Maifield cruises to 2WD victory in opening A-Mains

Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield made light work of the opening A-Main of the JConcepts Clash in both 2WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course with the Top Qualifier cruising to two very comfortable victories moving a step closer to retaining his titles in both classes. In 2WD Buggy the expected battle between Maifield and Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans never materialized after the Colorado driver struggled with the handling of his TLR22 which resulted in a mistake on the opening lap. In the end it was Evans team-mate JR Mitch who took second in both finals.

Maifield said both his Reedy powered B4.1 and SC10 felt good and with no real pressure he was able to drive two solid races something he hopes he can repeat in the second of the triple A-Mains which would wrap up the titles early for the Arizona ace.

Having tied for the TQ honours with Maifield in qualifying taking 2 of the 4 rounds, Evans was frustrated with how his opening A-Main went. With his buggy hard to drive just four corners into the opening lap the back end stepped out sending him into the pipe and he got swallowed up by the pack leaving him sixth at the start of lap 2. Working his way back up to second by lap 7 he again fell foul of his Orion powered TLR22’s nervous handling dropping back to fourth. At the end of the 6-minute Main Evans would cross the line in 3rd some 18 seconds behind Maifield and 4-seconds behind Mitch. For A2 Evans says he will run a completely different front shock set-up which he hopes will tame the rear end of his buggy. In 2WD Short Course he retired from second after suffering an idler gear failure on his 22SCT.

Mitch said his TLR22 felt good in the race but an early mistake meant he lost contact with Maifield. Planning to leave his set-up the same for A2 he said if he can eliminate the mistakes he should be able to make things a little more difficult for Maifield. In Short Course Mitch had one big moment at the triple getting his landing completely wrong as he tried to ensure the pack behind him wouldn’t collect him at the next corner but overall his truck is not as fast as Evans and so starting from third he will just try to keep the rest of the pack behind him and allow Evans to take the fight to Maifield. Behind Mitch, Associated driver Max Flurer completed the Top 3 at the end of the 6-minutes.

In the first of the 4WD Mains event creator Jason Ruona took the Buggy win ahead of Top Qualifier Tanner Denney with David Gibson.  Before the race had even started Team Kyosho’s Jack Genova, who was to line up fourth on the grid, was out when a mistake in the warm-up broke a rear arm on his Lazer Zx5.  Ruona said a mistake by Tanner made things a little easy for him and he was able to drive a controlled race.  Getting Brent Thielke to update the software on his LRP speedo to version 3.0 which he said made his B44.1 nicer to drive, particularly under braking.  In Pro 4 Short Course Top Qualifier Matthew Olson, driving an MIP, took the win over the Associated of Max Flurer.

2WD Buggy
A1-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:07.637
2.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:21.416
3.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:25.468
4.(6) Jason Ruona – Associated – 15/6:00.391
5.(8) Tanner Denney – Associated – 15/6:02.271
6.(5) Zack Genova – Kyosho – 15/6:04.395
7.(4) Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/6:05.697
8.(7) Max Flurer – Associated – 15/6:06.400
9.(9) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:10.850
10.(10)Steve Bortolotti – Tamiya – 15/6:14.580
11.(11)Paul Wynn – Associated – 15/6:17.520
12.(12)Jeffery Fleckenstein – Associated – 14/6:20.251

2WD Short Course
A1-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:19.996
2.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 15/6:08.638
3.(5) Max Flurer – Associated – 15/6:11.118
4.(4) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:23.000
5.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:38.420
6.(6) Paul Wynn – Associated – 14/6:04.340
7.(8) Chris Viesins – Team Losi Racing – 14/6:05.450
8.(7) Justin Cranford – Associated – 14/6:05.808
9.(10)Brian Abbott – Associated – 13/6:03.814
10.(12)Brent Lebo – Associated – 13/6:12.880
11.(9)Tylor Weaver – Team Losi Racing – 13/6:24.487
12.(11)Jerold Brock III – Associated – 12/6:03.956

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