Maifield leads Reedy Race at the end of Day 1
At the end of the first day of racing at the 21st running of the Reedy Race of Champions, it is Ryan Maifield who leads the way at OCRC Raceway in California. Opening the day with a second the TLR driver would also end the day with a second after a good battle in the days closing race with team-mate Dakotah Phend. Claiming a third in Round 2 and a win in Round 3, Maifield holds a one point advantage over his protege Spencer Rivkin, the Associated driver claiming 3 second places finishes and a third in Round 4 behind Maifield. One of the day’s three double winners, Jared Tebo sits third, a mistake in the final round leaving the Kyosho driver with fifth. With drivers allowed one throw out result per class with that taken into account after 4 of the 6 rounds it is another of the days double winners Kody Numedahl who leads the way from Steven Hartson, the Associated driver also enjoy two wins.
‘A good first day, nothing amazing, nothing bad’, that was how Maifield summed up the first of the three days of heads up racing at the unique event that was first organised by Mike Reedy back in 1987. Runner-up in last year’s event when the title went down to the final round of racing, he said his last race was ‘fun’ but at the same time a little ‘frustrating’. Starting third with Phend on pole, he said running behind the 17-year-old it was ‘crazy how many mistakes he makes without losing time’. With a few opportunities presented to him to go for the lead he said under normal circumstances he would have pushed more but with little difference between a win & a second he said the risk was not worth it as the second could as valuable as a win come the end of the event.
After a bad start to the day, his first race netting him a 8th place finish, Phend was pleased with the improvement that came over the day. Getting 4th in Round 2 he followed that up with a second before ending the day with his win from Maifield. The reigning US National Champion said his team-mate was ‘pushing really hard’ and having to push so hard they both had a few mistakes. Pleased to end the day on a high he said he hoped to be able to carry that form through to tomorrow when after two more rounds of 2WD we will see the switch over to the first of the 4WD action. Round 4 would also a first win of the event for former Open Champion Chad Due, the Associated driver seeing off defending champion Ryan Cavalieri in the opening race of the round.
Rivkin said while he was pleased with his results, pointing out this is his first time running in the invitational class, he was just taking the event race by race. Winner of the Open class in 4WD last year, the prize for which is a place in the 30 driver line-up, he said today had taught him that even ‘if you get a bad start don’t give up’.
‘Not a result I was wanting to end up with but it was a mistake of my own doing’ was Tebo’s response to his 5th place finish in Round 4. The 2WD World Champion said hopefully I will use that result as my throw-out as I am really happy with a 3, 1, 1 in the opening three rounds. With 5th dropped he sits equal on points with Neumdahl but with his race winning time slower than both Neumdahl and Hartson the tie-break also leaves him third in the standings.
Getting the better of a battle of the car designers in Race 2 of Round 4, seeing off Serpent’s Billy Easton, Numedahl said ‘normally I am flirting with a Top 10’ so to be in this position he can only describe Day 1 of racing as ‘good’. Describing his B5M as ‘awesome to drive’ he said he didn’t actually do anything special today in terms of his racing. The only blotch in his day was Round 2 when starting out from 9th and having worked his way up to sixth he pulled a rear corner off the car while chasing fourth position. Commenting on his second win, his first being unchallenged, he said Easton was ‘actually a little faster but his car looked harder to drive’. With his B5M faster at the end of the straight than the SRX2 he said every lap he had to be sure to make up time there.
Starting from 8th on the grid in Round 4, Hartson said the race contained ‘a lot of people trying to race to hard’ referring to an opening lap pile up as the field came onto the straight for the first time. While the 4WD World Champion said this didn’t help his race in the end he himself ‘crashed too much when (he) didn’t need too’.
The consistency award of the day goes to new Team Associated signing Carson Wernimont. Claiming 3rd places finishes in all four races, the 18-year-old sits fourth in standings. Summing up his day, he joked that he ‘should go to a casino tonight because in Vegas three across the board is good’. He said his focus all day has been ‘trying to stay out of trouble on the first lap’ describing his starts as ‘timid’, he said he’s very happy with how how the day has gone as in 4WD he feels he will be ‘a lot stronger’ and to have a good tally from 2WD he is really looking forward to the switch to 4WD tomorrow afternoon.
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