ROAR NATS: First practice round - Tessmann tops Truck, Lutz surprises in Buggy

0 June 19, 2014, 10:19 a.m.

6/18/2014

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC

In order to organize the entrants of both classes into the qualifying heats for the four rounds scheduled for Friday and Saturday, the final two rounds of practice today are timed - and each driver's fastest three consecutive laps are recorded. It was no surprise to see defending champion Ty Tessmann on top of the Truck division, but the Buggy class showed a few more surprises!

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Simply saying his truck was "good," the typically reserved Ty Tessmann shocked no one by setting the fastest time in the first round of timed practice for the Truck division. Even still, he said that his X3 compound Pro-Like Holeshot 2.0's were too soft for the heat and high-speed track conditions and that he'd be switching to X2's for this afternoon.

Serpent's top dog at the event, Mike Truhe's seeding time was just a half-second slower than Tessmann. Also using the word "good" to describe his S811T Cobra, the former Buggy-class champ said his truck "didn't need" any changes, but that he was going to think about it more upon returning to his pit area and may consider further adjustments.

Two-time Buggy champion Ryan Cavalieri was seventh-quick with his Team Associated RC8T CE, which has been fitted with a few front end parts from the RC8.2 buggy. Cavalieri had different words for his truck, calling it "not bad" - and saying that he would be freshening up his center diff oil and also fitting a lighter rear swaybar.

1/8-Scale Truck Top 16:

Ty Tessmann (Hot Bodies/O.S./Pro-Line) 134.919
Michael Truhe (Serpent/TOP/Pro-Line) 135.496
Ryan Maifield (Associated/Novarossi/JConcepts) 135.949
Dakotah Phend (TLR/Orion/Pro-Line) 136.007
Joshua Wheeler (XRAY/O.S./AKA) 136.019
Ryan Lutz (Durango/Alpha/AKA) 136.301
Ryan Cavalieri (Associated/Orion/AKA) 136.366
Carson Wernimont (Mugen Seiki/O.S./AKA) 136.734
Jared Tebo (Kyosho/Orion/AKA) 137.049
Austin Blair (Mugen Seiki/RB/AKA) 137.354
Mark Pavidis (Kyosho/O.S./AKA) 137.555
Steven Hartson (Associated/LRP/JConcepts) 137.832
Jeremy Kortz (Agama/Werks/Pro-Line) 137.92
Tyler Vik (XRAY/FX/AKA) 138.018
Taylor Petersen (TLRi/Novarossi/AKA) 138.171
Josh Glancy (TLR/Novarossi/Pro-Line) 138.341

Ryan Lutz blitzed his way to the fastest time in Buggy by nearly 1.5 seconds, citing help from teammate Travis Amezcua who's still waiting the arrival of his own buggy. Lutz said his car was "AH-mazing" but still planned on trying to improve for round two, suggesting that he would be adding more rear anti-squat to help the car square up while exiting corners - an important handling trait on such a high-speed track.

Last year's dominating Top Qualifier in Buggy, Dakotah Phend recorded the fourth-fastest seeding time - less than seven-tenths slower than second-place Ty Tessmann - despite only running less than half of his heat before succumbing to a broken servo (the same issue that knocked him out of last year's semifinal). Even with the heat rising in the afternoon he said his X2-compound Pro-Line Blockades took a few laps to break in before he felt comfortable pushing his 8IGHT 3.0 to the limit.

Top Mugen Seiki driver in the first timed practice round, Carson Wernimont feels comfortable about his chances to continue a strong first half of the 2014 season. When asked what it would take to improve his time he simply said he "only got in a few clean laps before spending the rest of the heat in traffic," and planned no changes to his MBX7.

1/8-Scale Buggy Top 16: