SILVER STATE: Lutz, Batlle, and Maifield top round two - but it's Lutz, King, and Maifield with overnight TQ

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

With Friday’s two rounds of qualifying running late into the evening, the track conditions for the drivers in the top classes changed significantly. Increasingly rough and sporadically wet, with lower temperatures, everything from the suspension to the engine had to be tuned for optimal performance. 

After losing a wheel after just two laps in round one since the 2012 World Champion forgot to tighten the wheel nuts on the left side, Robert Batlle responded with the fastest time in round two by over two seconds. “It’s super, super good now,” said Batlle of his Mugen MBX7R ECO. “I ran (Procircuit) Mini Pin tires and it was stuck to the ground, which made it very easy to drive,” said the Spanish driver. Though he didn’t crash at all, he avoided crashing with a slower driver while navigating the chicane on the right side of the track and had to roll the double to prevent a wreck. Toward the end of the race he ran on the track with Tessmann and another driver. “It was super fun,” said Batlle.

“It was a lot better,” said Ty Tessmann of his converted HB buggy. “We changed some stuff and tested a few things for the nitro buggy, and we’re going to use some of the adjustments that worked,” said Tessmann, who changed the shock package back to what he ran at the opening race here a couple of months ago and installed universal driveshafts in the rear. With no mistakes until the closing laps, Ty said, “coming onto the straightaway with a couple of laps to go I had a bobble, and Robert was right behind me. I let him go and followed him for the rest of the run.”

Ryan Lutz was less excited about finishing third for the round. “It was decent,” said Lutz, who made no changes to his Tekno RC EB48.2. “I just blew a few corners here and there, and made a couple of bobbles,” he said.

“I was happy with it,” said Ryan Lutz of his Tekno RC NT48, after changing to a shorter camber link in the front and running less kick-up. He edged Ryan Maifield by less than two tenths of a second for the fastest time of the round, and said “I had a clean run. Full punched, full noodle. We’re on a roll!”

“It was really good,” said Ryan Maifield, who ran up front for much of the race before Lutz nipped him in the closing laps. The only change to his truck came in the form of Black-compound Chaser tires - that only arrived to the facility 20 minutes before Maifield hit the track, as Jason Ruona brought them on his flight from Florida. “I was behind Carson the whole time, so that might’ve cost me a few tenths,” said Maifield, “but other than that the run was fine.”

Tessmann was fourth quickest in the second round, having opted to stick with M3 compound Holeshots rather than try the new Suppressors. “It was a good run,” said Tessmann, “I just made two mistakes on the big roller in the back, pushing too hard and clipping the pipe.”

“I didn’t start off that great,” said Ryan Cavalieri after setting the fourth fastest time. “My eyes were watering on the stand, so I blinked like a hundred times.” Cavalieri didn’t make any changes to his truck from the first round, but acknowledged that his truck just wasn’t quite right for a charge toward the top of the charts. “I was pushing, and it seemed like it was just like the first round. I had a ton of grip, but the lines on the track were changing. We might do some fine tuning for tomorrow,” said Ryan.

Jared Tebo salvaged fifth for round two as he continued to improve his ST-RR Evo. “It was pretty good,” he said, “better than the first one. Still a little bit off, but getting better.” With thinner oil in the front shocks to give the truck more steering, Tebo had a “good, clean run.” He added, “I had a little bit of traffic at the beginning but it was clean after that. I just need more speed.”

Most of the Expert Nitro Buggy drivers had already left by the time we completed our studio recap for the broadcast. Maifield put in an absolutely blistering run to set the fastest time in the final head by four seconds, leading the ‘A’ heat for the duration of the seven-minute race. Drew Moller battled back from a slow first lap to move into second about two minutes in, and Kyle McBride almost ran him down for the position by race end - finishing just 69-thoussandths of a second apart. Robert Batlle improved significantly over the first round to finish fourth, ahead of Joe Bornhorst, who was the only driver still at the track on Friday night.

“We did hardcore changes to it,” said Bornhorst of his Tekno RC NB48, “but they were calculated, not like throwing the setup dice.” Running a completely different shock setup, as well as different tires, Bornhorst said, “it was like a different car. It went through the rough way better that time.”

Here are the top fifteen drivers in both classes using the points system: