Lutz looks back on SWorkz Challenge/ROAR Nats Warm-Up

0 June 4, 2015, 11:24 a.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Ryan Lutz:

www.lutzinator.com

This past weekend I made the short jaunt up to Chico for the SWorkz Challenge / Nats Warmup event. The event was well attended with around 200 entires and a formidable contingent in the pro class as well. I chose to run my standard 3 classes with the Nitro buggy and truggy being the focus for the upcoming Nationals in a couple of weeks.

Some of the most important things to focus on this event were tire selection throughout the weekend as the track came in as well as shock package for the hot afternoon temps. The temperature did only reach just into the 90’s and it’s possible for Nats to be anywhere from 70’s to 110. I’ll hope for the lower side of that range! Anyways my cars were working well in practice and we were narrowing in on our AKA tire selection for the event.

In qualifying I would take a commanding TQ in all 3 rounds of E-buggy. My EB48.3 was dialed and I was taking a few jump sections a bit different than the nitro vehicles were able to do. It was a lot of fun and it also allowed some good extra tire testing. In the nitro classes I struggled a little in the first two qualifiers just making a few to many mistakes on my end. But come Q3 I came away with a TQ in each including a wire to wire hard fought TQ of Tessman in truggy. Overall I would qualify 2nd in Truggy and 3rd in Buggy.

E-buggy mains were pretty straight forward as I took commanding victories in A1 and A2. My car was simply solid all weekend even with the neglect of focusing on the Nitro classes. I’m so pumped about the reliability of my Tekno and Tekin package in my EB48.2 as I was launching my buggy far as it could fly off the back straight jump and it was taking the abuse without issue.

Tekno Podium sweep!

The Nitro buggy main was next and it was a 45 minute affair. I would be starting 3rd behind the W.C. Tessman and his teammate Moller. At the start I got passed on the first corner but stayed clean and held in 4th. Within a lap I was back up to 3rd and freight training around with Tessman and Moller. After the first pitstops were complete I briefly held the lead for a couple of laps but for varying reason I got passed by both of them and again was following the freight train. We eventually lapped the field and slowly they pulled away from me. I didn’t have any crashes, just a couple of bobbles in the 45min main. Overall it was a good race for me finishing about 15 seconds behind Tessman and less than 3 behind Moller. I had my opportunity at the end as I was catching Moller, but I tried to dial up my pace just a bit and instead just missed some of my lines and got out into the dust falling back again just a tad. Overall a solid 3rd place podium.

Nitro Truggy Podium

In Nitro truggy my NT48 was pretty awesome as usual. The one thing I would have changed however would have been to run a bit heavier shock oil as I was bottoming just a little on the step-on step-off section and it was messing a bit with my timing and rhythm because of it. Overall though I held my own in this race. Again Tessman and Moller were out front and this time Drake and I were it a bit of a battle. For the last 4 minutes or so I was able to hold him about 2 seconds back in my rearview mirror which was a nice feeling to stay consistent in the face of the pressure of the Drake!

Nitro Buggy Podium

So overall 3 more podium finishes with two 3rd places in Nitro and a TQ and win in E-buggy. Next I get to go visit my family in Ohio for a couple days and my dad is going to go to the Stateline King of Kings event with me in Indiana this weekend. Should be a great time!

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