A big contingent of Team FTW converged in Hutto, Texas over July 4th weekend for the highly anticipated Grand Opening race at Thornhill Racing Circuit presented by FTW. This amazing new facility boasts a spacious driver’s rostrum overlooking the largest track in the US, a hybrid Euro-American circuit built by Joey “The Dirt” Christensen. Team FTW joined racers from around the region as well as Mexico and even Brazil arriving Thursday night, eager to run their first laps at TRC.
Friday’s practice left some rubber on the fresh surface, and traction continued to build throughout 4 rounds of qualifying Saturday allowing fast laps times to dip into the 44 second range. The Pro E-buggy class was clearly the domain of Team FTW where Jake Dellinger led a sweep of the top five spots in qualifying. With a ton of momentum from his A-main finish at the recent ROAR Nats, Jake Dellinger also was the third-fastest in Pro Nitro buggy behind XRAY’s Josh Glancy and Kurt Kellum. On-road ace Nick Lefebvre put FTW in the third qualifying spot in Pro Truggy behind Glancy and Kellum. Team FTW took three of the top five spots in Pro 4 as well, led by class TQ Andrew Clark.
The team’s dominance in the electric classes would carry over to Sunday’s mains. Dellinger and “Smiley” Henn each won a double A-main in Pro E-buggy, with the tie-breaker going to Jake. Isaac Price took third to complete the class sweep for FTW. In Pro4, TQ Clark never looked back, taking the overall win ahead of Aaron Royston. 13-year old Noah Dickerson impressed in his first outing with Team FTW, taking third to secure the second class sweep of the weekend.
No one could catch Glancy in Pro Nitro Buggy, so the fight was for second. Dellinger mounted a late race charge but in the end settled for third behind Kellum. In Pro truggy, Tyler Hooks charged from the eighth spot on the grid up to third until retiring due to breakage.
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