Moment with Mike: Upsets and Highlights of the 2012 ROAR Nats

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Mike Garrison

0 June 25, 2012, 5:03 a.m.

• It was unfortunate to see trouble strike both Team Associated's Ryan Cavalieri, and Kyosho's Cody King, as both drivers are proven winners in the truggy class.
   
• After promising TQ qualifying runs, both Jared Tebo and Ryan Lutz were at the top of my list for the Final. Unfortunately both drivers had struggles which would drop them back to finish up 5th and 6th.
   
• While AE's, Ryan Maifield, has been a dominate force lately, he was able to take the lead early on but he too would have issues dropping him back to 4th overall.

• I want to start by giving a shout out to Tyler Vik and Taylor Peterson as both of these drivers stepped it up for this year's ROAR Nationals and proved they are not be overlooked as potential winners.
   
• Missouri native and good friend, Josh Wheeler, I was TOLD was not attending the race. Not only did he attend this year's ROAR Nationals, but he in fact put in one of the best races I've seen! Congratulations to Josh on his impressive 3rd place finish.
   
• Last but not least, "The Kids". I knew that Ty Tessman and Dakotah Phend had the talent to finish up front, but little did I know they would finish 1-2 in such dominating fashion. These two drivers thoroughly impressed me as they showed their skills and finished only 3 seconds apart from one another, but 10+ seconds over the rest of the field.

• Team Durango's, Ryan Lutz, looked to be a potential winner once again in the 1:8 Buggy class. Unfortunately during the Semi-Final (qualifier for the final), Lutz would DNF with less than 5 minutes to go. Therefore leaving him on the sidelines for the start of the Final.
   
• Billy Easton, winner of the Nats Warmup Race, would also face problems in the Semi-Final destroying Team Serpent's chance at a National Championship. Easton looked smooth and calm with the Serpent Cobra up until disaster at the 20 minute mark.
   
• Team Associated looked strong leading up to the Final with "The Ryans" starting 1st (Cav) and 3rd (Maifield). As the tone sounded it was 29 minutes in when AE's chance of another national title was looking slimmer. Maifield would DNF with only Cavilieri to take the team to the front. At 49 minutes down, RC would also DNF, leaving no Associated drivers to finish the final.

 
 
Buggy Final Highlights:

• Once again a huge shout-out to several drivers for proving they are amongst the nation's best including TLR's Matt Castellano, and Mugen's Taylor Peterson and Barry Pettit. These drivers are always fast, but proved that even at an event as prestigious as this, they have what it takes to run with the best.
   
• Both Josh Wheeler and Jeremy Kortz put together great runs putting both XRAY and Agama on the Buggy Final radar. Wheeler showed that the all-new XB9 has more than enough to finish up with the best of them. Despite having some mid-race issues, Jeremy Kortz put together a great run with the Agama A8. The buggy looked more than competitive, and was also welcome addition to the Buggy Final amongst the other brands.
   
• In my opinion, the biggest highlight of the buggy class was Ty Tessman and Dakotah Phend. While their 1-2 finish ONCE AGAIN in buggy was impressive, that isn't what impressed me most about the two. These two rising stars (now superstars), finished an amazing Truggy Final with a 1-2 finish, however, did not let that distract them from the job at hand in buggy. Ty Tessman took his HotBodies straight to the front with TLR's Dakotah Phend close behind. The two drivers ran wheel to wheel stretching out their lead on the competition and as the tone sounded they finished ONLY 29 HUNDREDTHS of a second apart. In other words, had Tessman mounted his transponder any further back, Phend would have won. My personal congrats to both drivers for an amazing weekend!

 

 

 

For more photos from the event CLICK HERE!