At the recent Dirt Nitro Challenge, Team HB drivers led the charge in all 3 of the big classes: Pro 1/8 Buggy, Pro 1/8 Truck and E-Buggy! Ty Tessman won the E-Buggy, challenged hard for the win in Pro 1/8 Truck and was leading the weay in Pro 1/8 Buggy until bad luck took away the win, but David Ronnefalk made it 2 wins out of 3 classes for Team HB by taking the late win in the Pro 1/8 Truck class!
We've now got in-depth race reports from the weekend directly from David and Ty, plus additional reports from Tanner Stees and one of our most recent roster signings, Drew Moller!
Race Report from David Ronnefalk, winner of The Dirt Nitro Challenge Pro 1/8 Truck
After some 8 days of practice, it was time to head to Phoenix in
Arizona to get ready for ‘The Dirt Nitro Challenge’.
Practice had been going really good and it felt like the whole HB
team was ready and well prepared.
Electric Buggy
In the EP class dad built a car out of a D812 with the conversion
kit of a MP9E. The car looked good and it was also handling very
well on track during the practice in California. I was ready to try
to defend my title from last year’s main event. First day of
practice at the race and we were supposed to get 2 rounds each
class, however this wasn’t to be as some late entries were
handed in and they had to put those drivers in new heats.
We finally got underway with the first few car rolling out on the
spectacular track made by Joey and The Dirt crew. After a few heats
you could already tell that it was going to be a looong night if we
were going to get two rounds in. They decided to cancel one round,
which meant we got 6 minutes on the track before qualifying would
start. Not what you would hope for really. However my car felt
great in practice and I would stick with the setup as was for the
first qualifier.
Qualifying for E-buggy was going to be held on Thursday with finals
on Saturday. The best 2 out of 3 rounds would count and give you a
place in the finals. Had a pretty good run in Q1 and was able to
get a 5th place for the round. My car was a little too
soft in the shocks so I decided to go up in shock oils for round
two. With the track getting faster and rougher at the same time, my
setup change worked out really good. One mistake, but still managed
to get the TQ in Q2, So with a 5th and a TQ I already
knew my spot in the A-main was done so for the last round I would
just try to get the best starting position possible for the
main. The last round started out very good but a series of
rough laps would put me in 6th for the round.
Didn’t lower my points and I would line up 3rd in
the 10 minute A-main on Saturday.
After a few hours at the track on finals day, it was time for
A-main practice. My main goal for the practice was to decide what
tires to go for in the main. Even if the temperature and the track
were going to change a little before we were up, I got a good feel
of it.
My car was ready and I felt really good while waiting for the tone
to sound. After the first jump I made my way by 2nd
place and was right behind Ty. A mistake would drop me back a bit
in the field, but having really good speed I quickly worked my way
back up to 3rd only a few seconds behind Ty who still
was in the lead. At the 6 minute mark my car started to behave
strange, it felt like something in the driveline. I would have to
retire after 6-7min as the pin in the front CVD broke or got loose.
Very unfortunate as I had a podium place and was catching the
leaders.
Truggy
With just 2 or 3 tanks with the car before the race, I was really
excited about this class. Knowing the car is really good I felt
like I would have a great chance on the podium.
In the one and only practice round my car felt amazing right from
the start, great power and very good traction. Due to only one
round of practice they would handpick the heats for Q1 and after
that make the reseeding on the results from that round. I was
placed in a pretty good heat and didn’t feel like traffic
would be an issue.
Q1 went really well and I got the TQ for the round. Some would say “surprising” but with the feeling I had with the car I knew it was possible if I stayed on the wheels.
With the track getting faster and faster I knew there were more
guys that would be closer on pace in round two. Staring out with
really good speed I could hear the speaker saying my pace was about
9 seconds faster than the current 2nd place. I caught up
to traffic that unfortunately turned out to be a mess, loosing
about 12 seconds would put me in 4th for the round. With the point
being very close I needed a last round TQ to take the overall TQ.
Making my best time so far in Q3 would not be enough for the
overall TQ, instead I would line up as car number 3 in the
final.
In the A-main practice my car felt really good after I had put new
diffs and shocks on it. I was really excited for the main to
start!
The tone sounded and we were away, it was a clean start and the battle started. Four cars would break away a little from the others with me, Ty, Tebo and Maifield. Halfway through and it was no longer a four way battle as me and Ty pulled away from the others. Switching positions back and forth it would come down to the last few minutes. With him making a mistake that would let me by, right after I saw his car acting strange in some corners, which gave me some breathing room. I kept the car on the wheels for the last 2 minutes and became the first European to ever win a Pro Nitro class at The Dirt Nitro Challenge!!!
Buggy
Excited to start the “main” class it wasn’t to be
as I suffered a mechanical failure on the first lap in practice.
This meant I would go into qualifying with no track time at all
with the buggy. However I had a good feeling with it from the
practice in California and hoped it would be no problem when
qualifying would start.
With the qualifying for buggy being on Friday I already got to
learn the track in E-buggy and Truggy qualifying as was on
Thursday. With the plan of going out there trying to keep the car
on the wheels for the first round, it would work out
“okay” and I got a 10th for the round. I had
good speed just made a few bobbles here and there.
For round two we changed the shock setup a little bit and it would work out well. Again having great speed would put me in 6th for the round. Two decent rounds to start out with weren’t too bad due to the circumstances. For round 3 I would make no setup changes but instead make a gamble on the tire choice. Putting the Typo tire from AKA on my car would raise many eyebrows as we walked through the pit. Already on the warm-up I could feel the traction the tires provided. I started out very good and would go on to take the TQ for the round. This helped me a lot to better my starting positions for the final as I was going to line up in 4th on Sunday.
Sunday and final day of the race had come and I had have a great sleep after the win in Truggy the night before. With the day starting out very windy and many cars broken in the big jumps, it would calm down a bit in the afternoon. Planning to test tires for the main in the A-main practice, as I was a bit unsure on what to go for in the 45 minute main. Trying both Typos and Catapults I would decide to run the Catapults for the main as the track had got a lot rougher since last round of qualifying.
Early mornings and long days had finally come to the last race of the week. With a good feeling on the grid I was looking forward to the race and I knew it was going to be very close. With the worst start I ever experienced I found myself back in the pack, I felt like I had no luck at all. And it wouldn’t get any better as I ran out of fuel right before the pitlane. My chances gone early into the race and I just tried to make the best out of it. In the end I finished 12th a very disappointing result.
However, with one win and making all three A-mains in my debut
race with the HB cars as well as TQing one round each class I am
more than excited about the
future!
Race Report from Ty Tessmann, TQ of Pro 1/8 Buggy and winner of The Dirt Nitro Challenge E-Buggy
After 3 successful years at DNC, 2015 was disappointing in more ways than one. After arriving at the track on Tuesday morning to setup the HB pits, this would be HB’s biggest showing at any race, and I was very excited . The layout of the track looked extremely fast and fun, and we were looking forward to an exciting week. We arrived Wednesday morning at 7:30am ready for the scheduled 8am drivers meeting, so we set up my pit and waited… and waited… and waited.
We got started at about 1:30pm and because of the late start they changed the schedule to allow for only 1 practice run with each car. The track definitely didn’t disappoint, the layout was fast, fun, flowing and challenging. Even though we only had 1 practice with each car, I was really looking forward to qualifying with truck and e buggy on Thursday.
We arrived Thursday morning bright and early only to find that there were more delays. The track was really good for the 1st round and my truck felt really good, I qualified 2nd behind David who was running the same D8T Tessmann edition, we both felt our trucks were really good at this point. The second qualifier didn’t go so well, I think I may have picked the wrong tire, the track was extremely loose for everyone, this would be my throwout heat. On the 3rd run my truck was pretty good, I edged out Jared by a few thousandths of a second for TQ, this would give Jared and myself the same points but he took overall TQ because of his faster time.
My e-buggy was much better, in the first round I got a 3rd overall, the 2nd round I tq’d and the 3rd round I got 2nd, this would give me the overall tq for buggy. These heats were very close but my car felt really good and I was confident going into the mains with both truck and buggy.
Friday was nitro buggy qualifying, this started late because of them finishing up e-buggy and nitro truck qualifying from the night before. When I got on the track with nitro buggy the track was dry and starting to break up already. I made a few changes from the practice round on wednesday for the conditions and I felt like my car was quite good. The 1st round was kind of rough, I crashed all on my own and this knocked me down to a 5th for the round . In the 2nd round I tq’d over Elliot Boots by just hundredths of a second, and in the 3rd round I qualified 2nd behind David, my points gave me the overall tq. My car felt really good, I felt like I could push it and I was excited for the main.
Truggy
By the time the truck main came around the track was very dry from the lack of watering all day, there was a lot of discussion about which tire would be best, I won’t ever know for sure but I may have chosen the wrong tire. The beginning of the race, I tried to make my way around Jared but he kept everything close and I was unable to get by, I was very careful not to get into him, he eventually made a mistake and I was able to get by. All the while this allowed David to catch up and then it became a battle between David and myself, the battle went on for awhile, and when I managed to get a bit of a lead, if you watch the neobuggy video at 32:26 this was when I felt my car first lose steering and it continued to do this until the end of the race and I just wasn’t able to hold on to the car. I thought it had to do with my steering but I found out later that the on of the wings on the front arm had broke and was getting hung up on the steering knuckle and then it finally broke away totally on the last lap, but with the lead David and I had I was still able to limp across and take 2nd. This was disappointing in many ways especially since I have never broken an arm in this way before, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
E-Buggy
In the e-buggy main things went really well, I expected to have a battle on my hands with some fast drivers starting at the front, Austin Blair crashed almost right away, and Maifield was charging hard, he had some really fast laps but kept making mistakes, so I just cruised around the track and stayed on my wheels and it was enough to take the win.
Buggy
Sunday was nitro buggy main day, the way the schedule was made up we should have r un the buggy main at 8pm but once again there were more delays and we started at about 10:45pm. What makes the nitro challenge one of the hardest races to win, is how much the track changes from dry to wet to blown out you never know what you are going to get. As the tone went I expected Ryan Maifield who qualified 2nd to attack early, so on the first jump I tried to keep the door closed and ended shorting the jump slightly, Ryan landed on the inside of me and made a nice pass, then he crashed on the 2nd double in front of the drivers stand allowing me to pull back in front, with Ryan right behind me. We raced clean with a few bobbles, while we were battling this allowed Dakotah to catch up and it was then a 3 way battle with the rest of the field close behind. Ryan would then get a little bit ahead, I did my best to keep him as close as I could, being on different fuel stops the lead was swapped a few times. Dakotah ended up getting in front for awhile, and again I just tried to stay with him, we had a good clean race, and Dakotah and I started to stretch out a lead from the rest of the field.
I managed to get by Dakotah and get a comfortable lead over the rest of the field and I really got into my rhythm and was able to drive without making any mistakes, at about the 31 minute mark I downsided the double before the line and my car lost signal. I managed to limp it into pit lane, I thought it was a receiver or radio problem because the signal would come and go, but when my dad pulled the body off, he noticed that the micro deans had come apart, but it wasn’t totally apart which explains the intermittent signal. He plugged it back in and I got back on the track but it was too late. This is the same kind of plug I have used for years without issue. This will go down in my memory as one of the worst nitro challenges for me mostly because I was in contention to win both classes and I didn’t.
I’m not writing this to complain or make excuses but I have had a lot of people asking me online what happened, and I wanted to let people know. Congratulations to David and Ryan on great races, in my opinion it doesn’t matter how fast you were or how long you lead the race the champion is the one who crosses the line first.
Race Report from Drew Moller
The week started out with two timed practice rounds. The practice would later be shortened to one round due to some technical issues with the timing and scoring. My HB cars felt good considering there was only one round of practice which made it difficult to gauge the setups on my cars.
The next day was the qualifying day for truggy and ebuggy. There were three rounds of qualifying with the best two out of three counting. I qualified 13th overall in truggy and 15th overall in ebuggy. I had some electrical issues in ebuggy which hindered my chances of making the main. In truggy I had two top ten runs but it wasn’t enough to put it directly into the main. When it came main time for truggy and ebuggy I felt I had the speed and confidence to bump both cars into the main.
In truggy I started first and got off to a good start. A few minutes in I made some mistakes which set me a few positions back. Coming into the first pit stop I flamed out and had to get re-fired, at that point I was too far back to bump up.
In the e-buggy B-main I got off to a good start and never looked back, I got into a transfer spot and cruised to the finish. In the main I would get a clean start and was making my way towards the front. A few laps later I would have to retire after suffering a mechanical issue.
In nitro buggy I felt very comfortable coming into nitro buggy qualifying. The first round I qualified 9th overall, after making some changes to my car I was able to get a 4th for the round in the last round of qualifying. This would qualify me 8th overall.
At the start of the main I got a terrible start, after getting tangled up with other cars on the first lap I would drop back to 15th. I told myself not to get frustrated and to relax and work my way through the pack. By the end of the race I worked my way back to sixth.
Overall it was good week of racing, I learned a lot about the cars, and got to meet some more of Team HB. I would like to thank all of my sponsors for all of their support. HB/HPI racing, Pro-Line, LRP, KO Propo, amain.com, Nitrotane, Avid, Up Grade R/C, Lunsford, and my amazing family.
Race Report from Tanner Stees
I recently attended the 16th annual Dirt Nitro Challenge in Phoenix, Arizona where it has been held at the Fear Farm facility for the last few years. This race is always one of the biggest races during the year and it really starts out the year just because it is in the early months. The race is also one of the hardest to win because of its format style. I was racing 3 Pro Classes: Truggy, E Buggy and Gas Buggy. The first day which is Wednesday is usually practice for all classes then the Thursday is qualifying for both truggy and electric buggy. Friday is qualifying for nitro buggy then Saturday is truggy and e-buggy mains and the last day is buggy qualifying which is on Sunday.
