Video – 2wd & 4wd A-main Leg 1

Maifield takes A1 clean sweep

Ryan Maifield took a clean sweep of the opening buggy A-Mains at the JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals at Outback Raceway, Chico, this morning winning 4WD with ease from Brian Strange but having to work a little hard for the 2WD win which he took from his protege Spencer Rivkin.  Top Qualifier for both finals, in 4WD the new Team Losi Racing signing was able to pull clear as up to five cars battled over second with Strange’s Associated coming out on top of that battle from early lead challenger Drew Moller and Eric Albano.  Run directly after 4WD, A1 of 2WD saw a mistake on lap 1 from Maifield allowing Rivkin to go to the front until he made a mistake at the same section of track a lap later.  Dropping to third after further mistakes Rivkin would benefit from a mistake by team-mate Damion Borkowicz on the last lap which dropped the number seven starter back to 3rd.

Just one more race away from completing the perfect debut with his new team, Maifield was pleased with both his own and his buggies performance in A1.  In 4WD, he said Moller applied some early pressure but having reverted his TLR22-4 back to the set-up he used in Q2, his fastest qualifier, he always felt in control as the buggy was really predictable and fast as highlighted by his fastest lap of the race.  In 2WD, having given his Orion powered TLR22 a full rear end rebuild after qualifying, he said the car was also very predicable and ‘neutral’ to drive.  Commenting on his only blotch of the opening A-Mains, he put it down to the fact that his tyres, which are almost slick, just had warmed up enough for the highly polished track surface and possibly he caught some dust with the break in traction causing his ‘little hiccup’.  Asked about the challenge from Spencer he said he knew from racing him a lot back home in Arizona that ‘he can run the laps’ and he would have to ‘play blocker at the start’.

‘Pretty gnarly’ was how Rivkin described the start of the race.  The 15-year-old said after his mistake he was able to put together some ‘really hot laps’ and started catching back up to Maifield.  Delighted with the performance of his B5M, setting the fastest lap of the race, unfortunately a second mistake ended his charge and he dropped back behind Borkowicz admitting he got lucky when his fellow teenager made a last lap mistake which let him by for second.

Borkowicz said he got a ‘great start’ and by lap 2 he was in third.  Describing his car as sketchy he said his Reedy powered B5M had too much steering and it was over correcting a moment that caused by this that let Rivkin through on the last lap. Not planning to change his car for A2, the 14-year-old said he will adapt his driving and try not to worry about wrecking and just go for it.

Having started 3rd, Mark Pavidis would finish 4th describing himself as ‘happy overall’.  In the warm-up feeling his TLR22 had too much steering he turned his dual down but he went too far and for the race he was left needing more steering.  He also added that the nature of the tight track was even with good steering going to make it always very difficult to pass.

‘Amazing’ was how Strange described his 4WD race.  Joking that he should buy a lottery ticket today he said luck was definiately on his side.  Enjoying a good race with fellow Associated driver Eric Albano for second he said he hoped he could have a similar race in A2 but said he not sure he was going to be so fortunate with his luck again.  Having run a similar pace to Maifield, his best lap being a 14.470 compare to Maifeld’s 14.413, he said while his B44.2 has the speed starting from 5th is also going to make it hard to make any serious challenge.

Asked about his race, Moller said it was ‘good other than that one early bobble’ which ended his challenge on Maifield.  Casing the table after the triple his D413 flipped over and needed to be marshalled losing him almost 5-seconds and dropping him back to 6th.  Coning back to third, the 18-year-old said the speed his there and for the next one he needs to try and cut out the mistake.

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 22/5:13.117
2.(5) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 21/5:02.757
3.(2) Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (HB) – 21/5:05.258
4.(6) Eric Albano – Team Associated – 21/5:06.696
5.(4) Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 21/5:09.273
6.(3) Tyler Vik – Team Xray – 21/5:09.300
7.(11)Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:11.385
8.(10)Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 21/5:13.664
9.(9)JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:14.439
10.(8)Derek Stephansen – Team Xray – 20/5:01.808
11.(7)Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 19/5:00.876

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:07.011
2.(2) Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 21/5:12.976
3.(7) Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 21/5:14.508
4.(3) Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:01.430
5.(11)Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 20/5:03.176
6.(10)Brian Strange – Team Associated – 20/5:03.874
7.(4) Tyler Vik – Team Xray (AE) – 20/5:16.222
8.(5) Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 19/5:00.063
9.(8) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 19/5:01.004
10.(6)Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (AE) – 19/5:01.962
11.(9)Frank Root – Team Losi Racing – 19/5:04.951

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Jarosz TQs final 2WD qualifier

With Ryan Maifield having wrapped up the overall TQ in the second round of qualifying, Q3 was all about deciding the order of who would line up behind the new Team Losi Racing signing.  Team Associated’s Chris Jarosz would take the round with the fastest time of the three qualifiers followed by young team-mate Spencer Rivkin, a result that would secure the latter second on the grid.  With Maifield only 4th fastest, it would be an all Associated Top 3 as Steven Hartson, who topped seeding yesterday, produced his first Top 10 run. Unfortunately the result came too late in terms of a good overall result and Hartson finds himself BQ although a win of the single B-Main would see him bump up as the 11th starter on the triple A-Main grid.  In terms of the overall ranking it is Mark Pavidis who will start third ahead of Tyler Vik and Jarosz with Drew Moller completing the Top 6.

