Like every year in February, the Dirt Nitro Challenge is back! Known as one of the biggest and toughest race in the USA, but also in the world.
My painter VP Design did a phenomenal job again, when the week before the race he told me "send me a body, I'll make you a special USA version!
This year, the weather conditions in the United States are very difficult, with heavy rains. Floods have occurred in many cities and towns. The infrastructures are not always adapted to such rainfalls.
On our arrival, we were even told that snow was expected at an elevation of 100 feet, in California? Wow! It's crazy!
An idea of the weather forecast for the week:
As a result, many local drivers decided not to show up, with a declining number of racers.
Only 800 cars for 286 drivers! This is totally excessive, just like their cars ;-)
This year, in an optimal search for comfort, even if it means sacrificing a little bit of sleep, we did not opt for camping on site as in 2022.
Indeed, this solution is very convenient to be able to take a little nap between the races (there is a time difference of 9 hours from France), but we must also manage the logistics in addition to the race.
So we rented a house in AirBnB 20 minutes away from the track, shared with our Portuguese friends Joao Figueiredo and the French team that made the trip, Nathan Chudy and his family! It is also the cheapest and most friendly choice, we spent a great week all together!
No worries this year, the trip went very well, the bags arrive without any problem, this is also very important to be at 100%!
The race is hold on 5 days, from Wednesday to Sunday.
WEDNESDAY
First stop at the track on Wednesday morning. With the time difference, a natural awakening at 3am the first day is not unusual for me :-)
Wednesday is reserved for practices, with 2 rounds of 5 minutes per car.
I will drive in the 1/8 brushless Pro buggy, 1/8 nitro Pro buggy, nitro Pro truggy classes and Gaetan drives in 1/8 brushless intermediate (the sponsored drivers category, just below the Pro ones).
I took the opportunity to finish setting up my Picco P3TT DLC engine which had been broken in on the dyno, but which needed a little bit of driving.
Lets' go to the "small" track, The Dirt Junior, here is what it looked like:
THE DIRT TRACK
The track is beautiful, more high speed than the previous years, but also more packed. It seems that the holes are forming, but not as fast as in 2022.
We take advantage of it as much as possible, as rain is announced for Thursday and the rest of the week!
The day before our arrival, the organizers have already planned everything...
In case of too much rain and the impossibility to run in good conditions on the "big track" outside, they brought dozens of trucks of dirt under one of the shelters on the parking lot!
Initially intended to park cars, it is this small sheltered area (perhaps 5 times smaller than the outdoor track) that will serve as a track for the rest of the event!
Hats off indeed, because it takes a lot of work! So yes, the conditions were not perfect (we will see it on Saturday morning with the roof leak and the flooding of the straight away), but it allowed us to make a race with the best drivers in the world in the best possible conditions.
Going big at the end of the first day for me, as I set the best lap of the 2nd practice round in nitro buggy, and the 2nd fastest time on 3 laps! My car works perfectly, too bad we have to drive on the small track tomorrow :-)
Gaetan is sitting 7th after reseeding.
THURSDAY
Day 2. I woke up at 5.45AM, it's getting better!
Today is ebuggy and nitro truggy qualification day.
We start with a clean sheet! New track, 3 warm-up laps and it's game on for 6 minutes of qualification!
We will have only 2 rounds, so the best points will be kept, and only 10 drivers will sit in the A main, plus 2 bump-ups.
The laps are very quick, with times under 16 seconds per lap!
It is very difficult to do a lap on the track alone with 12 cars! My round in electric buggy goes very well, I don't take any risk.
At the 4 minutes mark, we think it's over because we have already done many laps, but when the announcer announces "2 minutes left", we still have to hold on! It is quite confusing at the beginning, because the notion of laps and distance is really distorted with a total of 22 laps on a qualifying round!
A silly collision with a slower and more aggressive driver in the last lap made me go from 7th to 9th place in the ranking of the first heat.
Afterwards, I see that this is what cost me a direct spot in the A main on Saturday, too bad!
In truggy, I don't take risks, but in this class it doesn't pay off. You have to jump at least the triple in front of the driver stand to have any hope.
Here is a video of my 2nd qualification:
I qualified 14th in ebuggy, a spot in the B main.
