2026 ROAR 1/8th Off-Road Nationals JConcepts Team Report

It was a fantastic weekend for the JConcepts team at the 2026 ROAR 1/8th Off-Road Nationals hosted by Silver Dollar Raceway in Chico, California. The Team would take 4 out of the 5 national championships handed out last week.

Silver Dollar had a fantastic layout provided by Factory Tracks and racers were treated to a surface that would start wet each run and end dry as water was applied largely before every race throughout the week.

The event was split by class with the following schedule, but for the sake of this report we will be mixing the results up to keep all of practice together, qualifying together, and the main event results together.

Tuesday: Etruggy
Wednesday: Nitro Truggy
Thursday-Friday: Ebuggy
Saturday-Sunday: Nitro Buggy

JConcepts racers utilized Dirt Bites and Reflex early on in each classes in Blue compound and by the time qualifying and the main events rolled around they shifted mostly to Relapse in A2 compound.

Having all 4 electric and nitro 1/8th scale classes is a unique change ROAR made in 2025, but this format allowed racers to focus on each specific class individually which is something more commonly seen in Europe.

The team had the hammer on the gas from the start of practice in each class and wouldn’t let up through the main events. Check out the results after seeding!

Nitro Buggy: 1st Phi-Long Nguyen, 3rd Seth VanDalen
Ebuggy: 1st Phi-Long Nguyen, 2nd Ryan Maifield
Nitro Truggy: 1st Ryan Maifield, 2nd Jermaine Robinson, 3rd Spencer Rivkin
Etruggy: 1st Seth VanDalen, 2nd Ryan Maifield

Moving into qualifying the truggy classes would have 3 rounds of qualifying with the best 2/3 rounds counting. The buggy classes would have 4 rounds with the best 2/4 rounds counting.

Nitro Buggy: 2nd Seth VanDalen, 3rd Mason Fuller
Ebuggy: 1st Phi-Long Nguyen, 2nd Seth VanDalen
Nitro Truggy: 1st Ryan Maifield, 2nd Brandon Rose, 3rd Phi-Long Nguyen
Etruggy: 1st Seth VanDalen, 2nd Ryan Maifield, 3rd Spencer Rivkin

Finally the main events would see some fantastic racing as both electric classes went all the way to A3, and battles were had throughout the A-main nitro events.

Nitro Buggy:

The chaos started throughout the semi-finals as multiple drivers would have flame out issues shuffling the starting order for the main final.

Even Semi: Mason Fuller and Phi-Long Nguyen would take turns leading the first semi-final before both would have issues falling down the order. Jonah Wilson would rally to take the win with Brandon Rose in 2nd and Jared Wiggins in 3rd.

Odd Semi: After an early race mistake, Ryan Maifield would climb back up the order and take the win in the second semi-final. Seth VanDalen would lead about half of the race before falling to 4th at the end. Chase Lemieux and Davey Batta would find themselves 2nd and 3rd at the end.

LCQ: JConcepts would get two more drivers into the main event through the LCQ with Phi-Long Nguyen winning and Spencer Rivkin in 2nd.

Nitro Buggy Main: The nitro buggy main would see Dakotah Phend and Ryan Maifield take off early and try to build a gap before issues would take both of them out of contention. The rest of the main event would see Seth VanDalen and Chase Lemieux absolutely battle it out dueling it out on different pit strategies for the majority of the race and then finally having an on track battle for the last 10 or so minutes. After starting 11th, Mason Fuller would push towards the front and finish up 3rd overall.

1st Seth VanDalen (JC)
2nd Chase Lemieux
3rd Mason Fuller (JC)
4th Brandon Rose (JC)
5th Jonah Wilson (JC)

Ebuggy:

Seth VanDalen would find his way past TQ, Phi-Long Nguyen, in A1 to take the win. Phi would rebound in A2 to take the win in that leg. Dakotah Phend would finish up 2nd in A2 which would setup an A3 battle for the overall between the 3 drivers. Both Phi and Seth would make mistakes early allowing Phend to get to the lead and despite the heavy attack from Ryan Maifield, Dakotah would hold on to take the A3 win and the overall. Mason Fuller and Kaden Fuller would have an intense brother battle for the final two spots in the top 5 with Mason finishing just ahead of Kaden.

1st Dakotah Phend
2nd Phi-Long Nguyen (JC)
3rd Seth VanDalen (JC)
4th Mason Fuller (JC)
5th Kaden Fuller (JC)

Nitro Truggy:

Ryan Maifield would lead the large majority of the nitro truggy main and hold on through the final lap to take the TQ and the National Championship. Seth VanDalen would be the biggest challenger throughout the main but would come up about 10 seconds short at the end. Brandon Rose would be just 3 seconds behind in 3rd after having a super late race battle with Phi-Long Nguyen who would have to settle for 4th. Mason Fuller would climb forward in this class as well to finish 5th after starting 9th.

1st Ryan Maifield (JC)
2nd Seth VanDalen (JC)
3rd Brandon Rose (JC)
4th Phi-Long Nguyen (JC)
5th Mason Fuller (JC)

Etruggy:

Ryan Maifield would win A1 after getting past TQ, Seth VanDalen, with Seth ending up 2nd. Spencer Rivkin would win A2 from 3rd on the grid to force an A3 in the class to crown a National Champion. With another 2nd place finish for Seth mathematically VanDalen, Rivkin, and Maifield could all win. Maifield stepped up to take the win in A3 and with two wins would take the overall championship. Spencer Rivkin would end up 2nd with a win and a second to his credit. Seth VanDalen finished up 3rd overall with Phi-Long Nguyen 4th and Jared Wiggins 5th overall.

1st Ryan Maifield (JC)
2nd Spencer Rivkin (JC)
3rd Seth VanDalen (JC)
4th Phi-Long Nguyen (JC)
5th Jared Wiggins (JC)

Junior Nitro Buggy:

Benny Komerian would take a wire to wire win in the Junior Nitro Buggy final despite a late race charge from 2nd place finisher Collin Beaver. Drake McElroy would round out the podium in 3rd.

1st Benny Komerian (JC)
2nd Collin Beaver (JC)
3rd Drake McElroy (JC)

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