Maifield TQ’s second 2WD Buggy qualifier

Defending JConcepts Clash Champion Ryan Maifield has TQ’d the second round of qualifying for 2WD Buggy becoming the first and so far only driver to record 14-laps around the Flowood Indoor RC Park in Mississippi. The Associated driver made best use of the high traction track conditions to set the pace ahead of the morning’s Q1 top qualifier Dustin Evans, the TLR driver missing the 14-laps by just under 3/10th of a second.

Switching from the blue V2 Bar Code JConcept tyres he ran in the morning to V1 for the afternoon qualifier, Maifield described his run as ‘pretty descent’.  Managing to run a fastest lap time that was a full 1-second faster than the best lap of Q1 set by Evans, Maifield plans to leave his Reedy powered B4.1 as is for the morning’s Q3 but will try a wider foam insert in the front tyres to try make the front a little stiffer.

Evans said he thought about running a harder front spring on his TLR22 in anticipation of the track having more grip but didn’t and this cost him the chance of a second TQ run.  With the track having ‘a lot more grip’ his buggy was very hard to drive especially as his tyres, the same set as he ran in Q1, warmed up.  Losi team-mate JR Mitch took third for the round and after messing up his opening lap declared himself happy with his recovery.

Jason Ruona took his Associated B4.1 to a strong 5th fastest time just ahead of Brent Thielke.  The JConcepts boss said the higher traction in Q2 suited both the buggy and the driver better than the morning and despite one small mistake he was happy with his performance.  Like his team drivers Ruona ran blue Bar Codes which he said suited the conditions perfectly but with the track set to be watered overnight and the penultimate 2WD Buggy Qualifier up early in the morning he thinks a softer compound will be better for that round.

Running JConcepts Rips on the front of his B4.1, Thielke said while it made his buggy very easy to drive he will switch to Bar Codes all round for Q3.  The AE team-manager said while it will be more aggressive to drive it will give him more corner speed and if he wants to be in with a chance of a podium finish he is going to need that extra pace.  Behind Thielke was Tanner Denney but the 17-year-old had the pace to post a Top 3 time only to hit problems with traffic that resulted in two 27-second laps.

In 4WD Buggy it was Ruona, who hasn’t raced 4WD since last year’s Clash event, that took the TQ ahead of David Gibson after Denney again had traffic problems this time on his final lap while running a TQ time.  Setting the fastest lap of Q2 with a 21.630 lap, the incident resulted in a 31.3 second last lap for Denney dropping him to third for the round.

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