This past weekend we attended the first ever Amain Manufacturers World Cup held at the famous Silver Dollar Raceway in Chico, CA.  The race for the Pro Class was a Reedy Race format, there were four 14 minute heads up races for each of the three pro classes with 1 throw out in each class.  There was also a team challenge where they took the 2 top finishers in the pro class and the 2 top finishers in the open class for each manufacturer and combined them to determine the winning manufacturer.

The track was high speed with a lot of big air jumps which made for some good racing and it was a lot of fun to drive on.

Ty Ran Pro-Line Hole Shot X3 Hole Shots to victory!

I raced the pro truck and Pro Buggy classes, most of  Friday was open practice with 2 controlled rounds later in the afternoon.  We used this time to get the cars dialed in and find a setup that worked really well.  They sorted the heats randomly which gave each driver a start in each of the rows for each class.

Saturday was the start of the heads up races, in the 1^st round of Truggy I started in position 9 which was the 3^rd row, I got off to a good start took a second.  In the second round of Truggy, I started in the 6^th position in the 2^nd row, I got another clean start and finished 3^rd.  We continued to work on our setup for the next 2 rounds, in the 3 round I started 3^rd in the 1^st row, I really needed to get a win for this round, I was able to get to the front and create a gap, at which time I had an electrical failure which would take me out of the race.  In the 4^th and final round I started 13^th in the very last row, I made it to the front fairly quickly, battled with Lutz for a bit and got by him and was gaining on 1^st place,  but unfortunately a mechanical failure took me out of the race and any chance of a podium finish was gone.  My truck felt really good and had the speed, we will take what we learned from this race to the nationals and will be hopefully battling for the win there.

In the Buggy class, the 1^st round I started 10^th which was in the 3^rd row, my car was super easy to drive and was very fast and stable I was able to get through the pack to front fairly quickly and I was able to take the win in the 1^st round.  2^nd round I started 9^th  in the 3rd row, also had a clean start, I was again able to get to the front fairly quickly and take another win.  In the 3^rd round I started 5^th in the 2^nd  row there was a bit of carnage at the start which slowed me down a bit but I was able to work my way through the pack to take another win. Ironically Maifield and I did not race in the same race until the 4^th round, he had won 2 of his 3 first rounds but he had a slightly faster overall fastest time which would win a tie breaker if he were to win the last round.  Again ironically he started in position 1 and I started in position 2 in the final round.  I got the hole shot beating him to the first corner but in the second corner he pushed inside to take the lead , Maifield held the lead for the first part of the race pulling away a little bit, I did my best to keep the gap small as I knew my tires would come in better a little later in the race as the track dried a bit.  Cavelieri was pushing to get by me and he did but a few laps later I took the position back from him, 2/3rds of the way into the race, Maifield would make a mistake which caused him to tumble but land on his wheels, this was enough for me to close the gap and get back on his bumper.  I stayed there for a couple of laps waiting for an opportunity to get by him, I made my move on the hip jump with 4 laps to go, I went to the inside on the downside of the hip jump and made the pass, after this my car seemed to just get better and I was able to take the win which gave me the overall win.

For the manufacturer team win, the team members that got us the win were myself, Cj Jelin finishing 8^th in the Pro Buggy class, Robby Williams TQing the Open Buggy class, Mark Schroeder finishing 7^th in Open Buggy and Brad Nibbelink finishing 8^th in the Open Buggy class, great job by all drivers.

This was a great race, the format is super challenging but was a lot more fun than the normal qualifying/main type of racing.  I am looking forward to next year, thanks to the whole A Main crew for a great race.

Thanks to my sponsors Xray, RC America, Pro-Line, OS, Orion, MKS, VP Fuels, A Main Hobbies, Lunsford, Avid, Muchmore, Stick it 1, Darkside, 110% Racing, Live RC, Red RC and Neobuggy for making all this possible.

Thanks to my parents for all the help and support, and most of all I want to thank my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without him I would not be where I am today.

– Ty Tessmann