January 23, 2016

Numedahl opens Day 2 with thrilling win over Evans

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Kody Numedahl opened Day 2 of the Reedy Race of Champions with a thrilling victory over overnight points leader Dustin Evans, the Associated driver snatching the win through the last corner to become the first triple winner at the 22nd running of the race that carries on the legacy of RC pioneer Mike Reedy.  Having described his Round 4 performance yesterday as ‘A trademark Reedy Race blowout’, from pole Numedahl would get the holeshot only to throw it away when he caught the piping coming onto the straight for the first time.  Dropping to fourth in the well loaded race, which in addition to Evans also had World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Steven Hartson, Numedahl would benefit from errors by long time leader Chad Due and Hartson to move to second behind Evans.  Coming on the last lap Numedahl was on the rear wing of the TLR driver’s rear wing and looking to defend his position on the dash to the finish Evans took a tight line but with less traction on the inside Numedahl got the run to take a win that was well appreciated by the OCRC crowd.  In the previous two encounters of the penultimate round of 2WD action reigning champion Ryan Maifield would take win No.2 while Jared Tebo finally registered his first win of the event.

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‘That was crazy’ was Numedahl’s reaction to the race, the AE designer adding, ‘that was the closest race so far with so many drivers that close together’.  His first front row start, the unassuming racer said, ‘I wanted to get the holeshot so went full throttle.  It was a good start but then I got caught on the same pipe that cost a result in Round 4’.  Commenting on today’s track conditions he said ‘most drivers don’t look as comfortable today cause the grip is up in a weird way with the cars snapping loose’.  Starting his final 2WD encounter from 4th on the grid he hopes to be able to convert that into a result that allows him drop his P4 from the fourth round with him just 1-point of standings leader Evans.

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Giving his reaction to the entertaining race, Evans said ‘the last lap I protected my lines but went too tight coming onto the straight and there was no grip’.  Having spent a few weeks in California as part of his preparation for the race, the 2011 Champion said ‘I have been racing with Kody since I came out to California and there is no one I am more comfortable racing with. The former US Champion continued, ‘I am still happy with a 2nd and with Top 3 finishes in all my races with only one (2WD) round to go its all good’.

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Commenting on his win over an impressive Rob Gillespie, Maifield said, ‘I made changes to my car to try calm it down a little and it was an improvement’.  Starting from 7th on the grid, the TLR driver said having got through some ‘carnage’ at the start he drove a patient race.  Following behind leader Gillespie, saying ‘Robbie was going really good’, he said with Dakotah Phend behind he didn’t want to risk a mistake that would let his team-mate passed.  With Gillespie having a rollover entering the straight this let Maifield through for his second win.

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Taking three laps to get to the front ahead of early leader Joseph Quagraine and JP Richards, Tebo said it was a ‘great start’ to Day 2. ‘I drove a little better’ said the Kyosho driver adding ‘my car was good yesterday I just drove bad’.  Despite the ‘nervous’ driving the former World Champion goes into the final 2WD with a run of Top 3 finishes.  Also in the same race was Ryan Cavalieri. Starting from last on the grid the 3-time Reedy Race Champion would tangle with Cody King on the first lap.  Recovering from that to join the battle for second, the Associated driver then made a mistake at the second triple with four laps to go.  Dropping to fourth he could only recover to 3rd after a late mistake by Serpent’s Billy Easton.

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January 23, 2016

Chassis Focus – Travis Amezcua

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Chassis – Durango DEX210 V3
Motor – Maclan MRR 6.5T
ESC – Maclan
Battery – Trakpower 4200mAh
Radio/Servos – Futaba / Xpert
Bodyshell – Kit Body
Remarks – Durango driver Travis Amezcua is using a slightly modified version of the DEX210 V3. Moving the battery to the transverse position instead of the standard inline position, he has had to cut the chassis side guards and so he needs to use turnbuckles to re stiffen the chassis. The result is that the weight is now more centralised and more to the rear so it helps give the car more traction. Up front there is a new lower mounted JConcepts front wing, the new position giving the car more steering than mounted behind the shock tower. In terms of setup, compared to pre race testing Travis has made the car softer up front to get more steering and added more rear toe in.

