Dirt Nitro Challenge 2026

In a rare occurance we had a warm/hot and sunny Dirt Nitro Challenge event in 2026. After years of being marred by bad weather, the event this year saw a smooth running program that allowed us our full allotment of track time and reasonable finishing hours. I along with most of the pro's had our full fleet of 4 race vehicles to battle it out over this 5 day event.

During practice we had one free run and one seeding run. For my Rawspeed tires I was trying out SSLW and Soft compounds and tread wise was mainly on Super Mini and trying to see how Mach One and even Aurora would do. This week I did what I suggest against doing and I brought a brand new MP11 to race with without any time on it. For sure this set me back a little early on as it took a little bit of time for the buggy to break-in. After seeding which took your fastest two laps I was actually able to top seed this competitive field in both electric classes and also be in the A sort in Nitro truggy. However Nitro buggy ran under the lights and I struggled as I often do under those conditions and would be in the C sort.

Qualifying got underway for Nitro truggy and Ebuggy on Thursday. I opted for Soft Super Mini all day on both vehicles and ended up with some more mixed results on the day. While my ebuggy was lights out fast on practice day, I just couldn't put together a clean run during qualifying. Every run having a long crash that kept me out of any contention. Unfortunately even though my buggy felt pretty good, I simply didn't put a run together and ended up in the B main. For Nitro truggy however things looked a bit better. I felt I had the best tires during the day and even though I had a mistake in Q2 my first two runs of a 3rd and 8th would qualify me 7th overall into the A-main and I felt I had the truck to compete for higher so I was excited!

On Friday we had qualifying for nitro buggy and Etruggy. This day I opted to stick with Soft Super Mini on truggy and for Buggy I ran Aurora and then even Super mini front and Aurora rear for Q3. (This combo seemed to give a little more steering and a little less side bite allowing me to rotate a bit better. For Etruggy things started off ok with a 5th even with a mistake. I had the truck to compete for the TQ. However things went south in Q2 with a battery wire desoldering and then in Q3 finding out the reason was my speedo going bad and thus two DNF's resulting in a dissapointing B-main appearance. Nitro buggy being the premier class saw me have a decent Q1 in this tight field. I was able to stay clean an muster a 10 for the round. Lot's of mistakes in Q2 left it up to my Q3 night run to make something happen which wasn't promising. But I did a number of set-up changes and worked on my shocks some more and went with the aforementioned tire combination. Somehow I was able to put in a clean enough run to take a 7 under the lights which qualified me 11th overall and direct into the A-main.

Saturday first brought the Ebuggy B main and it started great for a couple of corners moving up a couple of positions until on the left side I hit a rut wrong which sent my car careening left and subsequently off the track where I dropped to dead last. It was a steady progression thru the field after that and I was able to move on up to 8th by lap 9. But on lap 11 I missed my spot thru the whoops and the car dove in right arm first and that ended that.

To end the night we had the 45 minute Nitro truggy final and even though it was under the lights I stuck with my soft Super Mini tires. I did pretty well considering the nighttime conditions and was able to stay near the front at the beginning which is always the goal. I had some good battles and mid race Canas was hot on my heels and he was really beating me on the left side of the track. After a pit stop cycle though I was able to get clear of him and said thank you as I utilized his line that he showed me and it helped me to increase my pace for the remainder of the race. With a little atrition ahead of me I found myself into 3rd and catching 2nd. But I had one more pitstop I had to make. I was a little bummed because my headset stopped working and I couldn't communicate with my pit man as I wanted to try to press 2nd for a couple more laps if possible. But I just came into the pits when called and the first go around I messed up and drove off the rail of pit lane back onto the track and did another lap. The next lap I came in and for the last 9 laps pushed as hard as I could to catch up and got within 2 seconds in the end along with throwing down the fastest lap of the race on lap 67 and took a solid podium 3rd place.

Sunday brought with it the final day of races and we had Etruggy and Nitro buggy on tap. Etruggy B main was my first time on the track and starting 3rd I was able to get into the lead by the 2nd corner and begin to pull away from the field. I was able to take pretty relaxed victory in this one giving me the oportunity to battle it out in the A-main. That A-main starting in the back was a dogfight and there was just no getting out of it. I had some great battles with a couple different drivers as we duked it out but it all led to just being mired in the back where I would move up two positions from where I started but not where my truck was capable of this weekend for sure.

Finally it was time for the 45minute Nitro buggy final. Working with Phi and his dad on some set-up changes including going to a standard 6 hole 1.2 front, 1.3 rear set-up I was ready to do battle with my MP11 on Rawspeed Soft Super Mini tires. I had a really good start all considering and moved up from 11th and into 6th by lap 5. But I seemed to keep running into the car that was making a mistake in front of me hampering what could have been an even better start. But then on lap 6 I made a mistake and back I went down into the depths of the field. I battled from then on in the 13-9 positions and for sure struggled more with the night driving than I did the night before in truggy. Also my goggles fogged up on me halfway through so on pitstop 3 I had to throw off my goggles and headset and continue on. I did the best I could all considering and ended with another 9th place finish in the class which seems to be my standard postion lately at the big races in Nitro buggy.

All in all it was a solid event. Another A-main in the coveted Nitro buggy class with less and less 30+ drivers making it everytime it seems. Also a podium in nitro truggy and still showing my speed potential by top seeding the E-classes. Next up for me will the the Texas Shootout at Thornhill where I will be looking to continue to get comfortable heading into the World Championships this fall.