2WD Buggy a repeat of 4WD

The opening round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Clash was almost a carbon copy of the earlier 4WD Buggy qualifier with Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield setting the pace again from TLR’s Cody Hollis and JConcepts’ Jason Ruona as Dustin Evans suffered another retirement due to a broken front shock tower.

The only driver to run 14 laps over the 5-minutes, Maifield was happy to end Day 1 of qualifying with two TQ runs from the 3-classes he is contesting but added that had Evans not retired it would have been very close between him and the TLR driver in the events blue ribbon class. Suffering a few mistakes over the run, the defending champion said his mid motored C4.1 felt pretty good helped by the fact that the traction was starting to get better. Running additive treated JConcepts Blue Barcodes, and based on the improvement in grip over the course of Q1, for the first of tomorrow’s three scheduled rounds of qualifying he plans to switch to a closed cell front foam insert along with making a few set-up adjustments to his buggy to suit the rising level of grip.

While Hollis backed up his 4WD Buggy performance by also posting he 2nd fastest time in 2WD Buggy for a strong first day of action, for TLR team-mate Evans it was a frustrating day.  Topping the timesheets in 2WD Short Course ahead of Maifield for a strong start to the event, the former US Champion and Reedy Race winner had a frustrating ending to the day.  While his 4WD buggy shock tower breakage in Q1 was due to moment of his own doing, in 2WD Buggy it was a problem with traffic that lead to his unnecessary retirement just after the half way distance of the run.  Jumping the large centre double Evans’ collided mid air with a slower buggy causing his Orion powered TLR22 2.0 to land awkwardly resulting in his second broken shock tower of the day.

Ruona said he ran a cautious qualifier but in terms of the set-up on his  rear motor mounted B4.2 he was ‘pretty happy’ as the buggy was really easy to drive.  Aiming for a Top 5 result, he said posting the 3rd fastest time was pretty good however had Evans not had his problems & JR Mitch not been hampered by traffic he is pretty sure he would have been classified in 5th spot.  1.2 seconds behind Ruona was JConcepts bodyshell designer Paul Wynn.  Like his boss, he ran blue Barcodes putting in a ‘safe run’ to secure 4th for the round.  Planning to drive a little more ‘aggressive’ for his next outing he also plans to adjust his B4.2 set-up to give himself a little more steering.

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Maifield TQ’s opening 4WD Buggy Qualifier

Ryan Maifield has TQ’d the opening round of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Clash, the Team Associated ace topping the time sheets at the Mississippi event from TLR’s Cody Hollis with defending champion Jason Ruona completing the Top 3.  The 7th running of the annual event, Maifield’s main rival Dustin Evans would retire from his opening run with a broken font shock tower.

Finishing almost 9-seconds clear of Hollis, Maifield said apart from a few traffic issues it was a good opening run as he still trying to get used to the limits of certain sections of the track.  Running JConcepts Blue Barcodes on his B44.2 he said his buggy felt good and for tomorrow morning’s second qualifier he only plans to fit a fresh set of tyres.

Making his Clash debut, Hollis was pleased with his qualifier. Having earlier TQ’d the opening round of Mod Truck, he said he just kept everything smooth and the result was a clean run.  Running Green Barcodes, the 20-year-old said for Q2 he will leave his XXX-4 set-up as is and just change tyre to harder Blue compound.

Ruona declared himself ‘pretty happy’ with his run to third adding that it was ‘something to build on’.  The JConcepts boss said that his B44.2 felt good and has the potential to be closer to the lead pace but he drove a little to much on the conservation side.  He said it was not until Maifield ran behind him that he started to push a little harder and although his star driver passed him he was happy with how well he was was able to stick with the World Championship title contender albeit only for a few laps.

Setting the fourth fastest time was Brett Kingsbury driving an Associated.  Despite having ‘one wreck’ the Florida racer said he was happy with his run especially considering his lack of top speed.  Running a 7.5 turn motor he said he plans to switch to a 6.5 turn for Q2 having been left standing on the straight by a number of drivers in his heat.

Driving an Xray XB4, Team Novak driver Jack Genova posted the 5th fastest time.  The 16-year-old said despite making the wrong tyre choice he was his happy with the run.  Having ran Proline’s Holeshot on the front and Square Fuzzy on the rear he said for tomorrow he will switch over to ION all round on the Xray, the set-up of which he will leave as is.  Behind Genova, Blaine Cavin completed the Top 6.

Having TQ’d 2WD Short Course from Maifield earlier, Evans said his 4WD buggy run started off ‘super good’ with two ‘great’ opening laps that put him on target to better Maifield’s TQ time, his rival running a heat earlier.  Hitting traffic which hampered his progress Evans would retire 2-minutes in when the front shock tower broke, something he believes may have been the result of to a heavy tumble earlier on the main straight.

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Practice underway as drivers prepare to ‘Clash’ in Mississippi

The seventh running of the annual JConcepts Clash takes place this weekend in Flowood Mississippi where the big battle is set to between Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield and Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans.  The winner of the three main classes at last year’s event when the ‘Clash’ made its first visit to the Flowood RC Indoor Park, Maifield has this year dropped out of the 1:8 Nitro Buggy  instead running in 4WD as part of his preparations for the Electric Offroad World Championships which are just over 2 weeks away.   Evans has also dropped nitro in favour of running 4WD EP Buggy alongside his 2WD Buggy & 2WD Short Course for the event. While TLR are set to contest the Worlds with a new 4WD chassis in limited numbers for their key team drivers, Evans will contest the Clash with his now classic XXX-4.  TLR team-manager Keven Gahan is also racing in the event, this being his first ever Clash, but when asked about the subject of the new 4WD Buggy he did an excellent job of towing company lines and letting nothing out of the bag.

