Another 2WD Buggy TQ run for Evans
Dustin Evans kicked off Day 2 of qualifying for the 6th Annual JConcepts Clash with his second TQ run in 2WD Buggy, the most competitive class at this year’s event which is for the first time being held outside of Florida and run at an indoor track. The Team Losi Racing driver took his Orion powered TLR22 around the Flowood Indoor R/C Park in Mississippi in a time of 13/5:09.97 to pip defending champion Ryan Maifield by .158 seconds with Brent Thielke third a further 1-second off the TQ time.
Benefiting from a crash by Maifield on the final lap, Evans was happy to once again start the day with a TQ run as his buggy was difficult to drive particularly in the right hand section of the track. Using JConcepts blue compound Bar Code tyres all round, the 2011 US National Champion said he ran the wrong insert in his front tyres. Running standard foam inserts he said his buggy had too much steering and he had to be very cautious through the corners. With team-mate JR Mitch running closed cell inserts on the front of his TLR22 allowing him to post the fastest lap of the round, Evans said he will switch to that option for this afternoons fourth & final round of qualifying when the track is set to be much faster as highlighted in Q2 yesterday when Maifield posted the first & so far only 14 lap run.
Running new tyres all round on his buggy for the first time having run used fronts in both of yesterday’s qualifier, Mitch said his buggy was near perfect for the track conditions. Having just moved to the top of the timing screen Mitch threw away a potential TQ run on the same lap turning in too early on the run up to a table top corner which left him stuck in the pipe. Making another substantial mistake on his last lap Mitch said the only change he wants to make for Q4 is to the driver and try and eliminate the mistakes as his buggy has the pace.
Losing out on the TQ run with the second of two crashes over the 5-minute qualifying, Maifield said his tyre choice for the round wasn’t right. Opting to run a softer green compound rear set of JConcepts Bar Codes while sticking with blues on the front he said it made his B4.1 squirmy. Team Associated manager Thielke along with Tanner Denney also ran the same tyre combination but the pair still managed to post their best rounds. Thielke said while the tyre choice was wrong he found the overnight reseeding of the heats helped with judging your pace. Also moving up to the top heat Denney had the pass for a top 3 time but early in the run got tagged going into a corner by a slower buggy he had passed earlier in the lap dropping him from second to sixth. In the end the 17-year-old recovered to set the fifth fastest time.
In 2WD Short Course and 2WD Truck round 3 saw the overall TQ honours wrapped up as Maifield and Thielke complete a clean sweep of three fastest times from three qualifiers. In Short Course defending champion Maifield once again topped Evans to secure pole position for tomorrow’s A-Main while in Truck bagged himself the No.1 race number for his T4.1 as he took Q3 from Denney. The round was the best run from Zack Genova as he set the third fastest time. Running Proline M3 Holeshots on the rear and Scrubs on the front the 15-year-old Kyosho team driver said it was the wrong choice of compound and his Novak powered RT5 struggled with a lack of forward traction.
In the 4WD classes, Denney produced his second TQ run with a new overall fastest time in Buggy to take the round ahead of Q2 pace setter Jason Ruona with Genova’s Kyosho posting the third quickest time. In Short Course Matthew Olson knocked a second of his Q2 topping time to TQ the third round of qualifying ahead of Q1’s fastest man Max Flurer.
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