Wins for Cavalieri, Evans & Martin as Reedy Race moves to 4WD

The first round of 4WD at the Reedy Race of Champions saw Ryan Cavalieri, Dustin Evans and Lee Martin get the second half of the event off to the perfect start as they each secured relatively easy wins in their respective races at West Coast RC Raceway in California. Winning the opening race of the round, Cavalieri’s win brings his tally of victories to five and sees the former Champion maintain his lead at the top of the points standings. For Evans and Martin, who started from pole and took tone to tone wins, the result marks their second win at the 19th edition of the race Mike Reedy originally created in 1986 to celebrate his birthday.

Starting from 4th on the gird, Cavalieri took just 6 laps to find his way to the front taking the win by almost 4-seconds from early leader & pole starter Tanner Denney with TLR’s Dakotah Phend coming through from 6th to complete the Top 3.  Having opened the event with a win in his first 2WD race, the 2009 Champion said once he got out into the lead he ‘backed it down a little’ so as to avoid making any mistakes.  Having had two bad results in the closing rounds of 2WD, Cavalieri said it was good to start the second half of the event off with a win.

Cruising to victory by almost 8.5 seconds over Associated’s Josh Numann, Evans said it was much better starting up front. Having done well in 2WD starting further down the grid, the 2011 Champion said he needed to take full advantage of starting up front adding that he was ‘super happy’ with how his XXX-4 is working on the track.  Once he had established a lead, he said he was able to adapt a smooth driving style which proved to be quick and with a number of front row starts to come he is confident he can have a good go at trying to claim a second Reedy Race title, something which has only been achieved before by four drivers.

Running in the same race as Evans, defending champion Joern Neumann came away with third for the round a result the Team Durango driver was not happy with.  Caught up in crash on the opening lap that dropped him to the back of the field, he said his DEX410 was very fast, a fact highlighted by his fastest lap of the entire round, adding that it was capable of a lot more.

Race 3 was to be the closest affair of the first Round with Atsushi Hara getting to within 1.7 seconds of Martin’s Tamiya.  Describing his TRF502 as feeling a ‘little loose’, the British ace said afterwards he knew the Japanese legend was closing him in but he also knew he had enough in hand to control the race to the finish.  Believing that the diffs were the reason for his buggy not working as well as he would have liked he plans to build new ones which he hopes he can fit in time for his next race which will bring Day 2 of racing to a close.  If he doesn’t get it down he said he will definitely have them fitted for tomorrow’s final day of action.

Hara said he didn’t drive very well in the opening laps as he was still driving like it was 2WD but once he found his 4WD rhythm he was very happy with his pace. Using the same Durango that HB team-mate Shin Adachi used to contest the Japanese Nationals, he said he has done little to the set-up.  Describing the DEX410 as ‘super fast’ he said it was also ‘super aggressive’ but describing Round 1 of 4WD as a practice run he is confident he will be able to deliver some good results.

Round 1 4WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(4) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 16/5:12.382
2.(1) Tanner Denney – Associated – 16/5:16.268
3.(6) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:18.818
4.(7) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:00.014
5.(10)Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:00.601
6.(9) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 15/5:00.938
7.(2) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:03.385
8.(8) Rick Hohwart – Associated – 15/5:04.044
9.(5) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:07.274
10.(3)Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/5:23.043

Race 2
1.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:08.589
2.(4) Josh Numan – Associated – 16/5:17.022
3.(7) Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:00.298
4.(6) Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 15/5:02.292
5.(3) Neil Cragg – Associated – 15/5:03.015
6.(8) Chad Due – Associated – 15/5:03.578
7.(2) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 15/5:03.789
8.(9) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:05.000
9.(5) Peter Pinisch – Associated – 15/5:09.755
10.(10)Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 15/5:15.296

Race 3
1.(1) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 16/5:10.062
2.(3) Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 16/5:11.703
3.(9) Steven Hartson – Associated – 16/5:18.257
4.(6) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:00.882
5.(2) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:02.196
6.(8) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:04.278
7.(4) Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 15/5:05.775
8.(7) Paul Bradby – Associated – 15/5:07.585
9.(5) Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:14.403

View the overall invitational standings after 7 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.