A late arrival to the event only getting into Flowood last night therefore missing out on yesterday’s opportunity for open practice, Maifield’s initial reaction was the lack of traction. Describing last year’s traction as ‘good’ he said there seems to be none now.  While others expect the traction to get better Maifield believes if the track has not got traction by now its not going to have it and that means the use of tyre sauce which he said ‘sucks’, the Arizona driver well known for not being a fan of using it.  In terms of the three cars he is running in the event Maifield said his main focus due to the low grip is for now on his C4 mid motored 2WD Buggy.

Evans, who took a hat trick of podium finishes last year, was happy with his early runs adding that the track was had a really good flow to it and while ‘fast’ should make for good racing.  A very deep track for an indoor track the 2011 US National Champion said this makes it hard in terms of the perception of the further away corners in particular the back right hand section of the track.  Happy with the early performance of his 4WD Buggy he said his focus is on his TLR22 2.0 which he is running in mid motor configuration. Running an all blue bodyshell on his 2WD this weekend, as he cut out his only painted shell for rear motor configuration and his other shells are with his body painter in preparation for the Worlds, Evans said getting as much running as possible with the mid motor is important for the Worlds adding that he believes as he runs the mid motor more he is finding it actually suits his driving style.

TLR will also be looking for a strong run this weekend from JR Mitch who was runner-up to Maifield last year in 2WD Short Course.  Mitch has switched two classes this year moving over to 4WD SC and also ditching his 1:8 Nitro for 1:8 eBuggy which is the biggest class of this year’s ‘Clash’. Remaining in 2WD Buggy, in which he finished 4th 12-months ago, he said for the early practice runs his TL22 2.0 was his main focus as was readjusting to the depth of the track which he described as having ‘a good high speed layout’.

Track designer Paul Wynn, who was an A-finalist in 2WD Buggy & Short Course here last year, said while he was happy with how the way the track turned out he is not so happy with his driving which he says ‘requires a bit of working on’. Describing his track as really fast he said it offers a lot of opportunities for passing which should make for some good fun racing.

Runner up at the recent ROAR Nationals in 2WD Stock Buggy the title being decided on a tie break, up & coming talent Damion Borkowicz was really pleased with his early runs.  The protege of JConcepts founder Jason Ruona, the 13-year-old said his focus is on his buggies due to the fact that he will make his World Championships debut later this month.  Also contesting Mod Truck he should be in contender for at least a podium in that class.

His first time to Flowood Indoor R/C Park, TLR’s Cody Hollis said this is the biggest track he has ever raced 1:10 on and he really likes the fast layout describing it as being ‘really fun’ to drive.  Running 2WD & 4WD Buggy and Mod Truck, in which the Clash debutant is the pre race favourite, the 20 year-old said all his cars were running ‘pretty good so far’ and he was just waiting on the track to come in.

With a few more hours of practice alternating between nitro, of which last year’s 1:8 Buggy running up Jason Smith should be the man to beat, and electric Day 1 of the 2013 JConcepts Clash will end with the first of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying.

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Track Focus – Flowood RC Indoor Park

Track Name – Flowood RC Indoor Park
Owner – City of Flowood
Country – USA
Location – Flowood, Mississippi
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous no. of JConcepts Clash hosted – 1 (2012)

The JConcepts Clash returns to the Flowood RC Indoor Park in Mississippi this weekend for the 7th running of the annual offroad event.  The large indoor venue hosted the event for the first time last year as JConcepts looked to protect itself from the problem of rain which interrupted the event on four of the five previous years when it was held in Florida.  Once again the track  layout for this year’s Clash has been created by Paul Wynn who is better known for heading up bodyshell design at JConcepts.  Wynn said the challenge for creating the track is to come up with a layout that works for both the 1:10 electric and 1:8 nitro classes that run at the event. While the building of the track is not exactly to his spec, the layout being made a little easier, he said after some early open practice ‘it is working out pretty well’.

Housed in a former a Gymnastics Centre the track has been in existence since December 1st 2010 thanks to the efforts of local racer ‘Bubba’ (apparently nobody knows him by his real name Nathan Barham!!).  Set to turn 68 later this month, ‘Bubba’ got interested in r/c racing 10 years ago and with a lack of tracks in the area he decided to build a track on his own land.  Unfortunately his land was not zoned for the purpose of an r/c track which eventually led to the closure of that track but ‘Bubba’ wasn’t letting go so easily and approached the Mayor of Flowood about the city providing racers with a new home.  The city liked the idea in terms of it being an attraction to bring people into the town but an initial plan to build a covered track failed on the grounds of the costs. Still the Mayor was keen to help the racers and would come up trumps when he would take ‘Bubba’ to visit a building that due to planned road improvement in the area had been acquired by the city and was lying unused.  Entering the empty building with the Mayor, Bubba immediately said it would work and put together a proposal to the city which they duly accepted.  Setting up a ‘Not for profit’ company ‘Bubba’ is now the Manager of Flowood RC Indoor Park.

With a membership of almost 300, the track is open for practice during the week with club races held on Saturdays.  One interesting use ‘Bubba’ has come up with to track is the hosting of kids birthday parties.  Together with a number of local volunteer racers he gives kids the chance to race the tracks fleet of short Course trucks.  This has proven very popular with most Sundays booked up and as well as being a great way to introduce youngsters to the sport and the facility that is available to them as well as bringing in important income to help maintain the track.  ‘Bubba’ said the relationship the city has worked out really well and would like to see more tracks created this way adding that he is more than happy to assist or guide anyone interested in making such a proposal in their area.  In terms of events the JConcepts Clash is the biggest event to be hosted at Flowood RC Indoor Park with the next biggest event being the tracks own ‘Bring the Heat’ event which took place last month and was won by Adam Drake.

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