This past weekend we headed out to Thornhill RC Raceway in Hutto, TX for the Lonestar Shootout which also doubled as the nationals warmup. For this race I would be running nitro buggy and electric buggy. We arrived at the track on Thursday to setup, glue up tires and prepare the cars for practice on Friday.
Friday was practice day on a wet track, it was watered a couple of times throughout the day which gave good grip. The track started to get smooth and polished up by Friday night and continued this way throughout Saturday.
Saturday was 3 rounds of qualifying, we were still testing tires and setup going into qualifying as we wanted to gather as much information as possible for the nationals. In the first round of electric buggy I qualified 3rd which I backed up by 2 Tqs which would give me the overall TQ. In nitro buggy, the first round was again a 3rd followed by 2 seconds which would have me starting first.
Sunday was mains day, we were still trying to get grip on the polished surface. They did double A mains for e-buggy with both mains counting to determine the overall winner. A1 was up first, I had a mistake fairly early on that I needed to be marshalled for which dropped me quite a ways back to 4th. I got back in the groove and was able to make my way by 3rd and 2nd place and then had a good battle with Lutz before making a pass back to the lead which is where I would finish the race. In A2 was smoother, I was able to just put in clean laps and lead tone to tone, which would give me the overall win in e-buggy.
The nitro main was last, we had a good start, but then the leader got sideways coming onto the back straight and I had nowhere to go and bumped him, I waited but it turned into a mess and we both ended up in the infield and dropped back in the pack. I just put my head down and started putting in clean laps and made my way up to the lead, every things was going smoothly until the 2nd pit stop where for some unexplained reason I flamed out in the pits which dropped me back to 3rd. I was able to make my way back up to 2nd and then on the next pit stop there was a miscommunication between me and my Dad and I would run out of fuel going by pit lane, which dropped me back to 4th and unfortunately that is where I would finish just 3.8 seconds behind third place but still on the lead lap.
After being back and the track testing all day Monday, I am really looking forward to the nationals.
Thanks to Thornhill for a great facility. Thanks to my family for always supporting me and helping me in so many ways. Thanks to my sponsors, Xray, RC America, Pro-Line, O.S Engines, Hobbywing, MKS, HUDY, VP fuels, Amain, Protek Rc, Lunsford, Avid RC, 110%, Darkside design, Stickit1 and most importantly I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with out him I wouldn’t be where I am today.
– Ty Tessmann
