Final day at Reedy opens with important wins for Evans & Rivkin

It is the final day of the Reedy Race of Champions at OCRC Raceway and racing got underway with important wins for defending champion Dustin Evans and Associated team-mate Spencer Rivkin.  Evans opened the 3rd round of 2WD with a win from pole leading home fellow front row starter Tanner Stees to put his title hunt back on track after a difficult first round of 2WD yesterday.  Starting from 6th on the grid, Rivkin took a significant win helped by a first lap pile up and a mistake from front row starter Lee Martin.  The key result of the round was however that of Race 2.  Points leader Jared Tebo would start on the front row alongside pole sitter Chris Sturdy while Ryan Maifield lined up 7th.  Taking an early lead and looking on target to make it three from three to set himself clearly on target for his first ever Reedy Race title, with 2 laps to go the race took a turn with the first of two mistakes from Tebo.  First the Tekno driver over jumped the table top on the penultimate lap ending up on his roof allowing Sturdy to go to the front but luckily for Tebo, Maifield also had issues on the landing. On to the last lap and under pressure from the Yokomo driver Tebo made another error dropping him to 3rd, a result that throws the 25th running of the legendary race wide open again. It was to be a tough start to the day for joint 4WD points leader Ty Tessmann who got a 6th for the round.

‘We are back in it’, was Evans’ reaction, the Colorado driver now in the chase for a third Reedy Race title.  Only P8 in the first round of 2WD, he continued, ‘When your first round is a throw out it is hard but we got to keep chugging away. I had to make the most of that front row start. I’ll keep doing the best I can’. Only his second win of the event, he concluded, ‘I made changes to the car for that one and I’m really happy with it now’.

Rivkin summed up his win with, ‘that was a big win from where I was starting’.  The driver now with the most race wins, he explained, ‘At the start I got it wrong at the double and went to last but then everyone crashed at the single and I came out third and had Lee (Martin) and Aydin (Horne) ahead of me who I picked off one at a time and got around as they had mistakes.’  Asked about two moments he had in the stair case late in the race, which allowed Martin to come back at him for the lead, the former World Champion, said, ‘It was definitely challenging out there. I just got a little side ways but it was nothing. That was an important win’.

‘It went really good till the very end’, said a disappointed Tebo.  The Tekno driver, who runs an Associated in 2WD, continued, ‘the car was great and I was just managing the race but then I jumped a little long at the table top. I cased it and dropped to second and after that I made an uncalled for error’.  He concluded, ‘I lost two places which is a bummer but I am not going to let it effect me’.

Pulling a good result from the round given his starting position, Maifield said, ‘I was just patient with Orlowski and Clement and once I got by them I tried to catch up to Tebo and Chris.  He (Tebo) made a mistake but so did I but then I was close enough to him that when he made a mistake I could get by.  2nd out of that was a good result’.  Looking to the next round, the World Champion said, ‘I have another mid pack start and I’ll try again to make the most it’.

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Tebo leads going into final day at Reedy Race

Jared Tebo will go into the final day of the Reedy Race of Champions tomorrow as the points leader with four races separating him from potentially winning the legendary race for the first time.  Having ended 4WD as joint points leader, the new Tekno signing made the perfect start to 2WD backing up his first round win with a second win ahead of another of the Round 1 winners Ryan Maifield.  Currently as it stands Tebo has a 3-point lead over both Maifield and Ty Tessmann, the Canadian getting a third from today’s final round.  Joining Tebo in taking wins in the second of the six scheduled 2WD rounds would be David Ronnefalk who held off Ryan Cavalieri and Spencer Rivkin who somehow survived three errors to hold on for the win just ahead of 4WD double winner Michal Orlowski, the Schumacher driver having come through from 10th on the grid.

Reacting to being on a roll in 2WD, Tebo said, ‘It seems that way’ adding ‘that was my first front row start and I almost threw it away on the first lap but luckily I landed on my wheels’.  Enjoying a resurgence in form, the American continued, ‘I had to rebuild my diff so I was stressing a bit at the start but I settled down.  Then I had Maifield chasing me down so I couldn’t be any happier to win that one’.

Having only got a 5th in Round 1, Rivkin said, ‘that was more difficult than I would have liked it to be’.  The 2015 World Champion explained, ‘I had a big lead so I switched the burners off but then made a mistake.  I made two more mistakes after so I definitely used a lot of lives to get that win. It was eye opening and I wont let it happen again.’  Finishing 2 places ahead of his title defending team-mate Dustin Evans, on his car the Associated driver said, ‘the car is great.  It would maybe be faster with more steering but its comfortable to drive’.

Another driver to have a tough first 2WD encounter after tangling with another car early on, Ronnefalk summed up his win with, ‘that was a good one. I need to convert my front rows into wins’.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘I knew Cav was going to hunt me down and together we pulled away slightly.  I struggled a little bit (with the car) when I pushed or ran a different line. On my own the car feels good.  We will change a few things for tomorrow’.  The Swede concluded, ‘tomorrow I have two starts really far back but I will do my best to make the most of them’.

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Perfect start to 2WD for Tebo

Jared Tebo made the perfect start to 2WD at the Reedy Race of Champions being the only one of the four joint leaders after 4WD to register a win.  Running in the final race of the opening round, the Tekno driver took a hard fought win over Joona Haatanen, the Finn led the race for 7-laps before a mistake, but came back at Tebo in the dying stages of the race.  Of the other points leaders, Ty Tessmann would get a second from his race after running out of time to mount a challenge on winner Christopher Sturdy while Spencer Rivkin and Dustin Evans ran in the same race as Tebo and only came away with 5th and 8th respectively.  The 3rd winner of the round would be Ryan Maifield, the former champion taking the win ahead of Dakotah Phend and Brent Thielke.

Reacting to his win, Tebo said, ‘that was a great race. I got a good start and then me and Joona had an awesome race’.  He continued, ‘we were close on pace and it was super intense out there. I’m glad to get the win. I needed it’.  On his car, the Tekno driver running an Associated in 2WD, said, ‘the car was awesome but the diff kind of blew out so I need to take it apart and check it’.

Commenting on his race, Tessmann said, ‘It was going good but I had bad luck at the triple. I got going again and made my way up to 2nd and tried to catch Chris (Study) but I ran out of time about’.  Getting to within 4/10ths of the Australian, the Xray driver concluded, ‘My car was good’.

‘That was a trouble race’, was how defending Champion Evans summed up opening 2WD encounter.  The Associated driver, who was looking forward to 2WD explained, ‘I didn’t have enough brake on my car so at the start I didn’t want to run into the back of anyone and tried to go around the outside but I clipped a wing and flipped over. Nothing went right and it was all out of my control’.  Team-mate Rivkin said, ‘it started off not that well with people crashing. I did the best I could and 5th place was all I had but I’m not worried about. Everyone is going to be carrying at least a 5th with this track’.

Summing up his win, Maifield said, ‘we made some minor changes to the car after practice and it was the best the car has been. It jumped a little better but the front jump is still difficult’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I battled with my team-mate (JP Richards) for a while until he hit trouble. Then I had a battle with Dakotah before he had a mistake. After that I drove my own race’.  The World Champion added, ‘it going to be an interesting 2WD. Like 4WD its tough and the points are going to be really high. Everyone could at least end up with a fifth’.

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