Evans & Neumann out of Reedy Race hunt
It was a bad start to the final day of the Reedy Race of Champions for former winners Dustin Evans and Joern Neumann as disappointing heats put them out of contention to retake the title at the World famous event. In contrast it was a good morning at OCRC Raceway for Team Durango’s Travis Amezcua who became the first driver to take a second win in 4wd as he backed up a win in Round 2 yesterday with another straight forward win. The other winners of Round 3 were Jared Tebo, who also had an easy win in Heat 1 while Marc Rheinard held off a late challenge from Dustin Evans that would go badly wrong for the 2011 champion. Title favourites Ryan Maifield and Ryan Cavalieri netted themselves a third place finish each, Maifield getting lucky thanks to Evans incident.
In the first of the day’s races, Tebo took his Kyosho to the front on the opening lap as Round 1 Heat winner Ryan Lutz who started from the pole rolled his Durango after catching the curbing after the step down. Once in front, and despite landing short at the Double Double half way through the 5-minute encounter, the 2WD World Champion would never be challenged, crossing the line 5.5 seconds clear of Associated’s Kody Numedahl who saw off pressure from Cody King and Dakotah Phend.
Heat 2 saw a similar start to Heat 1, as the pole sitter, this time Xray’s Tyler Vik, again rolled at the first corner allowing the No. 2 car of Rheinard to the front. Out front Rheinard had Evans on his tail with Vik third and for a time Maifield fourth until the Associated driver rolled allowing Steven Hartson and Ty Tessmann through. Further mounting pressure on the 3-time Touring Car World Champion, Evans would make contact with the Tamiya as they approached the double for the last time. Making the run up the jump side by side the pair would glance off one another in mid air resulting in a bad landing for the TLR22 causing it to end up in the infield of the last corner. Stuck in the corner this allowed Ty Tessmann, Maifield and Vik through but having been deemed by the race referee to have cut the track when he rejoined a clearly frustrated Evans was docked a further position promoting Hartson to 5th. Also competing in the heat it was a terrible race for European Champion Neumann who starting from 6th eventually finished last, his Durango needing to be marshalled many times.
In the closing heat of the round, Team Associated’s Neil Cragg headed the field for two laps before rolling over at the option. This allowed Amezcua to go to the front were he would control the race to win by 2.1 seconds. Cragg had to see off a hard charging Cavalieri, the defending champion having started from 10th on the grid and getting to within 3/10ths by the finish.
Round 3 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:01.379
2.(3) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:06.906
3.(5) Cody King – Kyosho – 16/5:07.507
4.(7) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:10.350
5.(6) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:11.629
6.(6) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:14.404
7.(10)Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:15.629
8.(8) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 16/5:17.416
9.(9) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:01.303
10.(4)Oliver Scholz – Team C – 15/5:08.171
Heat 2 Result
1.(2) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:07.801
2.(9) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:08.014
3.(7) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:08.647
4.(1) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:08.883
5.(8) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 16/5:09.670
6.(3) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:11.901
7.(10)Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 16/5:16.142
8.(4) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 16/5:16.313
9.(5) Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 16/5:17.929
10.(6)Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:03.649
Heat 3 Result
1.(4) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:05.060
2.(1) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:07.227
3.(10)Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:07.519
4.(7) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 16/5:10.222
5.(6) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:14.092
6.(8) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:15.857
7.(3) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 16/5:16.865
8.(2) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:22.212
9.(5) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 15/5:02.357
10.(9)Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:08.603
View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).
View our event image gallery here.