Reedy Race drama as Maifield misses first 4WD encounter

There was drama during the first round of 4WD action at the Reedy Race of Champions as points leader Ryan Maifield failed to make the start of his heat.  The points leader after 2WD, having not finished lower than second over his 6 races, the Team Associated driver suffered a rear drive shaft failure during his warm-up laps.  While he returned to the pits to try and fix the car the race went ahead without the No.9 starting B44.2.  That heat would go the way of team-mate Neil Cragg while the other two heats would be won by HB’s Ty Tessmann and Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz marking their first wins of the 20th running of the event.

Starting Heat 1 from 3rd on the grid, Lutz had an easy passage to the front as the drivers starting ahead of him both made mistakes.  Getting by the No.2 starting Associated of Rob Gillespie when the 21-year-old made a mistake on lap 4, one lap later he took over the lead as pole sitter Josh Pain spectacularly rolled his Yokomo half way across the track at the option corner.  Once in front Lutz was able to open up a lead but coming from 8th on the grid Lee Martin closed in on the American setting the stage for an exciting finish.  Posting the fastest lap of the race, a late bobble by the British Team Yokomo driver would give Lutz enough breathing space to hold on for a 1.8 second victory with Tanner Denney a distant third.  Getting up to 4th from 10th on the grid and having a good battle with offroad legend Brian Kinwald, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo was another big name driver to collect the unenviable 10 points as his car powered off on the landing off the Double Double.  Caused by a motor wire catching the switch, while they were able to turn the power back on the rules of the Reedy Race is that once a driver pulls off they are not allowed to rejoin.

Heat 2 was a pretty straight forward affair for Cragg although in the closing laps he did start to come under pressure from World Champion steven Hartson. Starting from second on the grid, the British driver led from the opening lap while starting from last Hartson came through the high quality field to within .245 of him by the finish.  Behind former Reedy Race winner Dustin Evans and reigning Champion Ryan Cavalieri had a fraught race recovering from a bad start that left them at the back of the field to finish 3rd and 4th respectively.

Heat 3 produced the most convincing winner as Tessmann cruised to a 4-second victory over the Tamiya of touring car ace Marc Rheinard.  From the back row of the grid 2WD heat winner Dakotah Phend completed the Top 3.

Round 1 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(3) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:07.026
2.(8) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:08.883
3.(6) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:14.784
4.(5) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:15.296
5.(4) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:15.901
6.(9) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:18.741
7.(1) Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 16/5:20.619
8.(8) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 10/3:23.713
9.(2) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 5/1:40.338
10.(10)Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 4/1:20.120

Heat 2 Result
1.(2) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:08.904
2.(10)Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 16/5:09.149
3.(4) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:11.286
4.(3) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:11.931
5.(7) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:16.646
6.(8) Oliver Scholz – Team C – 15/5:01.592
7.(6) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:01.865
8.(5) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:02.849
9.(1) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 15/5:05.829
10.(9)Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – DNS

Heat 3 Result
1.(1) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:05.230
2.(6) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:09.221
3.(9) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:11.336
4.(8) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 16/5:15.120
5.(3) Cody King – Kyosho – 16/5:17.917
6.(5) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:18.383
7.(10)Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:03.247
8.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:27.715
9.(2) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 14/4:41.628
10.(4)Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 14/5:00.867

View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.