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January 23, 2016

Evans leads Reedy Race at the end of Day 1

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With Day 1 of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions in California complete, it is former champion Dustin Evans who leads after four rounds of racing.  Posting 2 wins, a third, and ending the day with a second, the Team Losi Racing driver has a 1 point advantage over multiple champion Ryan Cavalieri and World Champion Spencer Rivkin with two more rounds of 2WD racing left to run. Reigning champion Ryan Maifield, whose first day saw him draw three back row starts, leaves OCRC Raceway this evening sixth in the points, him turning around a P5 in Round 1 to take a win, a 2nd and a 3rd in the next three encounters. On a day that produced eight different winners the other Round 4 winner was last year’s 2WD Open Champion Kevin Motter, the 17-year-old capitalising on mistakes from Jared Tebo, Marc Rheinard and Dakotah Phend.

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‘There is a long way to go but it feels good to be leading at the end of the first day’, was Evans’ reaction sitting at the top of the points table.  Commenting on his latest race, the 2011 Champion said ‘I wish I could have raced Cavalieri that one’.  Starting on the second row alongside Billy Easton he said, ‘Billy was very aggressive that one and I got the short end of the stick’.  Finding himself at the back of the field as a result of the contact, he said ‘getting back to second in that one was as good as a win’.

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Summing up his day, Cavalieri, a driver who knows better than most what it takes to win the Reedy Race, said ‘I started the day good and ended it off good so it’s all good’.  Suffering his worst result in Round 2 when he collected a marshalling Billy Easton’s foot, he said everything with his B5M is ‘super dialled’ allowing him to take an easy tone to tone win in Round 4 from pole.  Winning the third of his titles when the Reedy Race moved to OCRC in 2014, he said for tomorrow he would just ‘refresh the shocks and re-glue the tyres’.  Team-mate Rivkin said while his final race was ‘a rough one’ he was happy with his first day having finished all his races in the Top 3.

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Maifield was positive about his day, particularly pleased that he turned two of his back row starts into Top 3 finishes.  Marking his switch to TLR with the Reedy Race win last year, he said, ‘I still have a shot. You can lead Day 1 and end up nowhere so we are still in the hunt’.  Commenting on his latest race he said ‘I should have got second but made a mistake’ adding ‘the track is super tough and even having a front row start doesn’t mean it is going to bring a good result’.

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Having topped the points table after 3 rounds, the most frustrated driver at the end of Round 4 was Kody Numedahl.  Opening the day with a win and repeating that in Round 3, the Associated driver said his fourth race was ‘A trademark Reedy Race blowout’.  From 8th on the grid he had worked his way to second in the most loaded race of the round only to throw it away with a mistake on the main straight.  Dropping to sixth he was only able to recover to 4th behind Cavalieri, Evans and Maifield.

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With drivers allowed to drop one result per class, if this is taken into account one driver who jumps up the order from 8th to sharing the lead with Evans and Cavalieri is Dakotah Phend.  Having broke in Round 2, the TLR driver has a 10 to drop.  With two wins and a second, the 17-year-old said it was ‘not a bad first day’ and looking to tomorrow’s final two 2WD races he said he would target ‘safe Top 3 runs’ adding ‘its crazy out there’, a reference to some of the driving standards.

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January 23, 2016

Chassis Focus – Jared Tebo

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Chassis – Kyosho RB6
Motor – Orion 7.5T
ESC – Orion Vortex R10.1
Battery – Orion 4500mAh
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Bodyshell – Lightweight Kyosho body
Remarks – Former World Champion Jared Tebo is running the Kyosho RB6 with a prototype 3 gear transmission. Modified from a rear motor transmission it is the precursor to a soon to be release option from the Japanese company. Jared is also running his JTP RC shock towers front and rear and in terms of setup he has changed from a prototype chassis that was used in Japan back to the standard chassis and has made some small tweaks to the front roll centre.

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