The 2026 Silver State Nitro Challenge took place about a week and a half ago. Racers descended upon Las Vegas, Nevada to the South Point Casino to battle it out at the first major 1/8th scale off-road United States event of the year.
The event was moved to January to accommodate the hotel’s schedule but with that the ability to do a major 1/8th scale off-road event in the winter while also being climate controlled. The event followed the standard “Nitro Challenge” schedule with a combined practice day followed by, Thursday: Truggy/Ebuggy Qualifying, Friday Buggy/Etruggy Qualifying, Saturday: Truggy/Ebuggy Mains, and Sunday Buggy/Etruggy mains.
Thursday Truggy/Ebuggy Qualifying:
Pro Truggy: 1st Ryan Maifield, 2nd Phi-Long Nguyen
Pro Ebuggy: 1st Phi-Long Nguyen, 2nd Jared Wiggins
Intermediate Ebuggy: 1st Travis Horn, 3rd Donato Tradardi
Intermediate Truggy: 1st Travis Horn, 2nd Kyle Johnson, 3rd Ryan Rand
40+ Truggy: 3rd Reggie Tongue
Friday Buggy/Etruggy Qualifying:
Pro Buggy: 1st Phi-Long Nguyen, 2nd Seth VanDalen, 3rd Ryan Maifield
Pro Etruggy: 2nd Seth VanDalen, 3rd Ryan Maifield
Intermediate Truggy: 1st Kyle Johnson, 2nd Travis Horn
Intermediate Etruggy: 1st Travis Horn, 2nd Donato Tradardi
50+ Buggy: 2nd Donny Vinkemulder
Saturday Mains: Saturday started the first day of main events which included Truggy and Ebuggy classes.
Pro Truggy: Ryan Maifield had a fairly uncontested nitro truggy main with a few early challenges from Phi-Long Nguyen before settling in and taking the win. Phi would ultimately have an issue dropping him out of the field. This would promote Mason Fuller to 2nd and Ryan Lutz to 3rd, they would yo-yo for the rest of the main event but end up in those spots at the flag.
1st Ryan Maifield (JC), 2nd Mason Fuller (JC), 3rd Ryan Lutz
Pro Ebuggy: Ebuggy was the “race” heard around the world, with quite the epic ending. Ryan Lutz would lead the majority of the main before falling with a bobble at the end of the main. Mason Fuller would then lead before contact with Maifield which would move him to the lead before contact with Nguyen which would also make Maifield lose the top spot. After all of the calamity Phi-Long would take the win, Mason Fuller would finish up 2nd and Jared Wiggins would jump across the line in 3rd.
1st Phi-Long Nguyen (JC), 2nd Mason Fuller (JC), 3rd Jared Wiggins (JC)
Intermediate Truggy: 1st Dylan Peterson, 2nd Travis Horn (JC), 3rd Brenden Bartlett (JC)
Intermediate Ebuggy: 1st Travis Horn (JC), 2nd AJ Rodriguez, 3rd Javon Mallory (JC)
50+ Ebuggy: 1st Mike Battaile, 2nd Oscar Spratley, 3rd Miguel Perez (JC)
Sunday Mains: Sunday main events would be the rest of the classes, Nitro Buggy and Etruggy.
Pro Buggy: Phi-Long Nguyen would have a fair bit of control of the main event up until a flame out would drop him down the order. Mason Fuller would pick up the lead and take control until the end of the race. Spencer Rivkin would climb out of a 7th place starting spot and losing a few spots at the start steadily through the main to finish 2nd. Seth VanDalen would battle in the top 3 all day and ultimately end up 3rd.
1st Phi-Long Nguyen (JC), 2nd Spencer Rivkin (JC), 3rd Seth VanDalen (JC)
Pro Etruggy: Ryan Maifield led the majority of the main but a late race mistake would drop him out of the lead. A pass attempt over Ryan Lutz would see him regain the lead and see Lutz drop to 3rd. This would allow Spencer Rivkin to move up to 2nd and Lutz would end up still 3rd.
1st Ryan Maifield (JC), 2nd Spencer Rivkin (JC), 3rd Ryan Lutz
Intermediate Buggy: 1st Travis Horn (JC), 2nd Kyle Johnson (JC), 3rd Trevor Olins (JC)
Intermediate Etruggy: 1st Travis Horn (JC), 2nd Ryan Rand (JC), 3rd Donato Tradardi (JC)
50+ Buggy: 1st Oscar Spratley, 2nd Paul Thacker, 3rd Donny Vinkemulder (JC)