Team Durango’s Lutz Reports from the National Finals in Texas

Team Durango Pro driver Ryan Lutz sent a report from last weekend’s RC Pro Nationals. This year Ryan was attempting to TQ and win five different classes, as well as getting some quality track time prior to the IFMAR 1:8 Buggy World Championships in December. Read on to find out how he did with his DESC410Rv2 Short Course truck, DEX408T prototype electric truggy, DNX408T nitro truggy, DEX408 electric buggy and his new DNX408 nitro buggy:

“It may only be Saturday (3 November), but racing has finished at the 2012 rendition of the RC Pro Series Finals held again this year at Gulf Coast Raceway in Porter, Texas. Coming into main day, I really was gunning for that quint-fecta. I knew it would be a challenge in classes like e-buggy with my DEX408, where I was starting 12th, and the nitro classes (with my new DNX408) where in the hour long A finals are often full of surprises.
First out of the gate was the start of the triple leg A finals. I was able to win the first leg of the e-truggy final with my DEX408T as well as the first A final leg in short course with my DESC410Rv2, before the challenge of the first A final with my DEX408 e-buggy; in this race I was starting from 12th on the grid. At the tone I had a great first lap and diced my way through the traffic to fifth on the first lap. With a mistake or two by the leaders I had caught the lead pair in less than two minutes, and I proceeded to battle the remainder of the final. I ended-up coming away with the victory and I was able to win all the first legs.
Next was A2 and again in e-truggy (DEX408T) and short course (DESC410Rv2) I made handy work of the field. What impressed me most was getting a 29.2 second laptime in the short course class! My DESC410Rv2 was on rails and flying! The A2 race with my DEX408 the gremlins came back. I had a few more traffic issues at the start this time around, and the leaders got away clean. I was able to work my way up to the lead pair again eventually but I pushed really hard to do it. Near the end the leader and I were pacing ourselves around the track for the last two minutes but with about 30 seconds to go I started to thermal. So I had to stop using brakes and get on the gas a lot smoother for the rest of the race so I could finish, so took second place for the A2 E-buggy final.
Having already won the e-truggy and short course classes, in A3 I concentrated on the e-buggy final. I had a terrible start and I kept getting caught-up in traffic. I found myself up in third place at about the five minute mark, about eight seconds behind the leader. At this point I started putting in some super quick laps including the first 27 second lap with a 27.8, and I began to close the gap. However, it wasn’t meant to be as the sensor wire came undone and it was the end of my run.
So overall in the electric classes for the event I won the e-truggy class with my DEX408T, and I also won the short course class with my DESC410Rv2. I came second overall in the e-buggy class with my DEX408.
In nitro there were two hour-long finals on tap and both would start pretty interesting. In truggy I would hold the lead over Branham and slowly extended my lead until on my pit-in lap I ran out of gas two turns before pit lane. I had made a mistake by asking my mechanic (Wes) to make my engine just a little richer before the final, but I shouldn’t have made that call as it became too rich for the race. So, I ended up back in fourth or fifth after getting refuelled. My mission was set to catch back up. I quickly caught back up to third and then slowly reeled-in Glancy and I was able to overtake for second place. My sights were set on Branham. I got my lap back and started to narrow the gap when suddenly he had a problem and had to retire. I thus inherited the lead but I made a few mistakes and Glancy and I would battle pretty close for a good amount of time. Probably 30 or so minutes in and Glancy had a battery wire go bad and had a runaway and had to come off the track for a little to get that fixed. This gave me a huge lead and I just needed to complete the remainder of the race. There were no guarantees as the track had a huge triple and a harsh landing which was causing issues for lots of cars all weekend. However my Alpha-powered DNX408T held up to the punishment and came home with the big victory!
Nitro buggy would be the final race of the day. Another hour-long test and I wanted to push 100 per cent for the entire time no matter what, in preparation for the IFMAR Worlds in a months’ time. At the start I had a couple rough laps including jumping off the track in the back right corner. I was quickly down a quarter of a lap but my new buggy was on a mission. As the tyres came in to the track and I got comfortable with the aggressiveness of my new DNX408 and I started putting in blistering lap times about half-a-second faster than anyone else. By the first pit stop I had caught and passed the leader and came into pits first, but a fuel bottle mishap which landed it in pit lane briefly saw second place come into pits and punt the fuel bottle down the lane soaking all the mechanics with fuel. As Wes recovered the bottle and fuelled me up, I had lost a position and was a bit flustered at that moment. With my engine just a bit rich out of pit lane, I did the triple and missed right, sending me into a pipe section. I stopped for a second before popping out of the pipe to let a car go by, and with the richness of just exiting the pit lane, I flamed, so by the time I got re-fired I was down by a lap. It was now time to turn on the afterburners. I knew with the lap times I was putting down that I could make up that lap, and over the next ten minutes I put in the fastest lap times of the weekend, even as low as 27.5. My new buggy was on rails and I was speeding by guys down the straight with my Alpha Lutz Edition and turning inside many with my new DNX408. The car was just phenomenal and I was giving it all I had. I made-up the time and caught and passed Branham for the lead, and then began extending the lead out to over a lap. Shortly thereafter both second and third place had issues which gave me a large lead. I continued to press hard for the entire hour even with a large lead because to me this was my hour long practice for the Worlds. It amazed me how good my new DNX408 was. I hadn’t changed the set-up since Italy. The diffs had probably six hours’ of running on them, and the shocks probably had five hours’ punishment. I had taken the same set-up from the super slick track in Italy and changed just one thing besides tyres, for this medium/high bite track in Texas. The pace and feeling of my Team Durango car just made me smile as I pushed the car to its limit. The forgiveness on landing a little sideways was awe-inspiring. The turning-on-a-dime gave me so much confidence in passing as I could turn-under anyone. In the end, I won the hour-long race by four laps. My fastest lap time was over a second faster than the next guy! I was super impressed with my new Futaba servos and my Alpha engine and ProTek battery for surviving the punishment on that big triple as well as, of course, as my DNX408 nitro buggy.

Conclusion
I am now so excited for Worlds. A little more testing is on tap for me Sunday and Monday on a different track in Texas, and I am just looking forward to going home to my family and spending some time with them while preparing mentally, physically, and mechanically for the Worlds coming up in less than a month! I am also so stoked with the DNX408 for 2013. I think my breakout year is finally about to arrive. I feel that Team Durango is on to something with this car and it will really give me my chance to show my talent.”

Ryan “Lutzinator” Lutz

Four wins out of five isn’t a bad weekend’s work. Well done Ryan on such an amazingly successful weekend. Thanks to RC Pro for the use of their photographs.

Source: Team Durango