Maifield pips Evans in penultimate 4wd Buggy Qualifier
Ryan Maifield pipped his main rival for the JConcepts Clash title Dustin Evans by just 2/10ths of a second on the final lap of the penultimate round of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the Mississippi event. With a reseed putting the fastest 12-drivers in the top heat, the round would see the times tumble as the Associated and TLR stars posted 15-lap runs of the Flowood RC Indoor Park track. Behind the two Pros, up & coming talent Damion Borkowicz completed the Top 3 turning around his event after finding a better set-up for his Associated B44.2.
Breaking into the 20-second lap times for the first time of the weekend, again setting the fastest lap for the round, Maifield said he had to gave a 110% on the last lap to deny Evans. Evans was setting the pace until a mistake on lap 11 allowed Maifield to the front but then on the next lap he too had a moment. With Evans back to the front another mistake on the penultimate lap looked to hand Maifield Q3 but later on in the same lap the Arizona ace made a mistake setting up a showdown between the rivals. Busting out a final lap time that was half a second faster than Evans he bagged his second TQ run by .215 of a second. Having changed his front suspension set-up for the run, Maifield said the changes took a few laps to get used to but once he had found his rhythm it felt better for the changes.
Evans, who was the only other driver to post a 20-second lap time, said his XXX-4 is ‘really consistent’ but in terms of outright speed is lacking a little against Maifield’s Associated. Feeling he needs to find a little more steering to be able to match his rivals outright pace he will try making the first set-up change to his buggy since practice. For team-mate Cody Hollis a potential top 3 run was again ruined by a broken front drive shaft. While he managed to complete Q2, the failure of the opposite drive shaft this time with a minute to go would result in a DNF. Getting a new set of drive shafts from Evans the 20-year-old hopes this will bring him better luck for this evening’s final qualifier.
Clearly happy with his P3 run, 13-year-old Borkowicz said the removal of the rear ballast weight from his buggy made it a lot more stable. Running blue Barcodes he said that apart from one spin out the rest of the run was clean. The protege of JConcepts’ Jason Ruona, he outpaced the former World’s finalist and defending champion by .354 of a second. Ruona who was 2nd fastest in Q2, reran his tyres and they ‘felt really good’ so much so that he is now considering running them for a third time in the last round. Starting behind Maifield and Evans, he said that he tried to keep up with them but over did it on lap two resulting in a 23 second lap his best of the run being a 21.148. The Top 6 for the round was completed by Ryan Eckert and Brett Kingsbury.
In the 1:8 Buggy classes Associated driver Jake Dellinger narrowly topped the nitro field with a time just .616 faster than Max Flurer who took Q2. In e-Buggy it was another TQ run for TLR’s JR Mitch who was 3.1-seconds faster than Justin Cranford. In 4WD Short Course the Top 2 for Q3 was a reverse of the result of Q2 with Tekno RC driver John Bernard Jr getting the better of Mitch with Justin Fales completing the Top 3.
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