Tebo ups 2WD Buggy pace in Q2

Kyosho Jared Tebo upped the pace in 2WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals taking Q2 from team-mate Cody Turner with TLR’s Cody Hollis completing the Top 3 for the round which saw Q1 Top qualifier Ryan Maifield forced to retire due to a complete lack of courtesy from a number of drivers running in his heat.

Having stood on the far right side of the drivers stand for his previous 2WD & 4WD Buggy and Mod Truck qualifier earlier in the day at SmacTrac, Maifield went up for his second 2WD Buggy heat, having stood in line, but there was no room left. Despite asking the drivers who had moved position if it was possible to just move over slightly his request fell on deaf ears.  With the heat about to start the Associated driver had no option but to move to far left hand side of the drivers stand but could only see the track by leaning forward which in turn blocked the view of the others drivers leaving him no choice but to pull up.  Having lost out on a TQ run in his second Mod Truck Qualifier after a back marker put his T4.2 on his roof, with AE team-manager Brent Thielke becoming a casualty of the same incident, the reseed for the third round of qualifying can’t come quick enough for the Arizona ace.

Avoiding the traffic issues he had in Q1, Tebo said changing to a white spring on the rear of his Orion powered RB6 gave him more grip.  Despite a mistake in the closing part of the 5-minute run, He was able to knock over 5-seconds off his previous time bettering Maifield’s pace by almost 2.7 seconds.  Very happy with how his AKA shod buggy is working he plans to leave everything as is for the third and final heat of the day. Turner also attributed less traffic issues to his improved pace as he knocked 2 seconds of his morning time. Like Tebo, the 21-year old will leave his Proline fitted RB6 as is for Q3.

Team Losi Racing’s Hollis was very happy with his run after a poor Q1 performance  saying he did nothing different to his JConcepts equipped TLR22 other than just put in a clean run.  The 19-year-old from Oklahoma, said his focus for Q3 is to focus on his driving and try put in another clean 5-minutes of driving.

Defending champion Steven Hartson set the 5th fastest time behind fellow Associated driver Mitchel Gardner.  Changing to JConcepts Barcodes all round on his Reedy powered B4.2 for the second qualifier he said he didn’t like the feeling it gave him and this resulted in a number of mistakes.  Having run Rips on the front in Q1 when he was 3rd fastest he will good back to that tyre combo for the penultimate qualifier.

In Mod Truck Tebo made it two out of two, taking the second round in a slightly slower time than Q1 ahead of Hollis’ 22T and Justin Driemeier’s Associated.  In 2WD Short Course Turner set a new fastest time with his Kyosho Ultima SCR ahead of Q1 pace setter JP Richards.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 2
1. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 17/5:03.285
2. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 17/5:07.922
3. Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:09.992
4. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:11.297
5. Steven Hartson – Associated – 17/5:12.481
6. JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:12.608
7. Matt Gosch – Associated – 17/5:13.389
8. Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:13.860
9. Luke Richards – Associated – 17/5:13.966
10.Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:14.358

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