To finish out my 2025 racing season I took a trip out to Phoenix to the U.S. Open event at Adobe Mountain R/C Speedway. Having been here two times I felt I had a good grasp of my tire selection I wanted to bring. I loaded up with SSLW SuperNova tires as even though they weren’t available last time I was there, I felt they were the tire I wish I had when I was. Sure enough from the drop, they were comfortable and fast and my plan was working perfectly. All three of my Kyosho rides felt pretty solid with the setups I brought and I surmised the most changes would be to the truck.
As qualifying began my buggies felt great and I was able to get some top positions. In nitro buggy a 2nd and TQ under the lights in Q3 gave me a 2nd place starting position. In Ebuggy another TQ and 2nd would be enough to win the tiebreaker and take the overall TQ. In truggy I wasn’t as comfortable and had to come back from a mechanics error in Q1 to take a 3rd and 4th in the final two rounds to start 4th overall in the A final.
I made some changes to my truggy including going to long camber links and standing up the rear shocks on the tower. Goal being to soften the roll a touch and add more controllable grip feel and slow the reaction just a touch. With the shock out on tower I just wanted a bit more support on exit. Before the main I jumped up on front and rear diff and went from 15-15-10 to 20-15-15.
First up on Sunday was the 45min Truggy main. I was hoping my diff changes would be good and I could stay clean on the start with the tight grid. I didn’t risk it on the first jump opting to roll it and falling to 5th. But my truck was feeling pretty good and I fought back and into 4th and then 3rd and found myself behind the two drivers who have dominated the class all year (and for many years for that matter) Maifield and Phend. But soon Phend had a crash and I got by into 2nd and then I was reeling in Maifield. My truck had some surprise to me pace and was super easy to drive which allowed me to run clean fast laps. I was able to get by and into the lead and start to pull away a bit. As pit stops cycled I would loose the position for a couple laps and then get it back and as the race progressed my lead began to grow. In the end I was able to take a strong victory and it was so pleasing as it may have been my first time besting both Maifield and Phend in truggy in a long time.
Next was Ebuggy which was perhaps my most comfortable car through the weekend. I was able to maintain the lead for a couple laps but I made a mistake twice in the ruts that had developed on the front left turnstile and the second time Maifield muscled through and into the lead and all I was capable of was tailing behind him for the remainder of the race just a couple seconds behind. In the end taking the 2 position which is still a solid finish.
Next was the 30 minute nitro semi in which I would start on pole for it. And my Kyosho MP10 TKi3 was locked in and I was able to pull away and have a great run and take the win. After semi B I was the fastest by nearly 3/4 of a lap and thought I had an amazing shot at the 1 hour final which I would start on pole for. In fact my top 15 lap pace was 0.2 faster than anyone else’s single fastest lap.
For the one hour final I only made one change and went up on center diff to 10k from 9k. I also went with a fresh set of tires. When the main started though it was much cooler than during the semi and I think the new tires/foams were a bit too hard especially initially. The rear shock oil also felt a bit thick and so my rear was too free and I just didn’t quite have the same comfort at the onset. Things started to warmup though and my pace got a bit better but I was noticing that Maifield and Phend also found their missing pace from the semi and we were all nearly the same speed now.
An hour is a long time and we all stayed within 10 seconds for most of the race with numerous lead changes with the varied fuel stop windows we each had. My moment where it kind of ended for me was mid race when I was either in first or just behind in second and my feet were tingling and I tried to stand up more instead of leaning against the railing as I was and I went down the back chicane and clipped the pipe and went a tumbling off the back of the track loosing a good amount of time. After this I wouldn’t lead again and would more or less battle with Phend for the remainder of the race for second. I had my chances but didn’t have the mental fortitude to fight thru the pains in my feet and arms and let those things distract me at times and I would make mistakes. In the end coming up just a couple seconds short in 3rd with the top 3 of us within 11 seconds after 1hr of racing.
Overall an amazing end of the season for me with a triple podium finish with the victory in truggy. Capping off a pretty resurgent year and a milestone of finishing every nitro buggy final all year long.
Set-up Notes:
(Buggies are using the new KPI hubs from Kyosho with 20* caster blocks, so these set-ups can't be copied exactly yet until these hubs become available hopefully in January.
Truggy Wing was moved about 11 mm forward. Has hold only in the center two sections.
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