Video – 4wd & 2wd Buggy A-main Leg 1

A1 Buggy win each for Maifield & Evans

Ryan Maifield and Dustin Evans took one buggy win each in the opening round of A-Mains at the JConcepts Clash in Mississippi but it was in the races they started from second on the grid after both drivers made mistakes while leading the way from their TQ starting positions.  First up was 4WD Buggy in which Maifield started from the pole but clipping a pipe after 5 laps it popped a ball cup allowing Evans’ TLR to the front from where he would cruise to victory. With the marshal quickly fixing Maifield’s B44.2, he would rejoin in 6th position from where he worked his way back up the field snatching 3rd two corners from finish when Cody Hollis put his TLR in the pipe. Hollis had been involved in the battle of the race as he and young talent Damion Borkowicz fought over 2nd.  A mistake by Borkowicz at the triple on the penultimate lap allowed Hollis up to second but the 13-year-old pulled off a great pass at the very same spot next time round to claim 2nd ahead of Maifield and Hollis.

In the 2WD Main it was Top Qualifier Evans who would get too close to the piping around the Flowood RC Indoor Park track.  Looking in control of proceedings on Lap 6 his TLR22 2.0 would get turned into the pipe allowing Maifield to the front.  The 2011 National Champion mounted a serious challenge to retake the lead for about two laps but then got out of shape giving Maifield just the edge he needed to go on a take the win.  Behind the two World Championship title contenders it was Associated’s Max Flurer who started 6th on the grid who completed the podium.

Stiffening up his mid motored 2WD for the first of the finals, Maifield said the C4.2 was the best its been all week.  Not planning any changes for Leg 2, he said while he got a little lucky with Evans’ mistake on a track that is proving a little more difficult to pass on than original anticipated he said there are some good spots where you can ‘push the issue & get by’.  In 4WD he said he just glanced the pipe which popped a ball cup and it was as ‘easy at that’.  Luckily the marshal fixed it and he was able to rejoin.  Happy how his Reedy powered B44.2 is working he said for Leg 2 he will just fit a new set of ball cups along with a fresh set of JConcepts Blue Barcodes.

Evans said his 2WD was awesome with himself and Maifield very evenly matched, as highlighted by their fastest laps times which where just 36/1000th apart, but he just got a little to close to the pipe and that was it.  Coming back at Maifield for a time he said he started to overdrive which with the mid motor car loose you a lot of time.  Looking ahead to Leg 2 he said he knows he has the car to get the job done and he just needs to ‘not make that one mistake’.  In 4WD Evans said he was able to run with Maifield but without the his mistake he would probably not have found a way passed.  The Colorado driver said the track is very deceiving with the high speeds making it ‘hard to pass’.

Elsewhere Hollis converted his Mod Truck TQ starting position into untroubled win over Borkowicz with Maifield managing a similar feat in 2WD Short Course over Evans.  TLR’s JR Mitch also converted his TQ honours into winning performances taking A1 of both 1:8 e-Buggy and 4WD Short Course.

2WD Buggy A-1 Result
1.(2) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 14/5:00.833
2.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:02.615
3.(6) Max Flurer – Team Associated – 14/5:15.928
4.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:18.730
5.(10)Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 14/5:22.084
6.(11)Justin Cranford – Team Durango – 14/5:24.312
7.(4) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:00.269
8.(8) Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:04.595
9.(12)Paul Sinclair – X-Factory – 13/5:08.488
10.(5)Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 13/5:08.541
11.(9)Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 13/5:09.745
12.(7) Jason Ruona – Team Associated – DNS

4WD Buggy A-1 Result
1.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:12.581
2.(5) Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 14/5:02.475
3.(1) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 14/5:05.359
4.(3) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:07.293
5.(6) Brett Kingsbury – Team Associated – 14/5:10.446
6.(7) Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 14/5:19.386
7.(11)Alfredo Arrieta – Xray – 13/5:11.193
8.(9) Jimmy Vanderhaar – Team Associated – 13/5:12.261
9.(8) Zack Genova – Xray – 12/4:31.153
10.(12)Barry Goodwin – Team Associated – 9/3:25.963
11.(4)Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 4/1:38.990
12.(10)Blaine Cavin – Team Associated – 3/1:18.839

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Evans TQ’s 2WD Buggy at JConcepts Clash

Dustin Evans is the Top Qualifier of the main class at this year’s JConcepts Clash after the Team Losi Racing driver posted a third TQ run in the fourth & final 2WD Buggy qualifier at the Mississippi event.  Having set the pace in the two earlier qualifiers of the day, Evans’ only challenger for the top spot on the grid was Ryan Maifield, who topped the opening qualifier last night. A number of bad laps from the Associated driver meant Evans topped the timing monitors throughout the 5-minutes, setting the fastest time of the weekend with what he described as the ‘perfect run’.

