Maifield from Larsen in 2nd JConcepts 2WD qualifier
Having suffered a ‘hurting’ opening qualifier in 2WD Buggy at the JConcepts Indoor National Series, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield produced the fastest time of the day around the HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex track in Omaha to top Q2 from Q1 Top Qualifier Taylor Larsen. Having failed to make the Top 10 in Q1, Maifield topped the second round by 2.365 seconds with team-mate Hartson completing the Top 3 who were the only drivers of the weekend’s biggest class to run 14-lap times.
Improving his mid motored C4.2 by sanding down his Barcode tyres to ‘almost slicks’ for the run, Maifield said a change of driving style was a big factor in his improved performance. Having ran a point & shoot style of driving in the opening heat, the World Championship podium finisher adapted a more fluid style for Q2 which he said suited the track layout, helping to eliminate getting hooked up on the piping. For his third & final heat Maifield plans to continue that approach along with going a little more with the sanding of his front tyres.
15-year-old Larsen said his second run was ‘almost the same as the first one’. Going into the run with the same mind set of ‘do not wreck’ he said other than a few bobbles it again work out for him. Very happy with the performance of his Orion powered TLR22, he believes he is right there in terms of pace and the plans to leave the cars as is and just cut out the bobbles.
Only seventh fastest in the opening qualifier, Hartson said his C4.2 was the best its been since arriving in Nebraska in Q2. With a ‘super twitchy’ buggy first time out, a change of tyre combination gave him what he called a ‘really good’ feeling. Going for a higher pin on the front and less pin on the rear of his Gold compound Barcodes he said it was really good and only for one mistake he was really pleased with the run. Planning to leave things the same for Q3 he said he wants to do this to gauge how much the track changes between rounds thinking ahead to tomorrow’s Mains.
Fastest of the drivers on 13-lap runs to take 4th for the round was TLR’s Cody Hollis. Having made ‘too many mistakes in Q1’, he said he drove better second time of asking with his Orion powered 22 very consistent. With his young team-mate Larsen in contention for the overall TQ honours, for the last round Hollis will copy his set-up and run a longer wheelbase for Q3.
For Team Losi Racing’s two lead drivers it was a frustrating Q2. Second fastest the first round, JR Mitch was at a loss to why his 22 was nothing like he had expected, leaving him to struggle and finish well down the order. Like team-mate Dustin Evans, he ran the same tyres as he ran on his TLR22-4 which both drivers were very happy with in the earlier Q2 of 4WD Buggy. ‘Expecting something else’, the Florida driver said the tyre ‘just did not work’. Planning to revert to his Q1 tyre set-up he said he hopes this puts him back in contention to challenge for a spot at the sharp end of the A-Main grid. Evans suffered similar issues but these were compounded by a collision on the main straight as he came up to pass another car. Put out of his rhythm by the incident, the former US National Champion had a series of mistakes resulting in him finishing outside the Top 10 and leaving him to need a good final qualifier.
Completing the Top 6 just behind Kyle Skidmore, was Spencer Rivkin. The Associated supported teenager said after a less than perfect start to the run with the first half containing many mistakes he was able to get things together for the final 2 minutes and claw back some time to repeat his 6th from Q1. Running the same set of tyres he started with in the opening qualifier he said the black rear/front gold combination of Barcodes is getting better and better each run as the wear down.
Round 2 of the 3 scheduled qualifiers saw the overall TQ honours of 4WD Short Course get wrapped up by MIP team driver Matthew Olson. Having topped Q1 the Calfornian Short Course specialist repeated the feat again and will start on pole position in tomorrow’s three leg A-Main.
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