Important win for Maifield in Round 5

Ryan Maifield secured an important win this morning at the Reedy Race of Champions to pull clear at the top of the points standings as his chief rival Ryan Cavalieri had his worst result of the event.  With the Team Associated duo lining up side by side on the front row of the grid for the most anticipated of the 2WD encounters, it was the pole position starting Maifield who got the best start to lead away.  With Cavalieri right on his rear wing, the race looked to be a rather straight forward 1-2 points haul for the American pairing however on lap 9 a mistake by Maifield spiced things up.  Turning too early for the corner after the Double Double the No.1 Reedy powered Centro B4.2 hooked the piping rolling over back out into the line of Cavalieri.  With the two cars briefly stuck together, separating after doing a number of pirouettes, this allowed the field to catch back up.  While Maifield got away first, Cavalieri had a number of cars on his tail.  Making it down the straight in second a roll over after the step down was enough to allow Dustin Evans, Brian Strange and Kody Numedahl to slip through.  Only able to find a way back passed Numedahl a clearly frustrated Cavalieri would only finish 4th.

Maifield said he also felt a bit nervous for his first run of the day adding it doesn’t help to have Cavalieri right behind you.  A combination of nerves and a dustier than normal track, he said he just turned too early for the corner resulting in his roll over.  Admitting to having a ‘little luck on his side’ he continued ‘sometimes you got to take it’.  Finishing the race second Evans said, ‘starting from sixth on the grid with those two guys up front its a great result’.  The Team Losi Racing driver said he just made the most of it but with the event ‘not even half way through yet’ he believes he is ‘right there’ in the title hunt.

In the other two heats of the fifth round of racing we got two new winners as TLR’s Dakotah Phend and Team Durango’s Travis Amezcua claimed their first victory of the event.  Starting third US 2WD National Champion Phend took the Heat 1 lead early on for an untroubled victory over HB’s Ty Tessmann and double heat winner Lee Martin. Heat 2 saw young Associated driver Tanner Denney, who started from the pole, control the race for 10 laps but donkey flipping his Centro B4.2 at the Double Double this allowed Amezcua to the front.  Tanner came back at Amezcua having pulled a great pass on Kyosho’s Jared Tebo to get back up to second but a second mistake again at the Double Double meant he had to settle for second.

Round 5 2WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(3) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:17.408
2.(4) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 15/5:01.642
3.(8) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 15/5:06.475
4.(2) Cody King – Kyosho – 15/5:07.244
5.(7) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 15/5:08.228
6.(5) Tyler Vik – Xray – 15/5:08.318
7.(1) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 15/5:12.845
8.(9) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 15/5:14.923
9.(6) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 15/5:15.809
10.(10)Oliver Scholz – Team C – 14/5:02.406

Heat 2 Result
1.(2) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:18.597
2.(1) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:21.521
3.(3) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 15/5:00.417
4.(5) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:03.955
5.(4) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:04.284
6.(7) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 15/5:05.461
7.(10)Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:05.956
8.(9) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 15/5:11.113
9.(8) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 15/5:11.555
10.(6)Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:14.448

Heat 3 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:17.807
2.(6) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:18.325
3.(3) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 15/5:03.523
4.(2) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 15/5:05.343
5.(5) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 15/5:05.924
6.(8) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:06.467
7.(7) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 15/5:07.150
8.(10)Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 15/5:11.490
9.(9)Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:12.421
10.(4) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 15/5:16.082

View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.