Wednesday was definitely a crazy day. Practice didn’t really start when it was expected so there were some major delays and ended up only getting 1 practice run per class which is not very much considering the size of the track. Truggy was the first and I went out with an open mind just trying to get the track with my HB D8T TE down and figure out the best way to get through all jumps and what not. It actually ended up pretty good I think I had a top 10 for the best 3 laps and I was actually really happy with that. Electric buggy was up next and once again it was just about getting as much run time in on my Tekno converted D812. I knew if I put on a safe tire, which was M3 blockades, I should be good. As for nitro buggy I did the same thing on my HB D815 and put on the tire that I knew would work well (Proline Blockades). Overall practice day was pretty crazy only getting one practice run but thankfully I entered 3 classes so I got an extra 7 minutes compared to most.
Thursday was qualifying for both truggy and e-buggy and I was pretty excited to get on the track even though I only had a little practice. As usual truggy was the first to run and I feeling pretty good with practice ended up. For the first run I put M3 Hole Shots on the truck and it was awesome. In the run I had one small mistake but still a great run just missing a 12 lap run by less than a second and able to get 6th for the round. As for round two of truggy I put another set of M3 Hole Shots on and it was pretty good. For e-buggy I put on M3 blockades for both rounds 1 and 2 and the car was good just making small mistakes as it was my first actual race with the car. Overall day one of qualifying was really good I thought both of my cars seemed really good especially my truggy but we were only able to get the first 2 rounds and part of round 3 done before it was too late.
As for Friday was pretty hectic once again because we had to finish up the rest of round 3 qualifying then do 3 more rounds of qualifying for buggy. In the final run for truggy I was able to make another really good run on the M3 Hole Shots and hooked up track and was actually able to place myself 11th in the Pro Truggy A-main. As for electric buggy I ran M3 Blockades again and put in another safe run which I was then able to qualify into the B-main then. As for nitro buggy I was pretty excited to get running since I had met my goals for the truggy class and wanted to try and achieve them in the buggy class as well. The first run was going pretty well my car was hooked up on M3 Blockades and I was just trying to put a solid run in but unfortunately I had a pressure line come off the tank and made my engine get super-hot and not able to do much. The second round I went out on M3 lockdowns and my car was hooked up but I had a problem with traffic and pretty much went tumbling all the way down the back straight. Unfortunately I was on a pretty good run and my car was feeling awesome but sometimes things happen that you can’t really control. In the third round I went out on M4 Holeshots just because the track was cool and in general it was pretty cold out. My car was really hooked up this round and the tires were awesome but my setup didn’t really work the best with all the traction and huge ruts that were starting to develop. Overall I qualified 9th in the D-main for buggy which I was not super happy with but I had quite a bit of bad luck so it was understandable.
Saturday was the truggy and e-buggy mains which thankfully I could sleep in a little later since my races weren’t up until later in the day. For the first run of the day I had the A-main Warm up which was ten minutes in length and was basically just making sure everything worked correctly after rebuilding my truggy. The truck felt really good even though it was only a practice run I then felt really good for the truggy main later that night. The first actual race that day for me was the B-main in e-buggy which I was starting towards the back but I knew there would be huge pile up in the first two corners of the track on the right side. During warmup my car felt really good on M3 lockdowns but since it was such a long race I had to make sure to try and conserve as much battery as possible so it was only a lap or so. In the beginning of the race I was able to pick up a few spots due to the corner pile ups. For most of the race I was just battling mid pack trying to get to the front but it was a pretty fast heat and with it being short it was really hard to get to the front. Overall I was pretty happy making it to the B-main and finishing 8th as it was my first race on the car. The very last race of the day was truggy main and I went into the race with an open mind and just hoping for the best. In the beginning of the race my truggy was actually really good and pretty hooked up on M3 Blockades and was having a pretty good battle towards the rear but after about 15 minutes one of my axles broke due to all the hard hits through ruts and crazy stuff that the car goes through on a track. Luckily it was a pretty easy fix and my dad was able to get me back out after a few minutes of repairing it and was then able to finish the race in the 13th position.
Sunday was buggy mains and the final day of the race. Even though I was in the D-main I was still pretty late in the day as the day went on it became more and more windy. This can actually really affect the cars because there were some pretty big jumps on the track. In the main my car was really good and tires were awesome which were the M3 Lockdowns. I was able to get to the front of the pack pretty fast and started battling with 3rd place but unfortunately every time I made it into 3rd m car would get massively affected by the wind and almost fly away. For most of the race it was a battle for the 3rd place but unfortunately on the second to last lap I lost the position and could not catch back up, finishing 5th.
Overall my cars and tires worked awesome all week and would like to take a second to say thanks to Pro-Line and HB for all help and support throughout the year and at the race itself.
Many thanks to RedRC and Neobuggy for the use of their excellent pictures!
