Tebo sees off Phend for second win
While the first two encounters in the third round of the Reedy Race of Champions saw easy first wins for Ryan Maifield and Kody Numedahl, it was the closing race that would provide the main entertainment with Jared Tebo just seeing off a last lap challenge from Dakotah Phend to notch up his second win of the Day. The result means that Tebo now shares the early points lead with Steven Hartson who after wins in the first two rounds finished 3rd from 6th on the grid. Running in the same race as Tebo, it was another fraught round for defending champion Ryan Cavalieri as he got caught up in pile ups twice during the race eventually finishing 5th.
Starting fourth on the grid, Tebo described the early part of the race as challenging. Starting on pole Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would lead the pack from the number 2 starting Durango of Travis Amezcua with Tebo complimenting the 13-year-old’s driving saying he was ‘driving good up front’. However the 2WD World Champion said with the Polish drivers pace a bit slower this caused him to get out of his rhythm. At the start of lap three this led to Tebo causing a pile up. Running third and catching the leaders he said got caught out by how early they braked for the first corner and coming in at his normal pace he had no choice but to throw his RB6 sideways so as not to take out the leaders but this led to him getting collected by the following cars, dropping him back to fifth.
Working his way back to 3rd a mistake on lap 11 at the Esses by leader Orlowski would turn the race on its head as the Schumacher set off a chain reaction of crashes that would see legend of the sport Brian Kinwald go to the front to a huge roar from onlookers. Leading for two laps the multiple World Champion would make a mistake allowing first Tebo through and then Phend. Having started from 9th on the grid, Phend would set the fastest lap of the race as he closed in on Tebo attempting a number of moves looking like he might just have got it done, out jumping Tebo onto the straight but Tebo was already on power and saw off the challenge to the line by 0.311 of a second. Commenting on the closing stages of the race, Tebo said when he got into the lead he wanted to keep it safe but with Phend having a similar pace this forced him to push. While calling Phend’s attempted pass a ‘clean move’ he added ‘I’m happy he didn’t pass me’. Behind, Amezcua would come away with 3rd followed by Kinwald, Cavalieri and Orlowski.
In the opening race, Maifield easily converted his first pole starting position into victory winning by 8-seconds from his protege Rivkin who started from fourth. The third second place finish of the day for Rivkin the result puts the 16-year-old equal third in the points standings with Maifield. The big battle of the race was for third with Hartson, who having started 6th dropped to 9th on lap 2, getting the better of the fights with both new Serpent signing Hupo Honigl and former Champion Joern Neumann to complete the Top 3.
Race 2 saw Kody Numedahl take up the early lead that he would see through to the end. While the Team Associated engineer cruised to the win, behind there was a good battle for 2nd between Ty Tessmann, Dustin Evans and Carson Wernimont. Unfortunately Tessmann would get it wrong at the triple on lap 11 sending the HB’s driver back to fourth as both Evans and Wernimont went through. For new Associated signing Wernimont, the race would net his third third place finish in as many races.
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