Maifield does double at JConcepts Finals

Ryan Maifield has completed the buggy double at the Finals of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in Omaha.  Taking the an early overall victory in 2WD Mod after winning A1 & 2, the Team Losi Racing driver would have to wait until A3 and the final race of the Hobby Plex event to claim the 4WD win.  Top Qualifier in 4WD, Maifield would finish second to Spencer Rivkin in A1 but winning A2 it set up a straight battle between himself and his protege for the overall win.  Starting second behind his mentor, Rivkin would push Maifield hard for the win until his Associated hooked the piping.  Enough to give Maifield control of the race Rivkin would finish second with last year’s winner Jared Tebo coming home third to complete the podium at the fifth & final event of the JConcepts championship.

Last season’s overall JConcepts INS Champion, but not able to contest enough races in 2015 to defend his title, Maifield said ‘I knew Spencer would be fast and would push me for the win.  He definitely kept me on my toes but he had a few mistakes after which I was able to just drive around’.  One of the strongest INS entries of the season with Associated sending its core team in Cavalieri & Rivkin and Tebo representing Kyosho, Maifield was pleased to be able to pull off the double him very happy with the performance of his Orion powered 22-4 and JConcepts Dirt Web tyres on the track that will host the 2016 ROAR 1:10 Offroad National Championships.

Frustrated by losing out second overall in 2WD, his counting win and 3rd being bettered by the combined times of team-mate Cavalieri’s two second place finishes under the ROAR ruling used for tie breaks, Rivkin said he was ‘happy with second’.  Feeling he did his best to force an error from Maifield in A3, the 17-year-old full time professional racer said ‘I put pressure on (Maifield) but he just didn’t make any mistakes and I couldn’t find a way passed and then I locked a pipe’. Declaring the driver who has been influential in guiding his career ‘deserved the win’, Rivkin said his Reedy powered B44.3 was ‘really good’, a fact that was highlighted by him being the only driver to match Maifield’s 18-second lap times in the finals.

Having done the double at the event last year, Tebo was understandably disappointed with third.  Only fourth in 2WD, the former World Champion said ‘I lost grip in all my cars today’.  The AKA team driver added ‘I got caught off guard today with tyres and ran them too low’.  Behind Tebo, Cavalieri would finish 4th followed by Brad Shearer with young talent Tom Rinderknecht completing the Top 6.

In Mod Truck Rivkin would TQ and Win with local Kyosho driver Derek Wood and TLR’s Taylor Larsen joining him on the podium.  2WD Short Course would see Top Qualifier Cavalieri take the win after 8-minutes of racing ahead of Tebo with Alex Vanderbeek claiming the final step on the podium.

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Video – 2wd & 4wd Buggy A-Main Leg 2

Maifield takes new 2WD to victory at JConcepts INS

Ryan Maifield has taken the overall 2WD Mod Buggy win at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals in Omaha Nebraska.  Winner of A1 from fourth on the grid, the TLR driver was gifted an early Christmas present in A2 when arch rival & Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri rolled his Associated onto its roof on lap 6 allowing Maifield to go to the front.  While Maifield would make a mistake in the double double while leading, Cavalieri would simultaneously get it wrong in the same section of track allowing Maifield to survive to win the leg and claim the overall win on his dirt race debut with the TLR22 3.0.  World Champion Spencer Rivkin would take a hard fought win in A3 but on the tie break it was Cavalieri who got second with the the 17-year-old having to settle for completing the podium at the Hobbyplex.

‘Glad we showed she has some speed’, was how Maifield summed up his first win with his new car.  He continued ‘this is the first race (with the car) for me and we did a lot of development, put a lot of work into the car and once we found out what suspension set-up she liked it was super easy to drive’.  After winning A1, he said he again got a good start to get by Tebo’s No.3 starting Kyosho and being ‘patient’ with the fastest lap of the race thrown in for good measure he would ‘capitalise on a couple of mistakes’ by World Champion Spencer Rivkin and his great rival Cavalieri t go to the front.  Once there he said he ‘maintained’ his lead to finish  3-seconds up on Cavalieri.  With the HobbyTown USA Hobbyplex track the venue for the 2016 ROAR National Championship, Maifield said the race was a good preliminary test with both his buggies. Highlighting that next year is a 1:8 Offroad World Championship year, he said with a busy 1:8 program the mileage put on the cars this weekend were really important and very encouraging.

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Video – 2wd & 4wd Buggy A-Main Leg 1

Maifield & Rivkin take A1 wins at JConcepts Finals

Ryan Maifield and Spencer Rivkin drew first blood in the opening buggy A-Mains at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals in Omaha.  In the first of the encounters, 2WD Mod, it was Maifield from fourth on the grid who would take the win ahead of Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri.  In 4WD an early mistake from Top Qualifier Maifield would see the TLR drop to the back of the pack handing the No.2 starting Associated of Rivkin an unassailable lead the World Champion would never give up.  As the battled hotted up for second between Ryan Cavalieri, Jared Tebo and the recovering Maifeld, a mistake by Cavalieri coming onto the main straight in the late stages of the race would set off chaos. Maifield would come off the best of it to finish second in front of Tebo and Cavalieri.

Commenting on his 2WD win, Maifield, who is making his dirt racing debut this weekend with the new TLR22 3.0, said ‘I knew from Q3 yesterday that my car was really good’.  Getting by Tebo early he said he worked his way to the front getting by Rivkin when he made a mistake and then Cavalieri when he left the door open and once in the lead he could ‘just cruise’ adding his car was ‘fast and easy to drive’.  In 4WD, he said in the warm-up he could feel a problem with the front belt in his 22-4, the slipping belt causing the steering of the car to be inconsistent. Conscious of this for the race he said being over cautious this lead to his error at the double double on the opening lap. Dropping to last, he said he ‘put the head down’ knowing he could still try to salvage a podium. Setting the only 18-second lap of the race he would get up to fourth before Cavalieri’s mistake gifted him an easy second with him adding ‘Spencer was too far out’ to do anything about in terms of the win.

‘My 4WD is getting better & better and I also drive very well’, that was Rivkin’s response to his 4WD A1 win.  The 17-year-old was quick to add however, ‘Maifield’s mistake made things easier so I’m not counting him out and we’ll see what happens in A2’.  In 2WD he said a bobble in the triple which resulted in him parking up against the piping while heading the field cost him the win.  Although he would set the fastest lap of the race, he said he ‘just couldn’t get close enough’ to team-mate Cavalieri to attempt a pass.  Commenting on his races Cavalieri said in 2WD Mod Buggy he ‘just made a little mistake at the beginning’ and ‘came up short’ towards the end of the race.  In 4WD, he sad the rear end of his B44.3 ‘was hanging’, a broken diff housing discovered after the race.

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