Ryan Lutz AMS recap and DNX408 setup

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Mike Garrison

0 June 27, 2011, 9:49 a.m.

Ryan Lutz put in quite an impressive showing with his DNX408 over the past weekend at the 2011 AMS. He was nice enough to put together a race weekend recap as well as his very own setup from the race!

AMS 2011 - RACE REPORT
By Ryan Lutz

Sunday (EARLY AM), June 26, 2011

I’m Happy. It all came together today. It started in the Short Course class where I had to bump from the B after my issues yesterday. It didn’t go without some scares but I was able to comfortable bump into the A-mains. They ran 2 A-mains and combined the two points and times to determine a winner. I started 13th on the Grid and in the first main was able to dart and weave through traffic with my DESC410R and overtake some others down the straight utilizing the crazy power of the new Tekin Pro 4 motor! About halfway through the main I was able to catch up to the leader Randy Pike and overtook him and extended my lead and held it for the win. In the second main I had a great start. Jumping into about 3rd on the first corner. (Hara told me I jumped over 10 cars in that corner! haha) Anyways I continued the hot start and took the lead on the second lap and never relinquished it. I pushed and extended and ended up putting over a lap on the field in the 7min main. My Durango DESC410R was on rails and I dipped into the 29 second laptimes. It was a great feeling!

In Buggy I just wanted to stay clean and put in a solid run. I was noticing a lot of attrition in the other mains and thus knew I just wanted to stay running. Well I had another very good start coming off the 5 spot on the grid. I got up to third but made a couple of mistakes and let Pavidis and Truhe get by me off and on at the start. I was able to find my groove though and overtook them and held 3rd firmly. I just got into a rhythm and started putting in solid laps. After a while 2nd place flamed out and I inherited 2nd. Maifield had a good lead and he was putting 3rd a lap down and I was the last person on the lead lap. I worked hard to stay on that lead lap and did so for at least 35min or so. I have to hand it to Maifield, he is at one with his vehicles right now and he laid it down. I just did the best I could and was very pleased with my car and how it was driving. I was able to put nearly 2 laps on 3rd myself by the end of the race and stayed just over a lap behind Maifield and took a very solid 2nd. I was very pleased with my Durango DNX408 buggy and I’m looking forward to the next event!! Have to give props to my sponsors AKA for the great wearing and handling Soft Impacts. To Alpha Plus for the Amazing A852 engine that kept running solid while others were flaming out all around me. It’s with these sponsors and my many others that allow me to do what I do and enjoy it so much! Bring on the next race!!

-Lutzinator

Saturday (Early AM), June 25, 2011

Yesterday was a long day of qualifying. 15 hours to be precise. In Short Course my Durango DESC410R was still the truck to beat and was able to blitz the field in Q1 for TQ of the round. Come round two and three however and the bad luck decided to rear it’s ugly head again. Both round I had the solder on my jumper wire between my two batteries come undone and ended each run prematurely. Thus I’m qualified 3rd in the B-main and will have to bump up into the double A’s.
In Buggy my DNX408 is getting better every run on the track. I’ve been able to bring my laptimes down to where I want them as of last night. Now I just need to clean up my lines and I feel like I have a chance at making a run today! My three qualifiers I finished 4th, 8th, and 5th. None of them felt good so I’m hoping today I can make my run feel good and hopefully the result will show that as well!

-Lutzinator

Thursday June 23, 2011

Out here in Alabama tonight after having finished a long day of practice at the 2011 Alabama Manufacturers Shootout. The day of practice went pretty well for me. I didn’t get quite the amount of track-time that I would have hoped for (or that I heard some people were getting!) but I still managed to put in some good runs in our 1 round of timed practice. In Short Course my DESC410R was awesome! Using the same set-up from Nor-Cal the week prior my truck was dialed and absolutely flying with the new Tekin Pro-4 motor. I was able to be within 1.7 seconds of my fastest lap in Pro Buggy with my SC. If counting the full run it would have put me 10th in the Pro Truggy A! haha
Looking for another good day tomorrow when it really matters! Qualification day!
In Buggy my DNX408 also proved to be on pace. I laid down some consistent laps and overall times put me #1. However they utilized your fastest 3 laps in a row which will put me 3rd in my qualifier tomorrow. Looking forward to a positive day and hoping to have a great rest of the event with 3 rounds of qualification tomorrow and mains on Saturday. (And home on Sunday to be with the family!)

CLICK HERE for Ryan's AMS 2011 Setup
Courtesy of Lutzinator.com