Cavalieri goes 1-point ahead

With just two more rounds of racing to go at the Reedy Race of Champions it is Ryan Cavalieri who has moved into the lead of the standings, the 2009 Champion holding a 1-point advantage over Dustin Evans after a ‘stupid mistake’ on the final lap saw the TLR driver give away position to his Team Associated rival.  A race loaded with big names it was Joern Neumann who took the win ahead of Ryan Maifield with Cavalieri slipping through for third while Evans recovered to finish 4th.  In the other races of the fourth round of 4WD Travis Amezcua won Race 1 from Lee Martin and Jared Tebo, while young Tanner Denney took his first win of the event in Race 2 ahead of Mike Truhe.

Describing the incident packed race as ‘brutal’, Cavalieri who started 6th on the grid alongside Evans said he made a good start only to make a mistake which dropped him back down the field.  Following a ‘charge’ in the final minute of the race the World Champion said he was able to put pressure on the TLR driver.  Happy with his recovery and at getting by Evans on the final lap he said while he would have liked a better result he prefers to be going into the last two races with a 1 point advantage rather than being tied with another driver.

Evans described the race as ‘crazy’ as his TLR went up and down the running order.  Annoyed by his mistake the 2011 Champion said there was still two more races  to go and a lot can happen ‘so its far from over’.

Switching to big bore shocks and the same set-up that Atsushi Hara is running, the Japanese ace running a DEX410 this weekend, Neumann said his buggy was really good.  His second 4WD win, the German said while it would be very difficult to defend his title at this late stage of the event just two bad results for those ahead of him in the points could change everything so he will just give 100% and see what the outcome is.  In the final round of racing the European Champion will start alongside pole sitter and current title contender Evans.

Round 4 4WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(6) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:15.391
2.(5) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 16/5:15.728
3.(1) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:16.878
4.(9) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 16/5:18.003
5.(8) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:19.049
6.(2) Chad Due – Associated – 16/5:20.966
7.(10)Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:04.444
8.(7) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 2/0:42.220
9.(3) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 2/0:45.874

Race 2
1.(3) Tanner Denney – Associated – 16/5:15.005
2.(5) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:16.777
3.(2) Peter Pinisch – Associated – 15/5:00.939
4.(4) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:01.152
5.(8) Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:02.680
6.(6) Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 15/5:03.373
7.(1) Paul Bradby – Associated – 15/5:03.760
8.(4) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:04.649
9.(9) Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 15/5:09.885
10.(7) Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/5:11.312

Race 3
1.(4) Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 16/5:07.179
2.(8) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:08.928
3.(6) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 16/5:14.584
4.(5) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:16.030
5.(7) Neil Cragg – Associated – 15/5:00.219
6.(9) Josh Numan – Associated – 15/5:01.453
7.(3) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:03.484
8.(10)Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 15/5:04.075
9.(2) Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:04.889
10.(1)Rick Hohwart – Associated – 15/5:06.027

View the overall invitational standings after 10 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.