March 15, 2014

Maifield takes 2nd 2WD qualifier at Cactus Classic

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After a rocky start to his home event, Ryan Maifield topped off Day 1 of qualifying at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic with a TQ run in 2WD Buggy. Having posted the fourth fastest time in Q1, Maifield would lead an Associated 1, 2, 3 in the second round of qualifying ahead of his young protege Spencer Rivkin and team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  For Q1 pace setter Jared Tebo it was a tough round as he posted the 19th fastest time.

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The only driver to run 14-laps for the round, Maifield said his B5M went better after ‘a lot of changes’.  Experiencing some ‘growing pains’ with the new car, he said the team have a lot of people here at the race and their work is ‘now luckily coming together’.  The 2012 Champion of the longest running American offroad event’s most sought after title, he said he hopes that they can make further steps forward over tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers.

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Making a shock position change right before going on track for the second qualifier, Rivkin was very happy with his performance having finished just outside the Top 10 in Q1.  With his JConcepts equipped B5M rolling better through the corners and able to carry more corner speed, the 15-year-old said he felt comfortable over the 5-minutes and the plan for now is to leave everything the same for Q3.

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Another driver to finish outside the Top 10, Cavalieri said Q2 was ‘much better than the first one’.  Changing to a geardiff, the former World Champion said the switch gave his B5M more corner speed.  Also changing his camber links, admitting to having in error run the wrong set-up in controlled practice & Q1, he said while better the set-up still needs work and he will think overnight about what changes to make for Q3.

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Posting the 4th fastest time Dustin Evans was a lot happier with his TLR22’s performance but said he ‘drove a little too conservative’ adding this cost him a Top 2 for the round.  Team-mate Dakotah Phend was fifth for the round despite 2 crashes.  Setting the fastest lap of the round, the US National Champion is having problems with the left hand section of the track, with both his crashes happening at the same corner.  Describing his TLR22 as being ‘awesome everywhere else on the track’, he believes the problem could be a combination of both set-up and his driving adding that he is probably straight lining the corner more than his rivals and just sometimes his buggy catches the pipping.

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Completing the Top 6 was Kyosho’s Cody Turner .  While Turner had his best run his team-mate Tebo would get caught out by the weather conditions.  Despite TQ’ing Round 1, the defending Champion felt his RB6 was too soft and so went up in shock oil for Q2 but the temperature dropped resulting in his buggy having too much traction.  Running close to Phend on track he said he tried to run with the teenager when it would have been ‘smarter if he backed it down’. Instead he suffered a number of errors over the 5-minutes to finish 10-seconds off the TQ pace.

2WD Buggy Qualifying Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 14/5:22.285
2. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 13/5:01.383
3. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 13/5:01.840
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 13/5:01.926
5. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 13/5:02.835
6. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 13/5:03.296
7. Ryan Lutz – Durango – 13/5:03.720
8. Travis Amezcua – Durango – 13/5:04.663
9. Ty Tessmann – HB – 13/5:05.066
10.Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 13/5:05.135

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