Reedy Race drama as Maifield misses first 4WD encounter

There was drama during the first round of 4WD action at the Reedy Race of Champions as points leader Ryan Maifield failed to make the start of his heat.  The points leader after 2WD, having not finished lower than second over his 6 races, the Team Associated driver suffered a rear drive shaft failure during his warm-up laps.  While he returned to the pits to try and fix the car the race went ahead without the No.9 starting B44.2.  That heat would go the way of team-mate Neil Cragg while the other two heats would be won by HB’s Ty Tessmann and Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz marking their first wins of the 20th running of the event.

Starting Heat 1 from 3rd on the grid, Lutz had an easy passage to the front as the drivers starting ahead of him both made mistakes.  Getting by the No.2 starting Associated of Rob Gillespie when the 21-year-old made a mistake on lap 4, one lap later he took over the lead as pole sitter Josh Pain spectacularly rolled his Yokomo half way across the track at the option corner.  Once in front Lutz was able to open up a lead but coming from 8th on the grid Lee Martin closed in on the American setting the stage for an exciting finish.  Posting the fastest lap of the race, a late bobble by the British Team Yokomo driver would give Lutz enough breathing space to hold on for a 1.8 second victory with Tanner Denney a distant third.  Getting up to 4th from 10th on the grid and having a good battle with offroad legend Brian Kinwald, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo was another big name driver to collect the unenviable 10 points as his car powered off on the landing off the Double Double.  Caused by a motor wire catching the switch, while they were able to turn the power back on the rules of the Reedy Race is that once a driver pulls off they are not allowed to rejoin.

Heat 2 was a pretty straight forward affair for Cragg although in the closing laps he did start to come under pressure from World Champion steven Hartson. Starting from second on the grid, the British driver led from the opening lap while starting from last Hartson came through the high quality field to within .245 of him by the finish.  Behind former Reedy Race winner Dustin Evans and reigning Champion Ryan Cavalieri had a fraught race recovering from a bad start that left them at the back of the field to finish 3rd and 4th respectively.

Heat 3 produced the most convincing winner as Tessmann cruised to a 4-second victory over the Tamiya of touring car ace Marc Rheinard.  From the back row of the grid 2WD heat winner Dakotah Phend completed the Top 3.

Round 1 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(3) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:07.026
2.(8) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:08.883
3.(6) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:14.784
4.(5) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:15.296
5.(4) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:15.901
6.(9) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:18.741
7.(1) Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 16/5:20.619
8.(8) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 10/3:23.713
9.(2) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 5/1:40.338
10.(10)Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 4/1:20.120

Heat 2 Result
1.(2) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:08.904
2.(10)Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 16/5:09.149
3.(4) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:11.286
4.(3) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:11.931
5.(7) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:16.646
6.(8) Oliver Scholz – Team C – 15/5:01.592
7.(6) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:01.865
8.(5) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:02.849
9.(1) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 15/5:05.829
10.(9)Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – DNS

Heat 3 Result
1.(1) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:05.230
2.(6) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:09.221
3.(9) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:11.336
4.(8) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 16/5:15.120
5.(3) Cody King – Kyosho – 16/5:17.917
6.(5) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:18.383
7.(10)Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:03.247
8.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:27.715
9.(2) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 14/4:41.628
10.(4)Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 14/5:00.867

View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.

2WD complete at RROC, Maifield leads

With half the racing that makes up the 20th running of the Reedy Race of Champions complete it is Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield who leads at OCRC Raceway in California.  One of the world’s fastest & most spectacular drivers, Maifield tops the points table after the six rounds of 2WD action by 2 points from defending champion Ryan Cavalieri.  The World famous race’s previous two winners Dustin Evans and Joern Neumann sit 3rd & 4th respectively as racing now switches to the first round of 4WD action.

The final round of 2WD saw Maifield fail to improve on his points haul as Dustin Evans took the most significant win of the three heats to pull himself to within 4 points of the Arizona ace.  Starting second on the grid, Evans went to the front after banging wheels with Joseph Quagraine who had pole position for the encounter.  Once in the lead the Team Losi Racing ace pulled clear with Maifield, who started directly behind him, in toe and despite the Associated driver airing out the Double Double Evans was able to hold on to win by .543 of a second.

The other winners of the round were Serpent’s Mike Truhe and Kyosho’s Jared Tebo who each claimed their first wins of the weekend.  Truhe’s win was relatively straight forward with him leading away from the pole to cruise to an easy win over Kody Numedahl and 2012 Champion Neumann who came through from 10th on the grid.  Also starting from pole position Tebo had to wait for a mistake by the very fast starting No.2 Tamiya of Marc Rheinard.  The 3-time World Touring Car Champion made a blistering start to pass the current 2WD World Champion off the line but going to deep into the option corner he dropped to second where he would stay for the rest of the race.  Starting from 9th Cavalieri would work his way up to 3rd after getting passed Cody King a result that would help him take back one point from Maifield and drop his 4th place finish from the previous round.

Round 6 2WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:13.750
2.(4) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:14.293
3.(8) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:18.048
4.(5) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:03.072
5.(6) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 15/5:07.495
6.(10)Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 15/5:08.972
7.(7) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 15/5:10.857
8.(1) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:11.315
9.(9) Tyler Vik – Xray – 15/5:11.924
10.(3)Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 15/5:16.937

Heat 2 Result
1.(1) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:18.373
2.(2) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 15/5:00.052
3.(10)Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:02.964
4.(7) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 15/5:03.198
5.(4) Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:05.587
6.(5) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 15/5:09.365
7.(6) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 15/5:10.081
8.(3) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 15/5:12.833
9.(9) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 15/5:16.011
10.(8)Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 15/5:18.892

Heat 3 Result
1.(1) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:14.654
2.(2) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:18.228
3.(9) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:19.363
4.(3) Cody King – Kyosho – 15/5:03.596
5.(8) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 15/5:05.583
6.(10)Oliver Scholz – Team C – 15/5:08.585
7.(7) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 15/5:09.664
8.(4) Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 15/5:18.612
9.(5) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 14/5:00.697
10.(6)Cody Turner – Kyosho – 14/5:10.544

View the complete Reedy Race of Champions event heat listing here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.