Hartson doubles up in Round 2
Steven Hartson made it two out of two at the Reedy Race of Champions however the second win for the Associated driver came after a much more fraught & chaotic second encounter. Also running in the same race defending champion Ryan Cavalieri would fall fowl of the chaos ending the race 7th having at one stage looked like a contender for a second win of the day. In the other two races Jared Tebo, who got a third in Round 1, and Dustin Evans, who having started his opening race on pole ended up only 5th, would register their first wins.
‘Crashed a couple of times but it ended out a good result’ was how Hartson summed up what was by far the most action packed encounter of the 21st running of the Reedy Race. Again starting from the front row, Cody King on pole, Hartson went to the front when King’s Kyosho made contact with the piping on lap two but mistakes on the next two laps would see him drop to 5th. The second mistake at the Associated Esses would drastically change the race spinning out and facing the pack Hartson’s B5M would send Cavalieri’s example into a roll with Ty Tessmann also making contact with Hartson’s car with the HB ending up on its roof. Hartson said having dropped to the middle of the pack after the incident ‘it was pretty easy to give up but I kept it going and in the end got the win’. The win would come late however after a last lap error from King would allow Hartson, who had to wait on the Kyosho driver 4 laps earlier after they tangled, to go to front. For King the same corner at which he tangled with Hartson would again strike as Chad Due also tangled with him allowing Tessmann through to take second with King crossing the line 3rd.
Evans’ win would come courtesy of mistakes from the two drivers who converted back row starts in Round 1 into significant 2nd place finishes. Starting from pole position Spencer Rivkin would lead the field for four laps. Intially leading from Evans, the former champion would open up for TLR team-mate Maifield who would go to the front after a mistake from the 16-year-old that dropped him to third. 6 laps later it was the turn of Maifield to make a mistake as he entered the section leading on to the main straight dropping him to third behind his young protege, the order remaining unchanged for the remaining 4 laps with Evans winning by a 2.1 second margin. Evans said with Maifield pushing hard at the start he let him passed as he let him go at Rivkin. Less nervous than in Round 1, he said just drove his own race and ended up benefiting from the leaders mistakes describing the race as ‘a good confidence maker’.
In the opening race of the round, starting from pole position, Tebo led away the field and looked in control building up over 2-seconds of a lead over Neumann up until half way into the race. Clipping the piping in the Associated Esses, the 2WD World Champion would put his RB6 on its roof allowing Neumann to the front. However Tebo wasn’t letting the 2012 Champion have the win that easy and fought back hard. 4-laps later, at the triple Tebo would land in the rear wing of Neumann’s Yokomo putting the German out of shape leading him to hit the piping and roll. While Tebo initially waited on Neumann, with Carson Wernimont coming he resumed racing to take the win from Neumann by 2.8 seconds with Wernimont third. Afterwards Neumann said while the win would have been nicer he couldn’t be unhappy with a 1st and a 2nd from the opening two rounds.
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