Maifield 2WD Top Qualifier at Summer Indoor Nats

Ryan Maifield’s debut with Team Losi Racing is proving fruitful with him securing the overall TQ in offroad racing’s premiere class 2WD Buggy at the JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals, the result adding to the overall 2WD Short Course TQ he took earlier with the all new TLR22 SCT 2.0. Having taken the opening round of qualifying, Maifield claimed the honour of Top Qualifier by again topping the times in Q2, this time round from the Associated of his young protege Spencer Rivkin. Surprising the field with his pace in Q1, Mark Pavidis showed it was on merit as he again completed the Top 3 with his TLR22.

Happy with how his first race weekend with TLR is running so far, Maifield said other than shimming up the steering rack on his Orion powered TLR22, he left the buggy unchanged for Q2 and again it was ‘good’. With his rear tyres like slicks at the end of the run, he said wrapping up the TQ early gave him the advantage of being being able use the final qualifier to get a fresh set of JConcepts tyres ready for tomorrow’s triple Mains.

‘Pretty good’ was Rivkin’s response to how he felt his second qualifier had gone. The 15-year-old said he took things a little more cautious this time round and other than ‘a bobble or two’ it worked out well. Changing to a stiffer spring on his B5M he said that worked ‘really good’ although he ended up with a little too much steering. To avoid the risk of traction rolling, for the final qualifier the Arizona driver will change the rear end set-up so as to get ‘number steering’. With a 6th for Q1, he said he will go even more cautious with his driving for Q3 in the hope of dropping that result as he ‘(doesn’t) want to be at the back of the pack’ for the finals.

Pavidis was very modest about his run saying his run was ‘clean but nothing special’. The former World Champion’s performance was a popular one with AKA’s marketing man Brent Fiege joking ‘old bald guys go fast to which Pavidis son, who is doing well here in Stock Buggy, said his father’s baldness made him ‘more aerodynamic’. Running in the second fastest heat, the AKA front man said the key to his run was him driving it really cautiously and safe. Having locked himself into the final he said he plans to use Q3 to break in a new set of typos for tomorrow.

Fourth fastest was Drew Moller. Running an Associated B5M, the factory Mugen 1:8 Offroad driver, said the run as good other than two mistakes of his own doing. Very happy with how his Pro-Line equipped buggy ran he said other than trying to eliminate the mistakes he would continue to drive it as is.

Setting the fastest lap of the round with a 14.990, Team Associated’s Brian Strange posted the 5th fastest time. The Sacramento driver said due to a recent lack of racing he has just been focusing on working on himself rather than his B5M. Feeling the track is coming to his car, he said in Q2 he also had the benefit of getting some clean track in front of him allowing him to knock out good clean laps. Letting his JConcepts tyres wear down naturally he said their pin heights seems to be keeping good pace with the track conditions. With his car pulling wheelies a little he said he might make a rear spring change for the final qualifier.

Leading Associated in Q1, Daimon Borkowicz had a rough second qualifier including crashing into the foot of a marshal standing in the middle of the sweeper. Ending up 6th fastest, the 14-year-old said he was very happy with the pace of his B5M highlighted by t his fastest lap which was just 9/1000th off that of Strange and quicker than that of the Top 4 for the round. Getting caught up in a train with his team-mates Rivkin and Steven Hartson, the seeding pace setter having another bad qualifier, Borkowicz said he hoped to be able to put together a cleaner Q3 with his focus being on improving his points haul.

2WD Buggy Qualifying Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:07.494
2. Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 20/5:10.444
3. Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:12.187
4. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (AE) – 20/5:13.607
5. Brian Strange – Team Associated – 20/5:14.077
6. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 20/5:14.308
7. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:14.901
8. Eric Albano – Team Associated – 20/5:15.160
9. Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 19/5:00.394
10.Tyler Vik – Team Xray – 19/5:01.324

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