Maifield does the double at Winter Indoor Nats

Ryan Maifield secured the buggy double on his debut in the JConcepts Indoor National Series, the factory Associated ace driving another faultless round of Mains to wrap up the overall 2 & 4WD Buggy wins early. Starting the season opening Winter Indoor Nationals at SmacTrac in St.Louis, Missouri as Top Qualifier, the Arizona driver made it look easy winning both A2 encounters easily over Kyosho’s Cody Turner in 2WD and his own team-mate & defending Champion Steven Hartson in 4WD. Featuring a busy but narrow track layout that made any overtaking difficult, the second round of A-Mains saw the other three main classes of the series decided. In Mod Truck Jared Tebo put the win beyond his rivals with another tone to tone performance while team-mate Turner bagged the 2WD Short Course win. For MIP’s Matt Olson the weekend was the perfect start to his 4WD Short Course title defense as he claimed the overall win for Round 1 of the 5 race series.

Having had to see off very close attention from Tebo in the opening A-Main of 2WD Buggy, in Leg 2 Maifield had a much easier race recording a new fastest lap of the weekend of 17.121 on his way to a very comfortable 7-second win over Turner. All over the back of Tebo, Turner forced his team leader into a mistake just as they came to complete the penultimate lap. Rolling over his Orion powered RB6 it was enough to allow Turner’s example through, the 21-year-old holding on to take second 24/100ths from Tebo. The result means the pair will go head to head in the final Main to decide which step they will occupy either side of Maifield on the podium.

In 4WD Buggy just like in the first A-Main Maifield checked out early again being the only driver to run 19 laps over the 5-minutes. Behind the No.1 B44.2, the attention of the race was on the fight between Tebo and fastest man on the track Hartson. Posting a fastest lap of 16.468, Hartson eventually got the mistake he needed from Tebo to get by when four laps from home the Kansas City resident rolled over his Lazer ZX5. The result means while a sixth consecutive win in the series is no longer on the cards he is still in with a shout of making it a 1-2 finish for Associated if he can beat Tebo in A3.

In Mod Truck there was a little drama before the start when Maifield, as he put it himself, ‘ran out of talent’. Just as the trucks where called to the grid for the driver introductions Maifield’s T4.2 hit the wall at the end of the straight breaking the servo horn. Luckily, together with Jason Rouna, Maifield was able to fit a new horn while the drivers introductions continued getting back just in time for the race start. Shadowing Tebo in A1, Maifield could not repeat the performance in A2 and finished 2.3 seconds behind with his team boss & defending champion Brent Thielke completing the Top 3.

Having dominated the first A-Main of 2WD Short Course, Turner again made light work of the field taking his Proline equipped Ultima SCR to a 4.5 second win over TLR sponsored JP Richards with local Justin Driemeier third after he got ahead of fellow Associated driver Hartson when he rolled his SC10.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:09.672
2.(3) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:16.484
3.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:16.727
4.(5) JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:02.323
5.(4) Steven Hartson – Associated – 17/5:03.618
6.(7) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:04.354
7.(8) Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:06.916
8.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 17/5:10.441
9.(10)Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:12.492
10.(6)Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5:05.237

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 19/5:16.312
2.(3) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:01.168
3.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:02.326
4.(6) Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:06.435
5.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:08.327
6.(4) Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:10.153
7.(8) Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:10.853
8.(10)Dustin Richards – Associated – 17/5:00.426
9.(5) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:05.022
10.(9)Matt Gosch – Associated – 6/1:46.568

View the event images gallery here.