ROAR NATS: Ty Tessmann wins Buggy title in thrilling finish!

0 June 22, 2014, 3:05 p.m.

6/22/2014

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC

A fitting end to one of the most competitive ROAR Fuel Off-Road National Championships in history, two former champions went wheel-to-wheel for sixty minutes to decide the highest honor in fuel off-road racing in the United States. After a disastrous mistake early on by Top Qualifier Dakotah Phend dropped him out of contention, Ryan Maifield put in his best drive of the weekend to challenge fellow former champion Ty Tessmann, with each driver looking for their second national title.

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Just before the six-minute mark, on his seventh pass through the double-triple rhythm section, Phend crashed and tumbled out of the back of the track, losing over fifteen seconds and dropping down to ninth. From that point on it looked like Ryan Maifield was going to run away with the championship, until 2012 titleholder Ty Tessmann started tracking him down. The two swapped positions back and forth just before the halfway mark, and then Tessmann took the point until just four laps to go. The battled raged on, reaching its boiling point when the two collided spectacularly heading to the step-up. Tessmann stopped and waited for Maifield to pass, then capitalized on a mistake from the 2006 champ and pulled away for a 4.8-second victory.