24th in truck, C main.
Gaetan does some mistakes in qualification and end up in the B main, P16.
Nathan Chudy is on fire and fight for TQ in every class he runs in Sportsman, super fun to watch and cheer!
FRIDAY
3rd day. I woke up like a charm at 6.30 AM, fully local now :-)
Today is etruggy (for the others) and nitro buggy qualifications day.
One of the most important day for me, the 1/8 buggy being my favorite class and also the most recognized one.
I don't change anything on my setup compared to the big track since everything worked perfectly.
The first round goes well, but I make some mistakes and I end up 18th. Quite disappointed, but I know that the potential is there and I can really do better.
After lunch, I stay in the car to take a nap... In the end I dozed off for 2 hours! A big energy boost for the last qualification, the one that can change everything.
I push, but not too much, gaining speed and confidence. Some big American and European names exploded.
I set the 4th fastest time of the heat, only 6s from the TQ time. I put my name right up there with the big American names, a huge pride and relief.
At this stage of the race, I am the only European driver in the A final of the most important category. I go to bed happy.
SATURDAY
We do not race before 2:00 pm / 3:00 pm, no stress then! It's always complicated in the USA, they envy us with our precise timings to the minute! Here, no timing, you know that you drive race 52 but that's all ;-)
We prepare the cars for the finals, the "big track" is always ravaged by water, because it did not stop raining since Thursday. The temperature oscillates between 0 and 6°C every day. Personally, I have never experienced this in California...
I finally had the opportunity and OK weather to share my experience with you live on our YouTube Channel:
The C main truggy will be 12 minutes long. Not really time to harvest in the first minutes!
I lack of speed to be able to play in front, I finish only 7th of this final, so 27th overall.
This result does not reflect the performance of my car, because the truggy is still a class apart and super fun to drive!
The B electric buggy final lasts 8 minutes. That's not much... Robert Batlle, Jared Tebo, Spencer Rivkin, Ryan Cavalieri, Cole Ogen... All these names that are usually in the A final... have to fight for only 2 bump-up spots! And me in the middle :-)
I come back strong on the last minutes but it won't be enough. I am often stronger on long runs, this kind of final does not help me! So I finished 17th in this category, still with the frustration of this first qualifying run. I think you have also often encountered this situation to say to yourself "sh.... if I had known!".
Gaetan would bump from the B, winning it, and some costly mistake made him end up 8th overall.
SUNDAY
Last day. Already? It goes so fast!
Day of 1/8 nitro buggy mains. Last main around 9pm, a big day of waiting in front of us :-)
At this stage of the race, my car has only run 26 minutes on track... So it's not necessary to change anything. I took out my engine, check the clutch and the bearings, charge the RX battery, and head for the 45 minutes final.
Imagine a temporary track with laps in 17s, for 45 minutes, 12 cars, after a week of competition and more than 67 000 laps!
That's it!
You take a lap by the race leader, you have to let him go by, when you are only 17 seconds behind...
This is the start of the race I didn't want to have... I take a great start and find myself 4th at the end of the first lap, 2 places gained.
2 corners later, a race fact, Ryan Maifield, then behind, touches me and I fly out of the track. Back in 9th position, then a few mistakes, here I am 11th, where I would stay for a good part of the final. I continue to push during the last 30 minutes to take the 8th place in the last lap.
Even though I started 6th on the grid and I was hoping for a bit more from this final, it's a great experience. One of my biggest results since I joined Kyosho in back in 2020. In addition, the MP10 TKI2 was the most represented car in the A main with Joao and Ryan Lutz, I am super proud of our teamwork! Not forgetting our team in the Kyosho tent, finally seeing our friends from overseas, we really had a blast!
It starts well for the 2023 season which is just beginning!
This year, I made the choice not to enter the Charmes Cup. Indeed, even if I love this track and the club, coming back on Tuesday night and leaving on Thursday night for 3 days of racing, it was a bit too much to bear for me and my family, I preferred to stay with my family, I hope you won't mind ;-)
SETUPS
Next stop, the first round of 1/8 ebuggy French Nats on March 17-18-19!
See you soon!
The shark
Reno Savoya
