Cavalieri completes perfect day at Reedy Race

Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri completed the perfect result on the first day of racing at the Reedy Offroad Race of Champions, the World Champion winning all four of his 2WD encounters at West Coast RC Raceway in La Mirada, California.  The only driver to claim multiple wins today, the fourth round of racing saw Cavalieri’s fellow US offroad stars Ryan Maifield and Jared Tebo take their first wins at the 19th running of the event which will be decided over 12 rounds of heads up racing.

First race of the fourth round had Maifield on pole position but the Associated driver struggled for traction off the line allowing the No.2 starting Tamiya of Lee Martin to take the early lead. The European Champion managed to keep the lead for almost 3-laps but a bobble coming onto the straight allowed a very patient Maifield to slip through and into a lead he would extend to 4-seconds by the end of the 5-minute encounter.  Maifield who described is start as being like that of Top Fuel drag car burn out said the pole spot had ‘zero traction’.  With Martin in front of him he said he decided to play ‘follow the leader’ for a while hoping for a mistake and he got one.  Adding the win to his earlier 2nd places finishes in Rounds 2 & 3 he said with 6th in Round 1 hopefully his ‘throw out’, the event is still very much wide open.

Martin, who was lucky to make the start after he lost a front wheel in the warm-up due to a loose wheel nut, said he found the track ‘a bit slick’ in the final race of the day and was unable to push to catch Maifield instead focusing just on holding onto his TRF201 as he settled for second.  The race saw the Top 3 starters finishing in that order with Kyosho’s Kohta Akimoto claiming his best finish off the day with third spot. The race was a bad one for defending champion Joern Neumann who starting from 6th, finished in that position, the German saying he just made too many small mistakes.

In Race 2, Team Durango’s Travis Amezcua took an early lead from second on the grid before a mistake allowed the pole starting Associated of Kody Numedahl to lead for two laps before a mistake dropped him back behind Amezcua.  In the end Cavalieri’s World class shone through and he found a way passed Amezcua to win by 4.5 seconds with former Reedy Race double winner Brian Kinwald completing the Top 3 with his best finish of the day.  Cavalieri said ‘everything was good today’ and that being patient in each of his races had paid off.

The day’s closing race produced a tone to tone win for Tebo whose Kyosho started from pole with Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans coming through from sixth to take second.  Pleased to finish off the day with a win, Tebo said the earlier races just didn’t fall his way but on pace it is very close between him, Cavalieri and Maifield and he just hopes Race 4 was his turning point in the event. In a last lap move in which he passed Round 1 race winner Brent Thielke by jumping over the Associated team-manager, Josh Numan completed the Top 3.

Tomorrow will be made up of four more races with the final two 2WD encounters before the event switches over to 4WD.

Round 4 2WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:04.520
2.(2) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 15/5:08.515
3.(3) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 15/5:12.144
4.(8) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:13.066
5.(5) Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:13.505
6.(6) Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:15.863
7.(9) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:21.672
8.(7) Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 14/5:01.091
9.(10)Chad Due – Associated – 14/5:07.688

Race 2
1.(7) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 15/5:08.028
2.(2) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:12.546
3.(4) Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:13.173
4.(1) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 15/5:15.813
5.(8) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:15.975
6.(6) Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 14/5:02.387
7.(3) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:02.623
8.(5) Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 14/5:06.622
9.(10)Tanner Denney – Associated – 14/5:16.665
10.(9)Rick Hohwart – Associated – 14/5:17.529

Race 3
1.(1) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:03.235
2.(6) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:09.611
3.(9) Josh Numan – Associated – 15/5:13.249
4.(2) Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/5:13.738
5.(7) Neil Cragg – Associated – 15/5:14.059
6.(4) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 14/5:01.179
7.(3) Paul Bradby – Associated – 14/5:02.379
8.(10)Steven Hartson – Associated – 14/5:02.843
9.(5) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 14/5:06.933
10.(8)Peter Pinisch – Associated – 14/5:08.723

View the overall invitational standings after 4 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.