Maifield retains 2WD titles at ‘Clash’

Ryan Maifield has retained both his 2WD titles at the JConcepts Clash, the Associated driver backing up his A1 wins with victory in the second of the Buggy and Short Course Truck Mains.  While Short Course was another easy encounter for the classes’ Top Qualifier, in buggy the Arizona driver looked like he was going to have to settle for second behind TLR’s Dustin Evans until the 2011 US Champion clipped the piping just as he came around to complete lap 11 of 16.  Losing almost 4-seconds as he got beached on the pipe this allowed Maifield back to the front where he would stay to take the win by 2 seconds to wrap up the title early.

With two 30-minute nitro races having run on the track since the first 2WD Buggy Main, Maifield said track conditions for the second of the 6-minute races were totally different to the morning and running the same set-up as A1 on his B4.1 it was a handful to drive.  Getting chased down by Evans the end of lap three saw a mistake from Maifield allowing Evans to the front. However 7 laps later while looking to have the race under control Evans hit trouble at the very same spot handing the race back to his rival.

Having struggled with his set-up in A1, Evans changed his front shock set-up for A2 which he said due to the track conditions didn’t make it any easier but it did give him a slightly better buggy than Maifield. Commenting on his costly mistake on lap 10 he said off power his steering was ultra sensitive as he had so much front end grip but summed it up as a ‘silly driver error’.

While Maifield checked out in 2WD Short Course the big battle of the race was between Evans and his team-mate JR Mitch.  With Evans having the quicker of the two factory TLR trucks in A1 before retiring, it was Mitch who was running sway bars who had the better handling truck this time round.  Mistakes by Evans in the closing laps handed the advantage to Mitch who again took second behind Maifield. The third and final leg is now a battle for the runners-up spot between the TLR pairing for which Evans is going to copy Mitch’s set-up and fit sway bars.

The second round of Mains at Flowood Indoor R/C Park also saw the 2WD Mod Truck title decided after Brent Thielke pulled of the pass of the event on Tanner Denney. Having taken the lead from Top Qualifier and A1 winner Thielke on lap 11, 17-year-old Denney looked like he was going to force the title to go to the third main but his team boss pulled a spectacular surprise pass at the last corner denying last year’s runner-up the A2 win by 43/100th of a second.  Once again Kyosho’s Zack Genova completed the Top 3 for the leg.

Also wrapping up a title early at the 6th Annual JConcepts Clash, which is being held outside Florida for the first time, was Matthew Olson. The MIP driver backed up his 4WD Short Course A1 win with another victory over Max Flurer the second time of asking.

One class that will go the distance in terms of determining who takes home the overall winners trophy is 4WD Buggy. Having got beaten by Jason Ruona in A1, Top Qualifier Tanner Denney got the job done second time of asking while Ruona broke and retired 2 laps from home.

2WD Buggy
A2-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:04.328
2.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:06.667
3.(7) Max Flurer – Associated – 16/6:12.435
4.(4) Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/6:13.384
5.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:20.264
6.(6) Jason Ruona – Associated – 16/6:20.423
7.(5) Zack Genova – Kyosho – 15/6:00.727
8.(9) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:03.184
9.(10) Steve Bortolotti – Tamiya – 15/6:07.874
10.(12)Jeffery Fleckenstein – Associated – 14/6:21.911
11.(8) Tanner Denney – Associated – 3/1:15.979
12.(11)Paul Wynn – Associated – DNS

2WD Short Course
A2-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:16.157
2.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:23.800
3.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/6:02.151
4.(6) Paul Wynn – Associated – 15/6:12.373
5.(4) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:12.868
6.(5) Max Flurer – Associated – 15/6:22.590
7.(7) Justin Cranford – Associated – 14/6:03.521
8.(10)Brian Abbott – Associated – 14/6:10.745
9.(8) Chris Viesins – Team Losi Racing – 14/6:13.108
10.(12)Brent Lebo – Associated – 13/6:20.830
11.(11)Jerold Brock III – Associated – 12/6:05.200
12.(9)Tylor Weaver – Team Losi Racing – 7/3:22.668

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