front he stayed well clear of the rest of the pack. “I had a little bit of a hectic start trying to get through traffic, but once I got through I got in the groove and it was fine after that.”

“That was great!” exclaimed Josh Wheeler after finishing with the second fastest time in Q1 of Buggy. “My car was good. I think I could’ve had TQ if I didn’t crash that one time over the big hill - I clipped the tube going down into the hole and tried to save it.” Wheeler credited his out-of-the-box tire choice for what he felt was an advantage on the rest of the field. “I ran Electrons and I think everyone else ran X2’s. They were loose, but they were fast.” Wheeler’s mistake came when he was being followed closely by Cody King and felt that contributed indirectly to his mistake. “I was pushing hard trying to get away,” said Wheeler, “and I think I could’ve had it.”

Relegated to the 'B' heat after yesterday's seeding practice, Ryan Maifield's heat-winning time was good enough to hang on for third overall. "My race was good, I just didn't really know how fast to be going so I tried to put in a clean run," said Maifield, who played it safe toward the end of the race but felt he could've pushed for a 14-lap run. "My car is a lot better now," said the former champ and last year's runner-up, having switched to JConcepts' new long-wear Yellow compound that's still under development, "and it has the forward bite I've been missing." Maifield now plans on trying JConcepts' prototype Lexan wing, which he hopes will give his car more steering due to its lighter weight. "A top-three run is a good start, so I'll take it," said Maifield.

Here’s a replay of the ‘B’ heat from the first round of Buggy (the 'A' heat replay will be available later).