Maifield wins exciting final RROC 2WD encounter

The sixth & final round of 2WD at the Reedy Race of Champions produced the most exciting encounter yet with a race that saw Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield snatch the win from HB’s Ty Tessman on the last lap, the Canadian also getting passed the No.10 starting TLR of Dustin Evans in the final dash to the finish.  In the other two races Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz and TLR’s Mike Truhe claimed their first wins of the event which after 18 races using 2WD buggies will now switch over to 4WD.

Race 1 of the round saw pole position starter Neil Cragg lead away the field with fellow front row starter Lutz in close pursuit.  The American soon found a way passed the British driver when his B4.2 ran wide but later in the same lap he went back to the front following an error from Lutz.  Once in front Cragg looked to have control of the race but with just over a minute to go the former World Champion got it wrong a number of times allowing Lutz to come through for his first win. Taking wins in Rounds 3 & 5 Steven Harston completed the Top 3 benefiting from a rough last lap from TLR’s Matt Castellano.

Packing the strongest line-up of the round with Maifield, Jared Tebo, Evans and Atsushi Hara among the 10 starters, race 2 was lead away by Tessmann who took early control of the proceedings, initially leading from last year’s Reedy Race 2WD Open class winner Chad Due.  Behind however the cream of the electric offroad scene was working its way to the top.  In a rather forceful move on Due, Maifield who started 6th had worked his way up to second by lap 4 with Tebo and the No.10 starting Evans in toe. A series of wide landings by Tessmann off the whoop section allowed Maifield to close the gap to the lead B4.2.  On the final lap Tessmann again ran wide and Maifield was there to pounce but having led the majority of his previous race Tessmann was not going to give it up that easy making a lunge back at the American in the next corner. The pair came together and as a result had to single single the double coming onto the main straight allowing Evans to join the drag race to the finish, Maifield taking it by 8/100th from Evans with Tessmann having to once again settle for third a further 3/10th behind.

Bringing the 2WD action to a close, Mike Truhe won Race 3 from pole position after seeing off a challenge from Travis Amezcua who after a couple of crashes would fall back to finish 4th.  Just over a second behind Truhe’s TLR22, Associated’s Josh Numan finished second with the No.8 starting Associated of Brent Thielke finishing third.

The final round of 2WD was a tough one for current standings leader Ryan Cavalieri the World Champion has a tough run in Race 1, only managing to finish 8th in the nine car encounter.  The round is also set to be defending Champion Joern Neumann’s dropped score as starting from 10th on the grid in Race 3 he could only cross the line in 6th.

Round 6 2WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(2) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:14.431
2.(1) Neil Cragg – Associated – 15/5:17.200
3.(8) Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:18.461
4.(3) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:19.276
5.(9) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 15/5:19.404
6.(7) Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 14/5:00.077
7.(10)Peter Pinisch – Associated – 14/5:00.589
8.(6) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 14/5:00.912
9.(4) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:01.558

Race 2
1.(6) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:05.702
2.(10)Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:05.784
3.(1) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:06.143
4.(7) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:08.506
5.(3) Tanner Denney – Associated – 15/5:13.323
6.(5) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:14.746
7.(9) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 15/5:15.097
8.(8) Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:15.675
9.(2) Chad Due – Associated – 14/5:09.660
10.(4)Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 6/2:11.827

Race 3
1.(1) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:09.885
2.(5) Josh Numan – Associated – 15/5:10.929
3.(8) Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/5:13.601
4.(4) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:16.053
5.(6) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 15/5:16.270
6.(10)Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:17.065
7.(2) Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 14/5:05.02.814
8.(3) Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 14/5:02.871
9.(9) Rick Hohwart – Associated – 14/5:04.129
10.(7)Paul Bradby – Associated – 14/5:11.803

View the overall invitational standings after 6 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.