Lutz's ROAR Nats recap

0 June 23, 2015, 5:02 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Ryan Lutz:
www.lutzinator.com

Finally recouped from the ROAR Nats this past week and ready for some reflection on the event and how it went for me. Having attended the warmup event just over 2 weeks prior I believe this gave Tessman, Moller, Bornhorst, myself, and others an early advantage as the track was about 60-70% the same. If anything it was made slightly easier. This was evident in the fastest 3 seeded practice laps during practice as Tessman and I were on top of those results in buggy and truggy, coming quickly to grips with the track. As the weekend wears on thought the cream rises to the top as always and as other drivers got familiar with the surface and track the competition started to condense at the top. Except for Tessman who just always seems to be able to find more each and every run. Truly astonishing is his program and robotic abilities on the track.

For me I hung in there throughout qualifying. All 8 of my runs were top 7 or better. So I was always near the top of the heap and it was just a matter of testing different set-ups trying to find some extra pace. There was some controversy after Q2 of truggy, but truly it was made WAY bigger than it was because of the internet. I saw my truck wasn’t out on the ‘pass tech’ table so I went into the tech office and was informed and shown that my wing side dam was about 4mm to long. So I got DQ for my 5th for that round. I wasn’t bothered by it at all really because I knew my truck was really good and I still had 2 runs on Saturday in which I felt I was going to do better anyways. There were many companies wings who were to big for ROAR standards and they all fixed them in pre-tech during practice. My practice wing was one such wing. But for the races I decided on another wing I had and because I didn’t tech my car during practice I just assumed that maybe they were just a couple mm to big. I didn’t think I was going to have to cut a big amount off. So I used my practice wing as a sort of guide to cut my race wing but I simply didn’t cut enough which led to the DQ in Q2. Oh well. I came back on Saturday with a 3rd and 2nd and qualified myself solidly 3rd overall for the main event. So truly I am the only one to blame for me getting the DQ, but honestly it didn’t need the ‘media headlines’ that it got, as after all, it was just an oversight on my part and didn’t really matter anyways in the end.

Tekno NB48.3 with LFR Assassin Body

After qualifying was over I was going to be sitting 3rd overall in truck and 5th in buggy. The 5th in buggy would start me 2nd in the even semi-final as they put the TQ straight in the A-main this year.

Qualifying Results

First up was the Truggy A-main which was a 45min affair. I was running a new longer wear compound from AKA in the Impact tread pattern. My truck was feeling pretty good at the start of the main as I cruised around in the freight train of top 6 or so. Maifield would end up making a mistake and I squeezed into the hole to take over 2nd a few minutes in. After my first pitstop I was back in the fray running around 4th for a few laps. At one point a driver went really wide out in the loose stuff at the end of the straight short shoot towards the 180. I came in hot on the inside and put in a block pass in the 180. It resulted in contact but I had the inside line at that point and there was no crash. But said driver got ticked off and immediately attempted to take me out. They missed on first attempt but connected on the next sharp corner sending me upside down and to be marshaled. I forgave instantly as I pray they were happy they got to enact their ‘revenge’. So I was now down in 7th but my truck was at this point really starting to heat up, literally and figuratively. It seemed as my oils and such heated up it really increased my corner speed. My lines tightened up and I was putting in some super fast laps. My pit stops were also completely dialed with Joe catching my car racing down pit lane and Matt with the fuel gun work. I feel I made up time every pitstop and in a matter of a couple stops I found myself back up to 3rd behind Tessman and Phend. Phend would make a mistake coming into pit lane I believe and I would get by for 2nd and be able to hold him off for the remainder of the race. I was even able to chisel away at Tessmans lead down to about 7 seconds by the end of the 45min affair. Overall I was very pleased with my finish. This was my 3rd ROAR truck podium in a row as my last 3 years I have finished 2nd, 3rd, 2nd. Hoping one day to get a win!

2nd Place Truggy!

In the Buggy semi-final it was just a matter of a clean run to get into that A-main. Semi’s are always a balance of just running a clean run to ensure you make the final and pushing to go fast to get a good grid position for the final. I was working to get the most out of both of these strategies as the race went on. At the start I simply was more in the running clean mindset, holding my own in 2nd. Wheeler would eventually make a mistake and my pitstops were again super fast and I took the lead for a bit. At that point I started to push a little more wanting to get a really good time. But I would make a couple mistakes of my own falling back to 2nd where I just worked on keeping pace with Wheeler in front and came away with 2nd. Overall this would start me 5th on the grid for the Buggy A-main.

Last race of the day was the 1 hour Buggy A-main final. Now note, we had already done a 45min truck final, 20min marshall, 30 min buggy semi, 30 min marshall, and now was a 1 hour final. Luckily it was only 90* on Sunday and not 100 as it had been the previous days. Yet still it was a testament of stamina standing and focusing that long. The start of my buggy main went pretty good as I again just played conservative and made sure to stay clean the opening laps. I did fall back to I believe 7th. But within the first 10 minutes I had started to find my groove and catch the field a bit and found myself in 3rd for a while. Where I was struggling bad though was at the end of the straight sweeper corner. I was loosing a lot of time here (after the race I found out why. In our haste to run different shocks for the final one was mounted on the inside of the arm and one on the outside, so my car wasn’t handling consistent on left and right turns and it was especially noticeable at the end of the straight.) Anyways though I fought for a while for 3rd but would fall back to 4th with a couple of mistakes on my own. Things started to get extra tough around the 35min mark as the sun started to set below the driver stand awning. So there was a glair on my goggles and I kept trying to adjust my standing position to keep it from messing me up so bad. So I continued to hold onto 4th for most of the race but at the end Carson was catching as I was just struggling with the track for a bit. I saw him about 3 seconds behind though I found a reserve where I put in about 5 minutes of good running to hold him there. However with about 2 minutes to go a driver a few laps back accidentally punted me off the back left corner of the track. So in that wreck Carson got by and I had to settle for a still respectable top 5 finish.

Tekno NB48.3

Overall I was pretty pleased with the weekend. I was proud of AKA for their new tire and compound that proved a huge help for us on these higher wear conditions. Proud of Tekno for getting their first ROAR Nationals podium in Nitro. And proud of all of my other sponsors for again giving me solid equipment to help me finish yet more long finals this year. My finishing results and consistency this year have no doubt been better than ever and I know there is just more good to come!

Next for me is the ROAR E-Scale Nats in a couple weeks at LCRC in PA. I’m looking forward to it and hoping to bring home a ROAR Nats title again!

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