2026 Dirt Nitro Challenge JConcepts Team Report

The 2026 Dirt Nitro Challenge took place in Perris, California this past weekend with a little over 700 entries venturing west for some fantastic weather and racing! JConcepts had a large team of event support and drivers on hand to help with anything and everything racers could ask about.

The event included one full day of practice on Wednesday with all car classes before switching to Ebuggy and Truggy qualifying on Thursday, Etruggy and Buggy qualifying Friday, Ebuggy and Truggy Main Events Saturday, and Etruggy and Buggy Main Events Sunday.

Seeding Practice:
Pro Buggy: 1st Brandon Rose, 2nd Seth VanDalen, 3rd Juan Carlos Canas
Pro Ebuggy: 2nd Spencer Rivkin
Pro Truggy: 1st Seth VanDalen, 3rd Jermaine Robinson
Intermediate Buggy: 1st Benny Komerian, 2nd Travis Horn, 3rd Dylan Nelson
Intermediate Ebuggy: 1st Travis Horn, 2nd Trevor Olins, 3rd Renato Tradardi Jr.
Intermediate Truggy: 1st Travis Horn, 3rd Dylan Bartlett
Intermeidate Etruggy: 1st Travis Horn, 3rd Trevor Olins
40+ Buggy: 2nd Paul Ciccarello
40+ Ebuggy: 1st Brent Thielke, 2nd Paul Ciccarello
40+ Etruggy: 1st Paul Ciccarello, 2nd Smiley Henn

Moving into Thrusday Qualifying drivers would hit the track just with their Ebuggies and Truggies to battle it out. Driver would have 3 rounds of qualifying for each class with the best 2/3 rounds counting in a qual-points format.

Truggy and Ebuggy Qualifying:
Pro Truggy: 1st Ryan Maifield, 2nd Seth VanDalen
Pro Ebuggy: 2nd Ryan Maifield, 3rd Juan Carlos Canas
Intermediate Truggy: 1st Travis Horn, 3rd Benny Komerian
Intermediate Ebuggy: 1st Travis Horn, 2nd Benny Komerian
40+ Ebuggy: 2nd Paul Ciccarello, 3rd Brent Thielke
50+ Ebuggy: 1st Paul Ciccarello, 2nd Rusty Mihelich

Friday the other two classes would hit the track with 3 rounds of Nitro Buggy and Etruggy qualifying.

Buggy and Etruggy Qualifying:
Pro Buggy: 2nd Juan Carlos Canas, 3rd Spencer Rivkin
Pro Etruggy: 1st Juan Carlos Canas, 2nd Seth VanDalen
Intermediate Buggy: 1st Travis Horn, 2nd Maddy Long
Intermediate Etruggy: 1st Donato Tradardi, 3rd Travis Horn
40+ Buggy: 3rd Paul Ciccarello
40+ Etruggy: 1st Paul Ciccarello, 2nd Smiley Henn
50+ Buggy: 1st Paul Ciccarello, 2nd Donny Vinkemulder

Saturday and Sunday would be main event days check out all of the results from both days below!

Pro Buggy: Dakotah Phend would get out to a fairly clean lead early, the big mover at the start was Ryan Maifield who would get all the way up to 2nd before suffering a failure. Seth VanDalen, Camden Lime, and Juan Carlos would have mid-race surges to get to the front and with Phend making mistakes VanDalen would ultimately secure the lead and not let it go to the end. Canas would get by Lime to get 2nd and 3rd at the finish.

1st Seth VanDalen (JC), 2nd Juan Carlos Canas (JC), 3rd Camden Lime

Pro Truggy: Ryan Maifield would lead the first 2/3rds of the race before breaking a screw in the front end of his truck. Mason Fuller and Seth VanDalen who had been battling it out for 2nd found themselves battling for the lead and Seth would ultimately pull away to take the win. Mason Fuller would have to settle for a 2nd place finish with Ryan Lutz just 3 seconds back in 3rd.

1st Seth VanDalen (JC), 2nd Mason Fuller (JC), 3rd Ryan Lutz

Pro Ebuggy: Pro Ebuggy was the Camden Lime show leading tone-to-tone but that wasn’t without a full 10 minute battle with Juan Carlos Canas who raced with poise and class and would finish up 2nd on the night. Dakotah Phend would finish up 3rd after starting 7th for the main event.

1st Camden Lime, 2nd Juan Carlos Canas (JC), 3rd Dakotah Phend

Pro Etruggy: Juan Carlos would lead start to finish in Etruggy as well as being the only driver to get the 17th lap for a victory lap. VanDalen would run 2nd all race before a late race mistake would have him finish 3rd and promote Dakotah Phend to 2nd.

1st Juan Carlos Canas (JC), 2nd Dakotah Phend, 3rd Seth VanDalen (JC)