Maifield completes clean sweep in practice

Ryan Maifield completed a clean sweep of controlled practice at the 26th Annual Pro-Line Cactus Classic steering his Team Associated buggies and trucks to the fastest three consecutive laps in all four classes he is contesting at the famous Arizona race. The defending champion of both buggy classes and 2WD Short Course, Maifield said he was helped by his ‘home field advantage’ but added it had been a good day with his equipment working well and needing little or no adjustments in terms of set-up. With two of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying on tomorrow’s timetable he said other than preventative maintenance his biggest job for the rest of the event will be making the right call on which tyre will best suit the conditions at the time of each of his heats.

In 2WD Buggy it was Kyosho’s Jared Tebo who was closest to Maifield’s pace with TLR’s young star Dakota Phend third fastest. Tebo was much happier with both his buggies in the second practice saying the day ended up ‘pretty good’. Planning to run a stiffer rear spring on his Ultima RB5 for qualifying he also plans to fit a fresh Orion motor, while on his Lazer ZX5, which he took to the 6th fastest time, he will run the buggy 4mm shorter.

Behind Maifield in 4WD Buggy it was Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz and Travis Amezcua with Tamiya’s Lee Martin completing the Top 4. Lutz said after his run that his DEX410 still felt loose but put that down to the fact that he was running a used set of tyres from a previous event but expects a fresh set of AKAs tomorrow will give him a even faster buggy.

The defending champion of Mod Truck Cavalieri had to settle for second behind his team-mate Maifield with Dustin Evans’ TLR 22T third fastest. Evans was best of the rest in 2WD Short Course with Associated driver Kody Numedahl setting the third fastest three consecutive laps for the class around the Scottsdale R/C Speedway track.

With Maifield sitting out 4WD Short Course, the fifth of the big classes that make up the Pro-Line Cactus Classic, it was German ace Joern Neumann who set the pace ahead of Team Losi Racing’s Frank Root and Phend with Amezcua fourth followed by defending Champion Mike Truhe.

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