Maifield closes on first Reedy Race title

Ryan Maifield is closing in on his first Reedy Race of Champions title as Round 5 saw defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri fail to take any points away from his rival.  Having topped the standings at the end of the six rounds of 2WD, Maifield came into 4WD with a 2-point advantage over his Associated team-mate Cavalieri but a broken drive shaft in the warm-up meant Maifield lost all his advantage in Round 1 of 4WD.  Since then however Maifield has managed twice to finish one position ahead of the two time Reedy Race winner which counting Round 1 as his dropped score means the Arizona driver has pulled a further two points advantage going into the last round.   Going into the final round of finals at the 20th running of one of the Worlds most famous races means the scenario is that 5th or higher, irrespective of how Cavalieri does, would give one of the sport’s most spectacular drivers the coveted title.

In terms of the Round 5 racing, in Heat 1 World Champion Steven Hartson took a tone to tone victory becoming the only driver to run 17 laps of the OCRC Raceway.  Although Cavalieri set the fastest lap of the race he couldn’t get close enough to challenge his team-mate and had to settle for second after getting by Brian Strange late in the race.

In Heat 2 former Champion Joern Neumann, who had a fraught morning, took advantage of starting from pole to take a very narrow victory ahead of Maifield, the separation at the end of 5-minutes just .072 of a second.

The third heat saw young guns Tanner Denney and Dakotah Phend battle it out.  Denney’s Associated lead from the pole with Phend on his tail but running wide on lap 10 it allowed the TLR driver to slip through for a lead he would not relinquish.

Round 5 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(1) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 17/5:18.510
2.(5) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:02.517
3.(2) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 16/5:05.194
4.(6) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 16/5:05.726
5.(8) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:08.934
6.(10)Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:11.328
7.(3) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:11.789
8.(9) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:01.664
9.(7) Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:07.807
10.(4)Cody Turner – Kyosho – 14/4:33.637

Heat 2 Result
1.(1) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 16/5:01.644
2.(4) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:01.716
3.(5) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:02.819
4.(4) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:03.825
5.(6) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:07.705
6.(2) Oliver Scholz – Team C – 16/5:12.318
7.(10)Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 16/5:18.686
8.(2) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:19.040
9.(9) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 16/5:21.749
10.(1)Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 12/4:11.544

Heat 3 Result
1.(2) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:00.127
2.(1) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:03.096
3.(7) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:08.873
4.(4) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:09.289
5.(5) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:10.272
6.(3) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:10.612
7.(6) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:10.829
8.(8) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:13.536
9.(9) Cody King – Kyosho – 16/5:18.115
10.(10)Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 16/5:19.773

View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.