Delighted at securing overall TQ honours, Evans said that just before the start of the deciding qualifier he made a last minute adjustment to the rear end set-up of his mid motored TLR22 2.0 which made the Orion powered buggy easier to drive.  Commenting on triple Main finals, last year’s runner-up said 2WD Buggy is the strongest of the three classes he is contesting this year and going into tomorrow he is pretty confident about his chances of claiming his first ‘Clash’ win.

Clearly not happy at missing out on the 2WD TQ honours, defending champion Maifield will start the other key class, 4WD Buggy, from pole position.  Along with Evans, Maifield dropped 1:8 Nitro Buggy this year in favour of 4WD Buggy due to the upcoming World Championships.  With Maifield posting TQ runs in Q1 & 3 and Evans fastest in Q2, this class was also set for a showdown in the fourth qualifier until the latter retired with a broken caster block on his aging XXX-4.  His second retirement of the four qualifiers, Evans said with his 4WD too fragile compared to his new 2WD and through the ‘flat out’ S bend at the end of the main straight any slight contact with the pipes is going end his race so he thinks challenging Maifield will be tough.

Starting behind the two World class offroad racers will be JR Mitch in 2WD and Cody Hollis in 4WD.  Switching to mid motor configuration for the final 2WD qualifier Mitch said the change required the buggy to be driven with a special finesse.  Unable to master that driving style he could only manage 8th for the round adding that he will revert back to the rear motor set-up for the finals as he finds it ‘more comfortable’ to drive.  For Hollis, who like Evans suffered two mechanical retirements in 4WD, the final qualifier produced his best run of the weekend as he posted his fastest time around the Flowood track finishing second behind Maifield with young talent Damion Borkowicz third.  The result will see the 13-year-old JConcepts driver line up 5th on the grid just behind his mentor and defending champion Jason Ruona.

In the other key classes Hollis completed a clean sweep of Mod Truck qualifying to top all four rounds to secure the overall TQ honours over the similar TLR 22T of Leon McIntosh.  In 2WD Short Course defending champion Maifield took the last qualifier to secure pole position over Evans with Paul Wynn set to line-up 3rd on the grid.  In the biggest class at the 2013 Clash, e-Buggy, JR Mitch is Top Qualifier despite a bad final qualifier and the Florida racer will also start on pole in 4WD Short Course.  In 1:8 Nitro Buggy young TLR driver Tyler Jones topped Q4 from Jake Dellinger to secure pole position for the 30-minute A-Main ahead of Dellinger’s Associated with Max Flurer securing third.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid (2 to bump up)
1. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 0 pts
2. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 2
3. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 6
4. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 6
5. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 8
6. Max Flurer – Team Associated – 9
7. Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 10
8. Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 10
9. Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 10
10.Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 11

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid (2 to bump up)
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 0 pts
2. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 2
3. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 4
4. Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 5
5. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 6
6. Brett Kingsbury – Team Associated – 7
7. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 9
8. Zack Genova – Xray – 9
9. Jimmy Vanderhaar – Team Associated – 12
10.Blaine Cavin – Team Associated – 15

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Update Q3 2WD Buggy – Evans TQ’s

The third round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the 7th running of the JConcepts Clash saw a repeat of Q2 in terms of the Top 3 with Dustin Evans claiming his second TQ run ahead of Q1 pace setter Ryan Maifield by a very similar margin of 2.6-seconds and his own TLR team-mate JR Mitch.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in mid motor configuration, Evans said while this might have not been the best set-up at the beginning of the Mississippi event the buggy is just getting better and better each run as the traction comes up.  Still struggling a little with the top right corner which he described as ‘weird’ he said if he can figure that out he thinks he can go even better in tonight’s final over TQ deciding qualifier.

Maifield, who said Evans pace is getting better highlighted by their fastest laps being separated by just 14/1000ths of a second, was pleased with the performance of C4.2 but said traffic again played a big part in his second place finish.  Suffering three crashes he said he seemed to always come upon slower cars through the super fast ‘S’ bend after the main straight where due to the speed it is very hard to react quickly enough to a slower buggy.  One such incident on lap 8 while on a TQ pace resulted in 27-second lap for the Team Associated star.  Aside from his traffic issues, Maifield said he was pretty happy with how his mid motor buggy is performing.

Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Mitch said the rise in traction for Q3 was starting to make the buggy a little aggressive to drive.  Happy to claim a second 3rd fastest run time, thereby ensuring him of good starting position on the all important A-Main grid tomorrow, he plans to use final qualifier to compare motor positions by changing over to the mid motor layout.

Behind the Top 3 missing out on the 14 laps by little under 4-seconds, Max Flurer took his rear motored B4.2 to the fourth fastest time just 3/10th ahead of the rear motored Kyosho RB6 of Ryan Eckert.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Cody Hollis, who wrapped up the overall Mod Truck TQ honours by completing a hat trick of fastest runs, completed the Top 6.  In the other 2WD class, Short Course, Maifield bagged his 2nd TQ run of the day as he again headed the times from Evans and Paul Wynn with X-Factory’s Paul Sinclair fourth.

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