Lutz & Bornhorst sweep January Jam
The annual January Jam was held at Flowood RC in Mississippi in pretty cold conditions. Ryan Lutz and teammate Joe Bornhorst would battle for the TQ honours in the 1/8th classes and ultimately it was Joe who TQ’d Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truck while Ryan top qualified the E-Buggy category. Nitro Buggy was the final race of the day and the most entertaining. Both Joe and Ryan again got off to a close start swapping the lead a couple times before Ryan again made a bigger mistake. Lutz then had a terrible lap with 3 crashes as the track was developing some character with some bumps as well as some dust. Joe got out to a 10 second plus lead halfway through and Ryan really thought he had it in the bag. But nearing the final five minutes Bornhorst made some mistakes as his tires were making it hard for him to drive and Ryan was able to catch up and put in a pass. Lutz could feel something going out in his buggy’s steering and was just praying it would stay together to finish the race, and fortunately with Joe pushing hard behind him, Bornhost made another bobble or two giving Ryan Lutz the cushion he needed to bring home the bacon.
In Nitro Truggy Joe put on a clinic and he ended up with a lap victory as Ryan Lutz came in second. In the opening E-buggy A-main Lutz and Bornhorst would battle for the first couple laps with Joe getting by as Ryan got in the loose stuff out of the groove. Bornhorst led as Lutz tailed right behind until both caught traffic and Joe got gobbled up, while Lutz found the clean way around and into a commanding lead, stretching out to a 20 second or so victory. In A2 the two again had a close first couple laps until Lutz made a mistake trying to run together putting him upside down and into 10th or so. Ryan quickly moved back into second but a good number of seconds back. Ryan and Joe stayed clean until the final minutes when Joe had some mistakes and Ryan caught right up to his backside but missed the loop for the last lap by .1 tenth. However, with combined laps and times Ryan took the overall victory.
Source: Tekno RC [teknorc.com]
