September 8, 2013

Chassis Focus – Ryan Maifield

Sat-MaifieldC42-9

Chassis Name – Associated B4.2/Centro C4.2
Motor –Reedy
Batteries – Reedy
ESC – LRP
Tires – JConcepts
Remarks – Defending Clash Champion Ryan Maifield is running the Associated B4.2 with the Centro C4.2 conversion, which he has been running exclusively now for a few months in preparation for the Worlds in a few weeks. Running the same setup that he ran at the Surf City Classic last weekend where he won with the mid motor configuration on slick tires, the only changes he has made this weekend on the lower grip track has been to soften the rear dampening.

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September 8, 2013

Update Q3 2WD Buggy – Evans TQ’s

Evans

The third round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the 7th running of the JConcepts Clash saw a repeat of Q2 in terms of the Top 3 with Dustin Evans claiming his second TQ run ahead of Q1 pace setter Ryan Maifield by a very similar margin of 2.6-seconds and his own TLR team-mate JR Mitch.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in mid motor configuration, Evans said while this might have not been the best set-up at the beginning of the Mississippi event the buggy is just getting better and better each run as the traction comes up.  Still struggling a little with the top right corner which he described as ‘weird’ he said if he can figure that out he thinks he can go even better in tonight’s final over TQ deciding qualifier.

Maifield 2w

Maifield, who said Evans pace is getting better highlighted by their fastest laps being separated by just 14/1000ths of a second, was pleased with the performance of C4.2 but said traffic again played a big part in his second place finish.  Suffering three crashes he said he seemed to always come upon slower cars through the super fast ‘S’ bend after the main straight where due to the speed it is very hard to react quickly enough to a slower buggy.  One such incident on lap 8 while on a TQ pace resulted in 27-second lap for the Team Associated star.  Aside from his traffic issues, Maifield said he was pretty happy with how his mid motor buggy is performing.

Mitch

Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Mitch said the rise in traction for Q3 was starting to make the buggy a little aggressive to drive.  Happy to claim a second 3rd fastest run time, thereby ensuring him of good starting position on the all important A-Main grid tomorrow, he plans to use final qualifier to compare motor positions by changing over to the mid motor layout.

Flurer

Behind the Top 3 missing out on the 14 laps by little under 4-seconds, Max Flurer took his rear motored B4.2 to the fourth fastest time just 3/10th ahead of the rear motored Kyosho RB6 of Ryan Eckert.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Cody Hollis, who wrapped up the overall Mod Truck TQ honours by completing a hat trick of fastest runs, completed the Top 6.  In the other 2WD class, Short Course, Maifield bagged his 2nd TQ run of the day as he again headed the times from Evans and Paul Wynn with X-Factory’s Paul Sinclair fourth.

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September 8, 2013

Maifield pips Evans in penultimate 4wd Buggy Qualifier

Ryan

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.

Maifield

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

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.

Daimon

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.

Jake Dellinger

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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September 7, 2013

Evans tops second 2WD Buggy qualifier

Evans

TLR’s Dustin Evans completed a clean sweep of the feature buggy classes in the second round of qualifying at the JConcepts Clash in Flowood, Mississippi, by backing up his 4WD topping time with a TQ run in 2WD.  Having retired from both classes in Q1 yesterday due to broken shock towers, Evans took the second of the four scheduled 2WD Buggy qualifiers from defending champion Ryan Maifield by 2.5-seconds with JR Mitch completing the Top 3 who all managed 14 lap runs.

Evans Fix

Describing his run, which was 6-seconds faster than Maifield Q1 pace, as a ‘conservative, clean run’ Evans said the approach ‘worked out’.  That approach may have been somewhat brought on by the fact that in the warm-up he broke his TLR22 2.0 and had to take a rear track rod off the buggy of his team manager Kevin Gahan.  Running with an all blue shell this weekend, the 2011 US Champion said his JConcepts Barcodes shod chassis felt really good helped by the fact that the track is ‘getting better and better’.  With conditions ‘quite a bit faster’ than Q1, Evans who finished runner-up here 12-months ago expects the track to be even faster in the reseeded 3rd qualifier but other than fitting a fresh set of tyres plans to stick with his current set-up.

Maifield

Maifield said in terms of traffic his heat for 2WD Buggy is the worst he has ever encountered describing it as ‘a nightmare’. The Arizona ace said his Reedy powered C4.2 was good but ultimately it was his own mistake on his penultimate lap that cost him a shot at making it two TQ runs from two heats.  The only driver to run a 21-second lap time in Q2, Maifield is looking forward to running in the reseeded heats saying it should be a lot better and make for the chance to run a full clean 5-minutes.

JR Mitch

Having had a good Q1 run ruined yesterday by traffic, Mitch was pleased to ‘get one decent run under his belt’.  Unable to drive from his regular position on the drivers stand for Q2, he said this forced him to drive a little more conservative than normal due to his perspective of the track being different but from his regular spot he feels there is about 5-seconds in the bag.  Motoring up to a Trinity 8.5 turn for Q2, Mitch said he was happier with the power now and in terms of his TLR22 2.0 set-up he will leave it as is describing it as having a ‘good neutral feeling’.

Max Flurer

Setting the fifth fastest time behind the TLR of Cody Hollis, last year’s podium finisher Max Flurer described his second qualifier as ‘OK’.  The Associated driver said he had trouble keeping the front wheels of his B4.2 on the ground.  A ‘pretty clean’ 5-minutes he said he hopes adding weight to the front of the buggy will improve things for his next outing.  JConcepts’ Paul Wynn completed the Top 6.

Ruona Gearbox

Third fastest driver in Q1, Jason Ruona would pull up 3-minutes in to Q2. ‘Mr. JConcepts’ said his B4.2 didn’t feel right in the warm-up but he still started the run.  With the buggy not running freely off power he decided to pull it and do a full rebuild of the transmission.

In the other 2WD classes Maifield TQ’d Short Course from Q1 pace setter Evans with Wynn third.  In Mod Truck Hollis made it two from two again outpacing the similar 22T of Leon McIntosh.

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