Tekno RC at Buggyland 3.0

Tekno RC’s Ryan Lutz together with Ilias Arkoudaris made the trip to Madrid, Spain for the third edition of Buggyland race hosted by CARTT track in Fuencarral. Ilias reports from the race:

“When the CARTT club president Miguel Izquierdo got in touch with us and asked us if we could attend the Buggyland 3.0 race is was an easy decision, so a couple of weeks later everything was arranged for our visit. I was very curious to see how the track had evolved since my last visit to the EFRA Euro B back in 2014.

I arrived in Madrid on Thursday afternoon, Manel Prades (Tekno RC Spanish distributor) together with his friend Pedro had already picked up Ryan from the airport. After a short challenge around the airport they picked me up and we headed to the track to check it out. Apart from the obvious layout change, drastic changes were made to the facility itself. Bigger driver’s stand and pit lane, improved pits, better warm up area, air and water station and freshly painted surroundings greeted us upon arrival. All this combined with temperatures around 15c was a perfect recipe for a great race!

As the sun set we went to the hotel and met the rest of the team; the Irish gang (Paul and James Gilliland and Colin Whelan) and Jin from S.Korea who travelled alone all the way from his country to Madrid (10K Km), mind blowing!

Friday was the first day of the race. With only practice scheduled for the day, the objective was to find a good setup for everyone. After a few changes (maybe more than just a few for the Irish since they were used to running on Astro) everyone was happy at the end of the day. Ryan would end up P3 in Nitro Buggy and P4 in E-buggy after three rounds of practice. After a long day at the track, it was time to pack everything and head to the hotel …

We had a drivers meeting first thing Saturday morning, and the decision was made to rearrange the event due to inclement weather forecasted Sunday. To beat the rain, organizers shortened the schedule to two qualifying rounds, lower nitro, and all electric mains on Saturday. Only Nitro Buggy Semis and A-main on Sunday.

Ryan was able to TQ first round of both Electric and Nitro classes. At the end of the day he managed to retain the overall TQ in electric and settled for second in the Nitro class after some close racing with the world’s best drivers. Very exciting to watch!

Right after the end of qualifying it was time for the lower finals and also the triple 7-minute A-mains for E-Buggy. A1 was eventful as Ryan made a couple of mistakes so he had to settle for 5th. Things improved in A2 as he would lead for the majority of the race with a small mistake putting him in second. Hope for a podium finish hinged on A3 which had to be a solid run, not very easy on this fast and flowing track. Ryan was leading the race with 30 seconds to go when a car landed on him at the end of the straight, dropping him to second. Unfortunately, this was not the end of it as another driver took him out on the last corner, ending our hopes for a podium finish. After points were totaled, Ryan ended up with a respectable 5th overall.

As expected, it rained pretty much non-stop from early Sunday morning until the end of the day, ending hope for racing. The track crew did their best to make racing possible but mother nature had different plans, so Nitro Buggy Semis and the A-main had to be canceled. Final results were based on qualifying for the Nitro class, this meant Ryan would end up 2nd…”

Big thank you to Manel Prades and his friend Pedro for being great hosts! Jin Woo Kim, James/Paul Gilliland as well as Colin Whelan for making the trip over for the race to support us. Last but not least the mastermind behind the race Miguel Izquierdo for organizing a great race and doing his best to keep the track in a good shape, gracias amigo!