FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Tessmann took D216 to the top at the 2016 Hot Rod Hobbies Off-Road Shootout

0 July 13, 2017, 2:10 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Everybody knows that Friday is meant for reminiscing old times. Each week we take you back in time as we flashback to some of R/C racing's greatest moments, products, drivers, and more!

Flashback: 2016

Ty Tessmann drove HB Racing D216 to victory, Maifield dominated 4WD, and Jared Tebo and Ryan Cavalieri split Truck classes at 19th annual Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout

This weekend marks the 20th annual Hot Rod Hobbies Off-Road Shootout, one of the last notable outdoor off-road races in the U.S. that takes place on a traditional blue-groove track.

In addition to moving the race date from Labor Day to the middle of July, two decades of trend changes in the RC world have forced the race to adapt. In its early stages 1/10-scale nitro stadium truck racing was a major draw, various Sportsman classes using the old Team Losi blue-spec tires were a staple of the event, and for many years a Pro-Am competition that linked the top pros with entry-level racers in a combined contest added character to this long-standing tradition. The largest turnouts in HRH Shootout history hovered around the 400 mark - and sometimes the weather in the desert-above-Los-Angeles town crept north of 100 degrees — earning the nickname “Hot Rod Sweatout.” And while interest in this particular form of RC competition has waned over the past several years, with racers often opting to stay indoors, the Shootout still managed to pull 185 entries last summer - including some of the fastest drivers on the planet, like Ty Tessmann, Jared Tebo, Ryan Cavalieri, Spencer Rivkin, and even Naoto Matsukura.

In the 2WD class, Tebo earned TQ but couldn’t put it together in the finals. That left the door open for Ty Tessmann, driving the HB Racing D216 buggy that made its public debut at the 2015 Hot Rod Shootout, to clinch the title from third on the grid by winning A1 and A2. Tebo rebounded for a second-place finish in A2 and then won A3, in Tessmann’s absence, to earn second overall. Despite not finishing A3, Cavalieri got the final spot on the podium.

Whereas the 2WD finals produced close and exciting racing, the 4WD class was a snoozer; Ryan Maifield scampered off from the TQ spot to win the first two mains by convincing margins. Second qualifier Dustin Evans finished second in both A1 and A2, then won the third, to leave no doubt about second place. Third place overall was less cut-and-dry; Ty Tessmann and Jared Tebo tied with the exact same scores in all three finals, but Tessmann won the tiebreaker.

Unlike what happened in 2WD, Tebo was able to convert his TQ honors in the Stadium Truck class into a victory - but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Cavalieri edged him out by 1.7 seconds in the first main leg, but Tebo disappeared in A2 to win by nearly seven seconds. Cavalieri finished less than a second behind in A3, but Tebo locked up the overall. His Kyosho teammate, Naoto Matsukura, finished third in a rare appearance behind the wheel of a stadium truck after qualifying fifth and scoring third-place finishes in A1 and A2.

Just six drivers entered the 2WD Modified Short Course class at last year’s Shootout, and no one provided a challenge for Ryan Cavalieri. The multi-time world and national champ scored the TQ and then won the first two main events by over a lap each. Matt Chambers and Kyosho/Orion teammate Joe Pillars swapped second and third place finishes in the first two mains, but Chambers won A3 in Cavalieri’s absence to set the final finishing order.