Maifield take Q1 of eBuggy

Ryan Maifield topped the opening round of eBuggy qualifying at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, the TLR driver heading the times from reigning champion Ty Tessmann.  Behind them 2WD Buggy World Champion Spencer Rivkin, who found himself in the C heat after a troubled practice yesterday, would complete the Top 3 followed by Ryan Lutz, Ryan Cavalieri and 2014 Champion David Ronnefalk.

Runner-up last year to Tessmann having started the final from 10th on the grid, Maifield said ‘overall the car is good’ but added he made things a little more difficult for himself immediately after taking the start when he crashed on the step down.  Having to ‘buckle down’ after the error he said while he ‘had to push a little’ he was able to recover from the lost time and open with a TQ run.  While eBuggy is one DNC title he hasn’t held before, it is clear that the Arizona drivers main focus is on defending his Nitro Buggy title with him saying for Q2 he ‘might play around with tyres to learn for tomorrow’, tomorrow’s action being qualifying for nitro Buggy.

Finishing 3.483 seconds off Maifield’s pace, HB’s Tessmann said his D815 was ‘better than yesterday’ but added in terms of the set-up he was ‘still working on it’.  Suffering one spin out over the 7-minutes, the only driver who has been crowned champion in all three DNC classes said he is looking to ‘make (the buggy) more stable at high speed’.

‘Better than expected’ was how Rivkin summed up his opening qualifier which was just 1/10th off Tessmann.  The Team Associated driver said ‘yesterday the car wasn’t my friend but we made a few changes this morning and it seems the right way to go’.  Seeded in the 3rd fastest heat due to his bad set-up yesterday, the 17-year-old said running in such a heat he didn’t know how well he was going but planning to leave the car unchanged he will ‘try to do the same again in the next one’.

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