Cavalieri retains Reedy Race crown

Against seemingly high odds Ryan Cavalieri has successfully defended his Reedy Race of Champions title by a single point over Associated team-mate Ryan Maifield.  The victory at the 20th running of the world famous race makes Cavalieri its most successful champion, this being the 4-time World Champion’s third time to beat the best offroad drivers in the world in the unique heads up racing event that was created by industry pioneer Mike Reedy.  The podium at OCRC Raceway, which rose to the challenge of hosting the great race for the first time, was completed by HB’s Ty Tessmann.

Going into the final round of racing, the 30 invitational drivers having already done 11 races each over 3-days, it was advantage Maifield.  Topping the 2WD action, holding a 2-point lead in the standings at the end of the 6 rounds, the Arizona ace needed just a fifth or higher in his final 4WD heat to claim the overall win.  Racing in the first of the heats that made up the concluding round, things looked on track as from last on the grid Maifield worked his way up to fifth.  With a minute to go Maifield’s first ever Reedy Race title would slip away as he rolled his Reedy powered B44.2 allowing Dakotah Phend to demote him to sixth.  Although Cavalieri still needed to win his heat, a dejected Maifield knew the title had slipped through his hands.  Starting the last race of the 2013 Reedy Race from 3rd on the grid, bided his time go to the front on lap 5.  Once there he cruised to an 8-second victory over Rob Gillespie to secure an impressive third title as well as being only the 2nd driver to ever defend the title.  The only other driver to do this being his boss, Team Associated Vice President Cliff Lett.

Commenting on his history making win, Cavalieri said having watched the first heat ‘go down’ he ‘couldn’t believe what he was seeing’. Although one of his easiest heats of the event, he said knowing that he needed the win for the overall victory and having just witnessed how easily it could go wrong he said the start was ‘a little stressful’ as he felt the pressure of knowing he needed to win. Describing the race as ‘one of the toughest ones to win’, he said this one was ‘special’ and as an event this was one of the ‘most fun’ he has contested.

While the world’s attention was on the invite class, in the open class Maifield’s protege & rising young star Spencer Rivkin won 4WD to book himself a place in the 21st Reedy Race of Champions.  Also booking his place in next year’s main event by winning 2WD was TLR driver JP Richards.

20th Reedy Race of Champions
Overall Result
1. Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 20 pts
2. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 21
3. Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 26
4. Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 28
5. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 30
6. Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 30
7. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 32
8. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 33
9. Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 33
10.Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 33

Round 6 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(2) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 16/5:01.240
2.(1) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:01.660
3.(3) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:03.116
4.(4) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:05.565
5.(6) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:05.738
6.(10)Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:06.309
7.(5) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:10.365
8.(8) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:11.009
9.(7) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:17.169
10.(9)Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 4/1:22.836

Heat 2 Result
1.(10)Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:09.794
2.(2) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:12.576
3.(1) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:13.373
4.(8) Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:13.559
5.(9) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:14.419
6.(5) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:15.079
7.(6) Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 16/5:17.283
8.(7) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 16/5:18.767
9.(4) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 16/5:18.767
10.(3)Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 0 laps

Heat 3 Result
1.(3) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:02.112
2.(5) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 16/5:10.308
3.(10)Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:13.095
4.(1) Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 16/5:16.582
5.(7) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:17.238
6.(2) Oliver Scholz – Team C – 16/5:20.891
7.(9) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 15/5:00.137
8.(6) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 15/5:05.186
9.(4) Cody King – Kyosho – 3/0:59.418
10.(8)Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – DNS

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

View our event image gallery here.

Video – 4wd Invitational Rd5

Maifield closes on first Reedy Race title

Ryan Maifield is closing in on his first Reedy Race of Champions title as Round 5 saw defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri fail to take any points away from his rival.  Having topped the standings at the end of the six rounds of 2WD, Maifield came into 4WD with a 2-point advantage over his Associated team-mate Cavalieri but a broken drive shaft in the warm-up meant Maifield lost all his advantage in Round 1 of 4WD.  Since then however Maifield has managed twice to finish one position ahead of the two time Reedy Race winner which counting Round 1 as his dropped score means the Arizona driver has pulled a further two points advantage going into the last round.   Going into the final round of finals at the 20th running of one of the Worlds most famous races means the scenario is that 5th or higher, irrespective of how Cavalieri does, would give one of the sport’s most spectacular drivers the coveted title.

In terms of the Round 5 racing, in Heat 1 World Champion Steven Hartson took a tone to tone victory becoming the only driver to run 17 laps of the OCRC Raceway.  Although Cavalieri set the fastest lap of the race he couldn’t get close enough to challenge his team-mate and had to settle for second after getting by Brian Strange late in the race.

In Heat 2 former Champion Joern Neumann, who had a fraught morning, took advantage of starting from pole to take a very narrow victory ahead of Maifield, the separation at the end of 5-minutes just .072 of a second.

The third heat saw young guns Tanner Denney and Dakotah Phend battle it out.  Denney’s Associated lead from the pole with Phend on his tail but running wide on lap 10 it allowed the TLR driver to slip through for a lead he would not relinquish.

Round 5 4WD Buggy
Heat 1 Result
1.(1) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 17/5:18.510
2.(5) Ryan Cavalieri – Team Associated – 16/5:02.517
3.(2) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 16/5:05.194
4.(6) Carson Wernimont – Schumacher – 16/5:05.726
5.(8) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 16/5:08.934
6.(10)Kody Numedahl – Team Associated – 16/5:11.328
7.(3) Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho – 16/5:11.789
8.(9) Joseph Quagraine – JQ Products – 15/5:01.664
9.(7) Barry Baker – Team Reedy – 15/5:07.807
10.(4)Cody Turner – Kyosho – 14/4:33.637

Heat 2 Result
1.(1) Jörn Neumann – Team Durango – 16/5:01.644
2.(4) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 16/5:01.716
3.(5) Ty Tessmann – Hot Bodies – 16/5:02.819
4.(4) Ryan Lutz – Team Durango – 16/5:03.825
5.(6) Lee Martin – Team Yokomo – 16/5:07.705
6.(2) Oliver Scholz – Team C – 16/5:12.318
7.(10)Brian Kinwald – Team Associated – 16/5:18.686
8.(2) Mike Truhe – Serpent – 16/5:19.040
9.(9) Rob Gillespie – Team Associated – 16/5:21.749
10.(1)Billy Fischer – Team Novak – 12/4:11.544

Heat 3 Result
1.(2) Dakotah Phend – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:00.127
2.(1) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 16/5:03.096
3.(7) Tyler Vik – Xray – 16/5:08.873
4.(4) Rick Hohwart – Team Associated – 16/5:09.289
5.(5) Travis Amezcua – Team Durango – 16/5:10.272
6.(3) Neil Cragg – Team Associated – 16/5:10.612
7.(6) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/5:10.829
8.(8) Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:13.536
9.(9) Cody King – Kyosho – 16/5:18.115
10.(10)Josh Pain – Team Yokomo – 16/5:19.773

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

View our event image gallery here.