Maifield tops opening truck qualifiers
Continuing on from setting the pace in yesterday’s practice Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield has topped the opening round of qualifying in both Mod Truck and 2WD Short Course at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic. The Associated driver who is the US National Champion and defending Cactus champion in 2WD Short Course TQ’d that class from Kyosho’s Jared Tebo while in Mod Truck he was the only driver to make 13-laps taking the round ahead of TLR’s Dakotah Phend.
A great morning for Maifield, for whom the Hobby Town Scottsdale R/C Speedway is his home track, he said both runs went pretty well although getting caught on a pipe on his final lap of Mod Truck lost him almost 4 seconds. Happy with the set-up of both trucks he said he wont make any set-up changes for Q2 but will on his Short Course tightening the diff and rebuilding the shocks just to ensure they stay fresh.
Despite flipping his Orion powered TLR 22T and losing around 3 seconds Phend described his opening Mod Truck run as a ‘good first run’. Running a mixture of used front Pro-Line tyres and new rears the 15-year-old said the truck felt good so he doesn’t plan on making any changes for his second run of the day.
Phend’s TLR team-mate Dustin Evans took his 22T to the third fastest time but he was not very happy with his driving. With lots of steering at the beginning of the 5-minute run he said he drove smooth which put him in the hunt for taking the round but then he started to over drive leading to a number of mistakes. Happy with the truck he said he doesn’t need to change anything but instead focus on cleaning up his driving. For TLR’s Mike Truhe the opening qualifier ended before it had even started after he broke a rear wishbone during his warm-up lap.
The defending champion of the Mod Truck class Ryan Cavalieri set the fourth fastest time ahead of Associated team-mate Brian Kinwald. The buggy World Champion said he didn’t drive well in the opening few laps resulting in two mistakes but once he found his rhythm he was happy with his pace saying his tyres got better through the run allowing him to set the fastest lap for the round on his final lap.
Second fastest in 2WD Short Course, Tebo described his run as ‘awesome’. The Kyosho team-leader said his Ultima SCR-SP felt ‘really really good’ but said having fitted a new Orion motor for qualifying the timing was slightly off but other than adjusting this he will run the truck the same for Q2.
Setting the third fastest time behind Tebo, Kinwald was content with his opening run. One of the greats of electric offroad racing, the Associated driver said the track is way off compared to previous events with the clay providing very little bite. Although he said his truck doesn’t feel good to drive he said it was down to the track rather than his set-up and rather than make set-up changes he hopes the track will eventually groove up. Cavalieri completed the Top 4 in Short Course followed by Evans and AE driver Kody Numedahl.
Drivers will now switch their attention to the biggest class of the event 2WD Buggy before Q1 is completed with 4WD Buggy and 4WD Short Course.
Round 1 Qualification (Top 6)
Mod Truck
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 13/5:28.114
2. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 12/5:06.009
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 12/5:06.103
4. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 12/5:06.351
5. Brian Kimwald – Associated – 12/5:13.021
6. Charles Hicks – TLR – 12/5:13.6642WD Short Course
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 12/5:12.095
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 12/5:14.609
3. Brian Kimwald – Associated – 12/5:16.699
4. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 12/5:16.732
5. Dustin Evans – TLR – 12/5:18.071
6. Kody Numedahl – Associated – 12/5:19.066
View our event image gallery here.