Cavalieri TQ’s penultimate qualifier

Defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri claimed the first TQ run of his World Championship campaign as he steered his Associated to the top of the time sheets in Q4 ahead of fellow American factory heavyweight’s Dustin Evans and Jared Tebo who posted the fastest lap of the round.  The result means that we will have to wait until tomorrow morning’s fifth and final round of qualifying to determine who will be the overall Top Qualifier for the finals that will decide the 15th IFMAR 2WD Electric Offroad World Champion.  As it stands now with 4 of the 5 qualifiers complete the battle for pole position is between Tebo and Cavalieri, the latter winning the title in Finland 2-years ago from 2nd on the grid.

Behind the US trio, Tamiya’s Lee Martin was the fastest non US driver for the round taking his TRF201XM to the fourth fastest time 4/10ths in front of fellow British driver Darren Bloomfield’s TLR22.  Unfortunately for the former multiple European Champion he missed out on a Top 3 by just 9/1000ths of a second which would have left the Q2 pace setter in contention for the honour of Top Qualifier.

Setting the 6th fastest time Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield is one of a number of high profile drivers who wont be able to sleep easy tonight as they need a good result from the morning’s final qualifier.  Another such driver is HB’s Ty Tessman.  The winner of the Pre Worlds, the Canadian ace is not comfortable with his Kyosho and a crash in Q4 meant he ended up outside the Top 10.  With only a pair of 7th place finishes to his credit Q5 is going to be crucial.  US National Champion Dakotah Phend, who claimed that title here in August, needs nothing short of a miracle to make the A-Main.  The 16-year-old TLR star will have to count 14th in Q1 and 8th in Q2 as two of his three results in the final qualification ranking.

Just as the final round of qualifying was completed the heavens opened up over the the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway which could have a knock on effect on tomorrow’s proceedings as it did when it rained two days before the opening day leading to a 5 hour delay to the start of practice.

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