Maifield sets pace in final free practice
Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield set the pace in the final free practice at the IFMAR 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships in California posting a 27.318 with team-mate Steven Hartson the closest to him on a best lap of 27.401. Behind the two American’s Team Durango’s Joern Neumann enjoyed his most competitive run top setting the third fastest lap with a 27.435.
Despite not going the full distance in the final practice, breaking a rear arm on his B44.2 when he caught a ‘crazy hole’ at the end of the main straight, Maifield said he is happy with where he is at heading in to first timed controlled practice. Set to bring the first day of 4WD action at Silver Dollar R/C Raceway to an end, the round will play a part in the seeding the 10 car heats for tomorrow’s qualifying. Describing his buggy as ‘fast & comfortable (to drive)’, Maifield plans to run everything as is for what will be the 10th round of practice the only difference being drivers will get to run a full 5-minute race time.
Hartson said he has finally got to where he is comfortable with his car. Having changed to geardiffs early in practice he said he then went for a front sway bar and for the final run changed to a stiffer front shock adding he is now ‘pretty much done with set-up changes’. Pleased with his performance in the final free practice having strung together a number of consecutive 27 second laps on the tricky high traction track, the 21-year-old said his aim to try an repeat that driving in the controlled practice.
Neumann said FP9 was by far the best he has ran all day. The Euro Offroad Series Champion said having felt he was under powered this morning he motored up from a 6.5 motor to a 5.5 but for the last one reverted back to the slower Orion motor which made his prototype DEX410 easier to drive. Planning to leave his set-up as in the controlled practice he said he will prep his front tyres differently to make them a little hard. With all drivers having to run Proline Suburb tyres front & rear, the official handout tyre of the event, he said he will use a full rear insert in the front rather than cut it to size as he has done so far in the controlled tyre preparation area.
Fourth fastest having topped a number of the practice rounds Naoto Matsukura said his Yokomo is good and he will leave it the same for today’s final practice. The multiple Japanese Champion, and world class onroad racer, said he has come to a point now where he has realised the key to the track is all about ‘patience’.
Ty Tessman posted the fifth fastest time, the HB driver describing his new HB D4-13 as the best it has been. The US National Champion has switched from carbon to plastic inserts in the front arms as well as switching to a lighter swaybar. Liking the feeling of the softer front end he said he will ‘go with what we have for now’ for the controlled practice.
Completing the Top 6 in terms of laps times, defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri said things are looking good adding he has been ‘happy with (his) car all day’. Having only made minor changes over the 9 practice runs he said in the later part of the day he mostly worked on rotating tyres between runs. For the controlled practice the 3 time 4WD World Champion said he will go with his Orion powered B44.2 as is adding he doesn’t expect to change the car much more over the remainder of the event.
Elsewhere Jared Tebo broke a rear shock tower on his prototype Kyosho. Crowned the new 2WD Champion on Wednesday, the 2007 Champion is struggling a little with finding a way to get more steering from the new buggy. The man who finished runner up to him in 2WD, Lee Martin has after a good start to the day lost some of his pace. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver said since breaking his prototype TRF511 in FP6, when he land badly in the path of another buggy, he has been struggling and he is ‘not sure why’.
View our event image gallery here.