Evans & Cavalieri continue to share lead

Dustin Evans and Ryan Cavalieri still share the lead of the points table at the Reedy Race of Champions as the pair got the final day of the event underway with a win a piece this morning at West Coast RC Raceway in California.  The other win in Round 3 of 4WD went to Ryan Maifield who yesterday had a terrible start to the 4WD section of the competition when he had 9th place finish in the first round.

The first race of the day saw Dakotah Phend on the pole with defending champion Joern Neumann alongside and Cavalieri on the fourth spot.  15-year-old Phend lead away doing a great job with his aging TLR buggy to see off Nuemann’s Durango.  The turning point of the race and event for Neumann came on lap 6 when Phend had a moment at the wash board allowing the German down his inside but on the double leading onto the main straight the new leader got the landing wrong and was collected by Phend allowing Cavalieri through to the lead which he would extend to 4-seconds over the remaining 10 laps.  Recovering to run 2nd, Neumann desperately wanted the win to keep his title defense hopes alive but pushed a little too hard and got it all wrong at the wash board allowing Phend through along with Associated’s Steven Harston.  Finishing fourth for the round the result all but assures that the 19th Reedy Race title will return to an American driver.

In the second race Dustin Evans got passed pole sitter & last year’s open class champion Chad Due on the second lap and was never headed again although he did have to see off a challenge from former World Champion Neil Cragg until the British driver rolled on the landing off the table top.  Dropping back to fourth Cragg worked his way back to second by the finish with Durango’s Travis Amezcua, who started 10th on the grid, completing the Top 3.

Race 3 saw pole starter Kody Numedahl lead for 14 laps until Ryan Maifield pounced on his Associated team-mate.  Starting from 4th on the grid Maifield’s challenge took rather longer than usual to materialize.  Closing in on Numedahl after a number of wild laps that saw his B44.2 catch the piping a number of times, Maifield was ready to make his move with three laps to go.  Running right on Numedahl’s rear a slow exit by the leader meant Maifield ran into him spinning him out.  Maifield waited but caught up in the pipe Numedahl told his star team-mate to continue.  Maifield went on to take the win by over 4 seconds from Numedahl with HB’s Atsushi Hara completing the Top 3 having comes from last on the grid.

Round 3 4WD Buggy
Race 1
1.(4) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 16/5:08.653
2.(1) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:12.923
3.(7) Steven Hartson – Associated – 16/5:14.031
4.(2) Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 16/5:14.667
5.(6) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 16/5:17.690
6.(3) Peter Pinisch – Associated – 15/5:02.634
7.(8) Ty Tessmann – HB/HPI Racing – 15/5:02.878
8.(5) Cody Tuner – Kyosho – 15/5:06.739
9.(10)Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:11.591
10.(9)Paul Bradby – Associated – 15/5:12.387

Race 2
1.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:08.925
2.(3) Neil Cragg – Associated – 16/5:11.689
3.(10)Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:12.113
4.(5) Rick Hohwart – Associated – 16/5:18.441
5.(7) Mike Truhe – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:00.057
6.(8) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:05.074
7.(9) Stefan Pfeihofer – Associated – 15/5:09.429
8.(4) Rene Trauner – Yokomo – 15/5:13.002
9.(6) Kohta Akimoto – Kyosho – 15/5:15.791
10.(1)Chad Due – Associated – 7/2:23.918

Race 3
1.(4) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:08.395
2.(1) Kody Numedahl – Associated – 16/5:12.716
3.(10)Atsushi Hara – HB/HPI Racing – 16/5:18.281
4.(2) Josh Numan – Associated – 15/5:01.822
5.(3) Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 15/5:06.124
6.(5) Tanner Denney – Associated – 15/5:09.773
7.(7) Matt Castellano – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:13.371
8.(9) Brian Kinwald – Associated – 15/5:16.801
9.(8) Brent Thielke – Associated – 2/0:46.410

View the overall invitational standings after 9 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.