‘Amazing’ was how Jarosz described the performance of his B5M adding it was a joint effort thanks to the input of both AE team manager Brent Thielke and Brian Kinwald.  Brain storming with electric offroad legend Kinwald regarding tyres and a set-up to go with the slicks he said having watched the former 2-time World Champion try the idea in his 3rd heat he quickly made a camber link change which would adapt the car perfectly to the tyres.  With the car so good he said he just had to make sure he didn’t trip himself up over the 5-minutes and thankfully he managed to pull off a clean run topping the time by almost 3 seconds from Rivkin, the 15-year-old setting the fastest lap of the round.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 0 pts
2. Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 4
3. Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 6
4. Tyler Vik – Team Xray (AE) – 7
5. Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 9
6. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (AE) – 9
7. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 10
8. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14
9. Frank Root – Team Losi Racing – 15
10.Brian Strange – Team Associated – 17

2WD Buggy Qualifying Round 3
1. Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 20/5:06.900
2. Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 20/5:09.740
3. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 20/5:09.830
4. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:10.521
5. Tyler Vik – Team Xray (AE) – 20/5:11.276
6. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 20/5:13.757
7. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:13.842
8. Frank Root – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:13.844
9. Brent Fiege – Team Associated – 20/5:14.396
10.Ryan Matesa – Kyosho – 19/5:01.666

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Moller tops Q3, Maifield takes overall TQ

Drew Moller TQ’d a very exciting final 4WD Buggy qualifier at the JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals in Chico but overall the day belonged to Ryan Maifield as he completed a perfect qualifying to secure his third overall TQ of the event on his TLR debut. The first time for Moller to top the time sheets having been the top seed for qualifying, the result will see the A-Main Hobbies driver start second on the grid with Q2 pace setter Tyler Vik having to settle for third after literally driving the wheels off his Xray in the final heat.  Despite retiring from Q3 following his rear hub tower coming loose, Daimon Borkowicz will start as the top Team Associated driver when he lines up fourth.

Having wrapped up 2WD Buggy and Short Course in the second round of qualifying, Maifield was pleased to put all three of his cars on pole position for tomorrow’s Mains.  Making a change to his Orion powered TLR22, he said it was not the right direction to take leaving his buggy both harder to drive and slower.  Despite this he had ‘fun’ in the last few laps of the final qualifier fighting it out with Moller & Vik adding that hopefully he wont find himself in a repeat battle tomorrow.  On his car set-up, he said he will just go back to that which he used in Q2.

Moller said his run as ‘kind of conservative’ but he managed a better start than the previous two qualifiers.  Describing his HB as being ‘strapped up’ he said he was just able to keep putting in good laps leading to a pretty exciting finish to the run.  Better known for his 1:8 Offroad exploits as a Mugen team driver, the 18-year-old said the D413 which he only got 3 weeks ago is ‘a really good fit to his driving style’.  Asked about his approach for the finals, he said he was going to be patient and just try to stay close to Maifield for the first couple laps and work out what to do from there.

‘Everything was going good til my wheel overtook me on the track’, that was Vik’s summary of Q3.  The RC America team driver said his Xray XB4 was really good when he was not making driver errors.  Planning to leave the car unchanged for A1 he said ‘tyre stuff’ was all he needed to decide on.  Top Qualifier at the Spring Indoor Nationals and ending up 3rd at the Tacoma race, he said the track had little opportunities for passing and it was going to be a case of just waiting for mistakes, the track having so far proved successful at inducing mistakes from drivers.

‘Pretty excited’ was Borkowicz’s reaction to securing fourth on the grid.  The 14-year-old said this weekend has been his best performance in a while adding it was good to be running up with the top guys.  Despite ripping a screw from the rear hub tower which in turn allowed the rear suspension to flex and pop a drive shaft, he is very happy with his Reedy powered B44.2, saying the buggy is very easy to drive and that has been good for building his confidence.  Having run with former team-mate Maifield in Q1 when he took an impressive second for that round, he said for the finals his plan is to keep his nerves in check and just put in his own race.

Posting the 3rd fastest time of Q3, Brian Strange will start 5th in the A-Main.  The Associated driver said the track has just kept coming to were his cars are at and they are very easy to drive.  Hoping that there is no change to the track maintenance for tomorrow so he doesn’t have to prep anything differently he said starting in the middle of the pack its best to ‘wait & see’ how the early part of the race runs and then go from there.

Also enjoying his best qualifier in the final round, fourth helped Eric Albano to secure sixth on the grid ahead of World Champion Steven Hartson.  The 19-year-old said he ‘finally got a good run’ having suffered too many mistakes of his own doing in the opening two qualifiers.  Switching to a softer set-up on the front end of his B44.2 he said this also helped with making the car easier to drive.

Hartson, winner of the previous JConcepts Indoor National Series encounter, said he has just struggled with his cars all day.  Describing his cars as having been ‘really good yesterday’ during practice he said today they are undriveable.  Trying to make his LRP powered B44.2 easier to drive each qualifier he said no matter what he did he couldn’t make it happen.  Looking to the finals he said he will try some more stuff tomorrow adding he hopes they will bring some improvement over what he had to run with today.

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 2 pts
2. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (HB) – 3
3. Tyler Vik – Team Xray – 5
4. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 6
5. Brian Strange – Team Associated – 10
6. Eric Albano – Team Associated – 11
7. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 11
8. Derek Stephansen – 13
9. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14
10.Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 16

4WD Buggy Qualifying Round 3
1. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (HB) – 21/5:13.585
2. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:14.607
3. Brian Strange – Team Associated – 20/5:00.590
4. Eric Albano – Team Associated – 20/5:02.296
5. Derek Stephansen – 20/5:03.292
6. Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:06.817
7. Brent Thielke – Team Associated – 20/5:10.493
8. Chris Bridgewater – Team Associated – 20/5:11.486
9. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:11.875
10.Kurt Wenger – Team Associated – 20/5:13.620

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