ROAR NATS: Dakotah Phend wins Truck National Championship!

0 June 22, 2014, 11:02 a.m.

6/22/2014

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC

In one of the most exciting races in recent memory, and perhaps in RC history, Dakotah Phend earned the biggest victory of his nitro career after a 45-minute long battle with two-time defending champion Ty Tessmann in which the two drivers were never separated by more than five seconds - and for more than half of the time spent on track, less than two.

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Tessmann looked to have the stronger truck early on in the final and led much of the beginning of the race until Phend's tires broke in, and then they swapped positions throughout the middle of the race. Phend recovered from a disastrous mistake into the step-up 'Mt. Thornhill' section and gave Ty his biggest lead of the race with ten minutes to go. Phend charged back and the two were locked together for the final two minutes. Nose to tail heading into the final lap, Phend landed the double-triple along the right-hand side of the track on the inside and motored past Tessmann heading onto the back straightaway, defended his position for the remaining corners. and crossed the line less than four-tenths of a second sooner than Tessmann to claim his first nitro division ROAR National Championship.