ROAR NATS: Phend wins round three and clinches Buggy class TQ

0 June 21, 2014, 10:55 a.m.

6/20/2014

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC

Dakotah Phend not only set the fastest time in the third round of Buggy qualifying, but secured the overall by clinching the tiebreaker - ROAR's official qualifying tiebreaker is the combined times for each driver's two best rounds, and while both of Phend's best runs have been 10-lappers, Tessmann earned the first round win yesterday with a fast 9-lap run. This is the second year in a row that Phend enters the semifinals as the Top Qualifier.

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Saying "the track was a lot better than yesterday and not as catchy in the corners" Dakotah Phend said he was able to push harder on his way to the round three win. Phend chose Pro-Line X2 compound, saying that's what he has liked best, and his car's handling makes him very comfortable heading into tomorrow's semifinals. His run was "pretty good," but that he "wasn't in the groove and felt a little off on the first lap." Though he had some trouble with traffic in the middle of the race, his last two laps were really clean so he "went for it." When asked how he felt about being the TQ two years in a row, Phend said, "It definitely shows I can run toward the top, now I just need to put it together for the semi and main." When asked about how he felt heading into the semi in the same position as last year, when a servo failure knocked him out of contention, Phend said "Last year was a huge disappointment, but I've worked hard to get back to that point and I feel really prepared."

On qualifying fourth with his best run, Ryan Lutz "had a good start, but the engine got a little bit lean and the car was loose by the end, so it was hard to drive." He wasn't sure why the car got so loose, guessing that "maybe the diffs heated up, and I might have been driving too hard." Ryan explained that his terrific times in practice were due to the track being fresh, and that he's still learning to set up the prototype Durango DNX8 to adapt to different track conditions. Lutz has made little changes to the car every run, but went back to previous settings for the third qualifier and that it was better. Now secured into the semifinals, Lutz said, "I just want to put in another good run and make the car more consistent for the finals."

A Main Hobbies' Austin Blair said, "I had two throwouts yesterday" but that his car was "really good" on his way to a sixth-place finish in round three. A change to thicker diff oil made his Kyosho MP9 TKI3 easier to drive, which helped fix his "driving issues" from yesterday. Blair will make no changes for the fourth round, and in fact "not even going to clean it" as he's "definitely feeling the pressure" to put in another good run.

On his ninth place run in the third round, A Main Hobbies' Dylan Rodriguez had "his best run so far - and the rest haven't been worth talking about." In fact, the O.S.-powered driver ran out at the end of the last lap on the second round, saying that "you're wide open all over the track, and it's slick so the cars don't have much forward grip." Rodriguez raised the front ride height to get less turn-in with more exiting steering, but he wasn't sure if that's what made his Kyosho MP9 TKI3 better or if the track simply had more grip. Guessing that he's comfortably locked in the semifinals, he "would like to go for it in the fourth round, but probably needs to play it safe."

Running in his second major event with TLR, having switched just in time for Silver State, Taylor Petersen said his 8IGHT 3.0 "was good, easy to drive." He's been running the same car all week with no changes. In fact, the only thing he changed was "going out and partying all night, letting loose and having fun."