The action at the 2015 1/8 Scale Nitro Nationals has been as hot as the daily 100-degree weather and with a lot of the world’s fastest drivers are in attendance, the racing is super close with one big factor that a lot of drivers faced; the Tessmann factor. HB/HPI driver, Ty Tessmann has been on a tear with sweeping the first day of qualifying in both the Truggy and Buggy classes. On this final day of qualifying, Tessmann was in search of securing the over all TQ’s to start at the front for Sunday’s mains.
Another master piece of a track build by AMain’s Kevin Jelich. The layout at the Silver Dollar Raceway was a perfect mix of technical sections, fast sections and the biggest elevation changes I’ve seen on any track. (Aerial photos shot with Blade Chroma Camera Drone)
Truggy Round 3 – Coming off a pretty convincing performance after the first day of Friday’s qualifying, HB/HPI driver Ty Tessmann continued with his winning ways in the third round of quals. In the truggy qualifier, Tessmann grabbed the lead almost immediately laying down the fast laps that most of the racers have been searching for and laid down the fastest single lap time of the weekend, a 30.988 that is on average half a second faster than the rest of the field. Tessmann would go on to finish the qualifier 6-seconds in front of 2nd runner, TLR’s Ryan Maifield and 7-seconds in front of Techno’s Ryan Lutz.
Tessmann was all business on the drivers stand. In the Truggy division, he was on a class of his own with most of the competitors not being able to match his pace.
With the rest of the field playing catch up, Tessmann would make it a clean sweep winning all of the Truggy qualifiers.
Buggy Round 3 – Things were a bit tighter in the buggy division. Ty Tessmann was the fast guy to beat and so far had been earning the top results in the class with every ounce of his talent. The surprise in the 3rd round of qualifying was XRAY’s Josh Wheeler who actually had a faster hot lap than Tessmann. Wheeler was right behind Tessmann on the clock all race long and did manage to take over the lead for a few laps before Ty took it back before then end of the qual.
Tessmann had heavy competition in the 3rd buggy qual, mostly from XRAY’s Josh Wheeler.
Josh Wheeler was having his run of the weekend in the 3rd buggy qual and lead the race for a few laps. Tessmann would regain the lead and win the qualifier.
With a taste of the front leaving XRAY’s Josh Wheeler savoring for more, you can be sure he will be charging hard in the main.
At 3rd round’s end, Ty Tessmann wrapped it up for his qualifying at the Nats by capturing the TQ in both the Truggy and Buggy class. Although he didn’t need to run the forth round of qualifying, he would the track time to test suspension settings and tires in preparation for the mains on Sunday.
Ty and Gord Tessmann talk strategy in between races in the pits.
Truggy Round 4 – With the top spot secured by Tessmann, the rest of the field was scrambling for the remaining spots and to grid up in the main as high as possible for the good start. You would think that Ty Tessmann would take it easy knowing he had the TQ secured, but someone forgot to tell Ty that. Again, grabbing the top spot from start to finish, he would go on to make it a clean sweep and winning all four qualifiers in the Truggy class. Behind Tessmann, the next 3 contenders were separated by less than 1-second by race’s end. Tekno’s Ryan Lutz would finish 2nd, HB/HPI Drew Moller 3rd and TLR’s Dakotah Phend narrowly missing out on a top 3 spot start.
Tekno’s Ryan Lutz had a good showing in the 4th round of qualifying. He would finish 2nd in the qual that would ultimately land him 3rd on the grid for the main.
HB/HPI driver, Drew Moller was charging hard to finish 3rd in the fourth qualifier. He will start in the number four grid in the main.
Buggy Round 4 – The racing still remained close in the buggy division and if Tessmann was going to make it a clean sweep in both classes, he was going to have pull out all the stops. With some confusion at the beginning of the race of why Tessmann didn’t take the lead early on, it was because TLR’s Dakotah Phend wasn’t having it. Dakotah was always on the hunt all weekend running in or close to the top five and in the final qualifier, things just clicked for Phend. Consistency worked in Dakotah’s favor as he lead the final qual wire to wire. Tessmann finished 2nd with Drew Moller finishing 3rd respectively.
TLR’s Dakotah Phend was the big surprise in the 4th round buggy qualifier. Throwing down a run on par with Tessmann’s pace, he would go on to win and earned himself 2nd on the starting grid for the A-main.
Leading the 4th buggy qualifier for the entire race, Dakotah Phend will start the main right behind Ty Tessmann.
Sources
Blade Chroma Camera Drone flychroma.com
The post ROAR 1/8 Nitro Off-Road Nats: Ty Tessmann TQs Buggy & Truggy appeared first on RC Car Action.
