Tebo TQs opening qualifier

Team Kyosho’s Jared Tebo has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying for the 2WD Electric Buggy World Championships taking Q1 by over a second from the Associated’s of Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield with the Losi of Dakotah Phend making it an all American Top 4. Running a heavily modified RB5, which is being kept well under wraps in the pits here in Vaasa by the team, the 1:8 Offroad World Championship Top Qualifier said the buggy felt really good and starting a campaign with a TQ run was always a good feeling.

Cavalieri was pleased with his run saying other than a few moment everything else was really good. Running the long chassis B4.1 Associated developed for this event, the former 4WD World Champion will focus on minimising mistakes in Q2 as his buggy is feeling really good.

Setting the fastest lap of the opening qualifier, Maifield said he had some issues with traffic and a mistake of his own doing but was overall happy to start the day off with some good quali points.  Like Cavalieri, Maifield is running the 8mm longer B4.1 which he said they now have working well.

Kicking off his electric Worlds debut at the sharp end of the time sheets Phend was delighted with his run.  Having reverted back to his set-up from P6 yesterday the 14-year-old said he was a lot more comfortable with his TLR22 and the plan for the rest of the day is just to focus on his driving.

Surviving a crash on the big double on his final lap which cost him 2 seconds, Lee Martin was the fastest non-American taking his TRF201 to fifth.  Topping the timing screens until his last lap off, the Tamiya Racing Factory driver said his TRF201 is getting better and better every run but admits he could do with a little more steering.  Having run JConcepts Groovy tires on the front he will switch to Rips for Q2 which he hopes will give him the extra grip he needs.  It was a good round for Tamiya with Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard taking a surprise 9th for the round.  The German said he drove a slow but clean round and doesn’t expect he’ll be in the Top 10 again in Q2.

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura took his standard chassis B4.1 to sixth.  Despite his cool & calm exterior presence the 17-year-old, who is a very popular character in the pits, said his nerves got the better of him leading to a number of mistakes but feels everything should be fine for the second round.  Another young Japanese talent to open with a strong run was 14-year-old team-mate Keisuke Enomoto who posted the 8th fastest time behind US Champion Mike Truhe.

Elsewhere former two time World Champion Brian Kinwald set the 11th fastest time 2/10th off fellow Associated driver Peter Pinisch while 2005 winner Neil Cragg was only 18th after two costly incidents without which he could have featured in the Top 3.

View our event image gallery here.