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.

Important win for Maifield in Round 5

Ryan Maifield secured an important win this morning at the Reedy Race of Champions to pull clear at the top of the points standings as his chief rival Ryan Cavalieri had his worst result of the event.  With the Team Associated duo lining up side by side on the front row of the grid for the most anticipated of the 2WD encounters, it was the pole position starting Maifield who got the best start to lead away.  With Cavalieri right on his rear wing, the race looked to be a rather straight forward 1-2 points haul for the American pairing however on lap 9 a mistake by Maifield spiced things up.  Turning too early for the corner after the Double Double the No.1 Reedy powered Centro B4.2 hooked the piping rolling over back out into the line of Cavalieri.  With the two cars briefly stuck together, separating after doing a number of pirouettes, this allowed the field to catch back up.  While Maifield got away first, Cavalieri had a number of cars on his tail.  Making it down the straight in second a roll over after the step down was enough to allow Dustin Evans, Brian Strange and Kody Numedahl to slip through.  Only able to find a way back passed Numedahl a clearly frustrated Cavalieri would only finish 4th.

Maifield said he also felt a bit nervous for his first run of the day adding it doesn’t help to have Cavalieri right behind you.  A combination of nerves and a dustier than normal track, he said he just turned too early for the corner resulting in his roll over.  Admitting to having a ‘little luck on his side’ he continued ‘sometimes you got to take it’.  Finishing the race second Evans said, ‘starting from sixth on the grid with those two guys up front its a great result’.  The Team Losi Racing driver said he just made the most of it but with the event ‘not even half way through yet’ he believes he is ‘right there’ in the title hunt.

In the other two heats of the fifth round of racing we got two new winners as TLR’s Dakotah Phend and Team Durango’s Travis Amezcua claimed their first victory of the event.  Starting third US 2WD National Champion Phend took the Heat 1 lead early on for an untroubled victory over HB’s Ty Tessmann and double heat winner Lee Martin. Heat 2 saw young Associated driver Tanner Denney, who started from the pole, control the race for 10 laps but donkey flipping his Centro B4.2 at the Double Double this allowed Amezcua to the front.  Tanner came back at Amezcua having pulled a great pass on Kyosho’s Jared Tebo to get back up to second but a second mistake again at the Double Double meant he had to settle for second.

Round 5 2WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(3) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:17.408
2.(4) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 15/5:01.642
3.(8) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 15/5:06.475
4.(2) Cody King – Kyosho – 15/5:07.244
5.(7) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 15/5:08.228
6.(5) Tyler Vik – Xray – 15/5:08.318
7.(1) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 15/5:12.845
8.(9) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 15/5:14.923
9.(6) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 15/5:15.809
10.(10)Oliver Scholz – Team C – 14/5:02.406

Heat 2 Result
1.(2) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:18.597
2.(1) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:21.521
3.(3) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 15/5:00.417
4.(5) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:03.955
5.(4) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 15/5:04.284
6.(7) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 15/5:05.461
7.(10)Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 15/5:05.956
8.(9) Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 15/5:11.113
9.(8) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 15/5:11.555
10.(6)Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:14.448

Heat 3 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:17.807
2.(6) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:18.325
3.(3) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 15/5:03.523
4.(2) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 15/5:05.343
5.(5) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 15/5:05.924
6.(8) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:06.467
7.(7) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 15/5:07.150
8.(10)Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 15/5:11.490
9.(9)Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:12.421
10.(4) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 15/5:16.082

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

View our event image gallery here.

‘From Race Control’ – Day 3 at Reedy Race

It’s the second day of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions with drivers set for four more rounds of heads up racing at OCRC Raceway.  Starting off  the day with the final two rounds of 2WD action, drivers will switch over to 4WD for the first two of the six rounds of 4WD.  One interesting race mixed into the schedule, which also includes the final round of qualifying for the Open class competitors, is the RC10 Classic Demo Race which will feature Brian Kimwald, Jason Ruona, Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield.  Red RC will be videoing the demo race.