Phend & Lemieux wins ROAR Dirt National titles

Xray pairing Dakotah Phend and Chase Lemieux are the 2026 ROAR 1:10 Dirt National Champions after winning the 2WD and 4WD Mod Buggy titles respectively at SDRC Raceway in San Diego over the weekend.  Coming into the annual event as the reigning 4WD Champion, it was Phend who secured the 2WD TQ honours over the four rounds of qualifying ahead of Team Associated’s Aydin Horne, Spencer Rivkin and Davey Batta with defending champion Brennan Schimmel ending up back in P7.  From the front Phend would win the opening two A-Main to secure the title with A3 winner Horne and Rivkin completing the podium ahead of Schummel who got up to fourth overall.  Fresh from claiming his first ever ROAR National title last month in 2WD Buggy at Carpet Offroad Nationals at Maximus R/C Raceway in New Hampshire, Lemieux would claim the 4WD TQ on tie break from the Schumacher of Broc Champion, both driver having two TQ runs each.  Phend, Rivkin, and Batta completed the top half of the 10-car A-Main grid.  Winning a very close A1 from 2WD World Champion Champlin, Lemieux repeated the win in A2, this time ahead of Rivkin, to claim his second National title.  Winning A3 from Rivkin, Champlin finished runner up ahead of the 2015 & 2019 World Champion with Phend missing out on the podium.

Image: Xray [Facebook]