A1 Buggy wins for Maifield & Phend

Ryan Maifield and Dakotah Phend took the opening round of A-Mains at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic this morning in Scottsdale, Arizona.   Maifield won the more interesting encounter, 4WD Buggy, which saw drama before the race even started as Jared Tebo broke a front and rear wishbone during his warm-up laps and was forced to miss the start having been set to start second. 2WD Buggy was a rather processionally affair with Phend cruising to an easy victory, the Top 4 finishing in the same order they finished.

Commenting on his 4WD win, defending Champion Maifield said he was able to capitalise on others’ mistakes and luckily avoided making any himself.  Going to the front on lap 5 when Top Qualifier Joern Neumann rolled over his Durango, Maifield would see off the attention of Dakotah Phend to take the win by 1.5-seconds with Ty Tessmann a further 4/10ths behind in third. Asked about the re-sugaring of the track last night, Maifield said if he had been blind folded on the rostrum he wouldn’t have noticed it had been done.

Phend said he drove his TLR22-4 ‘too hard’ as he tried to pull in Maifield leading him to make mistakes which in turn allowed the Associated driver to pull clear in the closing stages of the race. Commenting on the track re-sugaring the 17-year-old said it didn’t feel as good as yesterday.

Finishing third from 5th on the grid, Tessmann felt he could have battled for the lead had it not been for contact with Neumann.  Having got passed him for third, the German would land into the rear of the Canadian’s HB and while he waited for Tessmann to resume position this broke his charge to the front.

Expecting the track to have more grip following the re-sugaring, Neumann said it felt ‘more loose’ but he said it was simple driver error that cost him the race.  Finishing 5th, he said his DEX410 was really good, highlighted by him posting the fastest lap of the race.

Making 2WD look easy, US National Champion Phend did have one ‘scary’ moment late in the race when he was put off by the position of a marshal attending a crashed car at the jump after the drivers stand.  Suffering the moment which resulted in his TLR22 getting a little out of shape, once he got a gap on Maifield he just tried to maintain it adding that he ‘still drove hard’ for most of the 5-minute race.

Despite setting the fastest lap of 2WD, Maifield said the team’s new B5M is ‘still work in progress’.  Describing the car as feeling ‘OK’ he said they still have to iron out a few things with the set-up.

Finishing third over 5-seconds clear of defending champion Jared Tebo, Cavalieri described his buggy’s performance as ‘mediocre’ adding he was ‘just driving around’. Hoping to find some improvement for A2 he will adjust the front ball cups as well as moving the battery back in the chassis.  Asked about the re-sugared track conditions the former multiple World Champion said it ‘sucks’.  Saying it did not have the same feeling as it did through qualifying he added while it is the same for everyone he feels it was not a good idea to do it.

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(4) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 14/5:03.407
2.(3) Dakotah Phend – TLR – 14/5:04.946
3.(5) Ty Tessmann – HB – 14/5:05.379
4.(10)Ryan Lutz – Durango – 14/5:12.462
5.(1) Joern Neumann – Durango – 14/5:12.674
6.(7) Billy Fischer – Associated – 14/5:14.344
7.(8) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 14/5:17.076
8.(6) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 14/5:17.586
9.(11)Kody Numedahl – Associated – 13/5:00.820
10.(9)Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 1/0:19.236
11.(2)Jared Tebo – Kyosho – DNS

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Dakotah Phend – TLR – 14/5:14.102
2.(2) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 14/5:15.554
3.(3) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 14/5:17.718
4.(4) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 14/5:22.984
5.(6) Travis Amezcua – Durango – 13/5:05.406
6.(10)Ty Tessmann – HB – 13/5:06.489
7.(9) Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 13/5:07.282
8.(8) Ryan Lutz – Durango – 13/5:09.565
9.(7) Dustin Evans – TLR – 13/5:09.907
10.(5)Billy Fischer – Associated – 13/5:12.714
11.(11)Joern Neumann – Durango – 13/5:21.031

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