'Wonderful' Weekend 2025

Less than one week before embarking towards the 'Wonderful' Weekend event a highly anticipated Kyosho #MP11 arrived to build. I got it built and took it too my local track and was able to run about 2 fuel bottles thru it which gave me the confidence that out of the box this buggy was easy to drive and I felt I could have success with it straight away. Upon arrival the track this year looked pretty easy with a majority of the dirt going to build a very nice 'dragon's back' type section that was very well done. It was noticed early though that the track was dryer to start than normal which seemed to expediate the deterioration of some sections and made for a tricky track come the end of practice. Overnight however rough sections at the beginning and end of the straight were patched up and the track watered and it made for a great track the rest of the weekend. The center S section was left to be rough and it ended up a tricky track with a faster high bite majority and a "Silver State esque" blown out middle back section testing man an machine.

Looks like the Racetime Entertainment mascot has the pot of Gold..

During practice Phi Long and I spent the majority of our time running the new MP11 and working to get it dialed in. Our initial findings were similar in that the buggy was simply easy to drive right away. Our 'struggle' so to speak was in making the car more agile for a pro's hands while the traction was lower. Again, we have very little time with the car and this is our initial journey to dial in as the track presented itself. Our main changes involved getting some more steering and loosening up the rear. To achive this we did a few different things, but what seemed to be the things that stuck were:

-Moving the ackerman forward

-Standing the rear shock up one hole on the tower

-Phi liked narrow wheel hubs front and rear and thought that made the biggest difference. I tried it but did so when the grip was a bit higher and for me some stability was lost for how I drive and perhaps due to some differences we had in set-up so I went back to the kit hub width.

-Red/Purple springs to liven the car up a little vs. the 1.6mm Blue/Brown.

-Less rear toe

-More holes in the wing.

Kyosho MP11

I did a couple of other things like less front kickup to try to get some more initial steering and I also went to less rear anti-squat ( to handle bumps on power better) and less overall droop. But in trying Phi's car after the event, I felt his buggy was better in many areas and wish I would have ran more of what he did and my set-up will reflect what he ran because in the end I liked it better as we stayed to test afterwards for a couple of hours and we swaped radio trays to try each others cars.

We tested each others cars and got some onboard footage after the event. :-)

Back to the event and it was time for the first qualifier and the grip reached the highest it had been up to that point and the MP11 responded with ease. The higher grip really suited the buggy and in Q1 both Phi and I were out front. Phi was going super fast and I was running consistent (not a running to win pace but a running not to crash pace.) In the end Phi would have one bigger mistake and my consistency paid off with a TQ in the round with Phi in 3rd. Quite the debut qualifier! I was running Rawspeed Yellow (soft) Triad tires. In ebuggy I would also take the Q1 TQ on Pink Rawspeed Triad tires. In nitro truggy I also had a good run on Soft Mach One tires making in an amazing Friday for me!

Saturday came next and the track was watered overnight and the second overall qualifier was not too good for me. I was simply off pace with the moisture in the track and in hindsight I should have used sauce during these runs and I did not while my competition did and I suffered for it. In Q3 the grip began to come back and I went with soft Yellow Triads again. I didn't put in clean runs with a mistake in both buggy classes but would 'back up' my TQ's in Q1 of buggy with a 6th and 7th in Nitro and Ebuggy respectively. Overall this would qualify me 5th overall in both buggy classes and in truggy I had a rough last two rounds but would qualify 11th overall.

Sunday was main day and it was noted in the morning that they didn't water overnight but moisture did seem to come up overnight a little and the track felt a bit different for some of the early mains. We had our mains early/mid program with truck up around 11am. I opted for a set of Soft Mach Ones and my truck felt ok though I had gone up in front swaybar and the grip just wasn't as high and I lacked a little steering that I would have liked to have had. I had an ok start moving up from 11 to 9 on lap 2 but then goofed up the dragons back and fell to 17th. It was a tough slog from there and my transponder randomly missed 5 laps throughout the main event and so my name was never called but I just kept track of who I was running with most of the run. About mid race I started to find a decent groove and was picking off a couple of drivers and others were having issues. In the end with my missed laps added back in I would bring home 7th which was an ok finish for how it all felt.

Next was ebuggy and confirming with some other Rawspeed drivers I went with the soft triads again with a light sauce. It was a middle of the road main for me kind of just staying in the 5-10 positions making bobbles here and there and making up spots at times. Nothing too special in this one and would come home with another 7th.

Mr. Will Walker back in the pits! Welcome back sir! :-D

Finally it was time for the 30 minute Nitro buggy final and Phi and I had high hopes going in with him quaifying TQ and I would be starting 5th. I went with Soft Mach Ones this time with foams taped down and they were a solid choice. My MP11 buggy felt good overall in warmup and for the first lap I held position in 5th. But on the second lap in the top left double a competitor got the inside line on the jump which launched you much lower and I hit the kicker part which sent me higher and upon landing I landed on him and must have hit flywheel on his tower or engine and it flamed me out. Heartbreak right at the start! Will got me back going as quick as possible but I lost 1 lap and 8 seconds and came out at the back end of the pack one lap down. This meant a huge majority of my race was spent in traffic trying to get around cleanly without ruining anyone since I was a lap down. In the end with some good pace and some attrition by others I was able to dig out of the hole that I was in in 18th and finish up 11th.

MP11 Ready for A-main battle with Soft Mach One tires.

For Phi he had a solid lead for the first 13 minutes but my words to his dad before the main about angling the fuel gun a little to be sure it filled all the way got in his mind too much and he spilled on the brakes and pipe which richened the engine and he flamed. Then later had to do a tire change and he finished a disapointing 9th when he had all the potential of victory. Such is racing and he took it so well especially for his age. Very proud of Phi and with the new MP11 I know the results are going to come quickly!

Ryan Lutz + Phi Long Nguyen go Onboard with the Kyosho #MP11