Maifield doubles up to TQ opening 4WD Buggy qualifier

Having TQ’d the opening round of 2WD Buggy Qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield notched up a second TQ run of the day when he claimed the first qualifier of 4WD Buggy again outpacing arch rival Jared Tebo.  Tebo’s Kyosho team-mate Cody Turner completed the Top 3 just ahead of defending champion Steven Hartson who is this weekend chasing a sixth consecutive 4WD Buggy win in the JConcepts Indoor National Series.

Like in 2WD, Maifield used a brand new set of unmodified JConcepts Barcodes tyres on his Reedy powered B44.2 and despite a few small issues with traffic declared himself happy with the run.  Associated team-mate Hartson also ran new tyres and was happy with his buggy but said he just had a few too many bobbles leaving him over 4 seconds off the TQ pace.

In the Kyosho camp both Tebo and Turner were happy with their opening 4WD heats. A second off the TQ pace, Tebo said his Lazer ZX5 SP2 was decent but needs just a little more steering and then he should be good to take the challenge to Maifield. Turner said his run was very steady and the plan was is to try continue with that approach for the rest of the day.

Making his first big race appearance with the Xray XB4, RC America team driver Josh Wheeler set the sixth fastest time despite a crash that lost the 1:8 Offroad World Championship finalist 3-seconds.  Running the same set of AKA Handlebar tyres as he used in yesterday’s practice he said they are getting better each run and overall he is really happy with how everything is working.  Commenting on his crash he said he tried to pass a slower buggy down the inside but cut the corner too tight launching the car over onto its roof.

4WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 1
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:07.081
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:08.100
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:10.911
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:11.249
5. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 18/5:12.235
6. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:12.886
7. Justin Driemeier – Associated – 18/5:13.956
8. Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:14.372
9. Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:15.059
10.Dustin Richards – Associated – 17/5:00.713

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