Cavalieri doubles up in Round 2

Ryan Cavalieri has made it 2 wins from 2 races at the Reedy Race of Champions in California, the Associated driver again converting his second pole position start into a victory to put himself in an early lead of the standings.  In the other two races that made up the second round of 2WD Buggy at the famous event HB’s Atsushi Hara and Tamiya’s Lee Martin secured the wins.  The drive of the second round came in Race 2 from Ryan Maifield who starting 10th on the grid came through to finish second just a second behind Martin.  Afterwards the Team Associated ace said it was a ‘good result’ but he wished he had been able to get through the pack a little faster, his fastest lap almost 6/10th faster than that of European Champion Martin.

‘Step by step getting better’ was how Hara summed up his win from second on the grid behind former World Champion Neil Cragg.  Moving the wing forward on the mid motored Kyosho he is running this weekend, the Japanese ace said the RB6 had better traction but for his next race, his mos competitive group so far, he will need to find a little more steering if he is to run with the likes of Joern Neumann, Maifield and Jared Tebo.

Cragg who led the race for the opening few laps said he drove a better race than his opening run keeping his B4.2 on its wheels more the second time of asking.  Unfortunately the British driver hit trouble with his slipper clutch four laps in to the 5-minute race which made the jumps more difficult.  Feeling he had pace to take the win, he said once the slipper starting acting up he just tried to get what he could from the race declaring himself happy to come away with second ahead of Neumann.  Starting 8th on the grid it was another strong performance from Neumann who is on pole for his next race.

The third race saw a tone to tone win for Cavalieri although the World Champion did have a number of moments one of which allowed team-mate Steven Hartson to get right on his rear, literally.  TLR’s young star Dakotah Phend looked on target to take second but got it wrong putting his TLR 22 on its roof which dropped him back down the order, eventually crossing the finish line in 5th.  Team-mate Dustin Evans completed the Top 3 behind Hartson and ahead of Japan’s Kohta Akimoto.

Round 2 2WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(2) Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:12.384
2.(1) Neil Cragg – Associated – 15/5:15.158
3.(8) Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:16.115
4.(7) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:16.849
5.(3) Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 14/5:04.441
6.(5) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 14/5:04.696
7.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 14/5:08.498
8.(9) Paul Bradby – Associated – 14/5:14.056
9.(4) Rick Hohwart – Associated – 14/5:21.646

Race 2
1.(4) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 15/5:10.515
2.(10)Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:11.528
3.(3) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:13.511
4.(6) Josh Numan – Associated – 15/5:19.109
5.(2) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:19.530
6.(7) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:01.113
7.(8) Chad Due – Associated – 15/5:03.420
8.(1) Peter Pinisch – Associated – 15/5:07.880
9.(9) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 14/5:08.676
10.(5)Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 14/5:12.430

Race 3
1.(1) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 15/5:05.350
2.(2) Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:11.129
3.(7) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:13.313
4.(5) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 15/5:15.996
5.(4) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:16.746
6.(6) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:16.884
7.(8) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:20.107
8.(3) Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:28.613
9.(10)Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 14/5:09.394
10.(9)Tanner Denney – Associated – 14/5:14.049

View the overall invitational standings after 2 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.