Evans takes Q2 of 4WD Buggy at ‘Clash’

Having failed to finish yesterday’s opening qualifier at the JConcepts Clash, Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans bounced back to take Q2 of 4WD Buggy this  morning in Mississippi as Q1 pace setter Ryan Maifield failed to finish his second round, the Associated driver popping a front ball cup on his Reedy power B44.2.  Evans posted a time of 14 laps in 5:05.832 to top the round from Associated’s of Jason Rouna and Brett Kingsbury.

Having suffered a front shock tower breakage in Q1, Evans said after seeing Maifield, who is running a heat earlier, retire he just took a safe approach to his second run adding that he maybe drove too conservatively.  Running a fresh set of JConcepts Barcodes on his Orion powered XXX-4, he said the buggy felt good and the only change he plans for Q3 is to fit a fresh set of tyres.  With traffic having been a problem for many of the front runners in the unseeded opening two qualifiers, Evans said the reseeding of the Heats for the remaining two qualifiers should allow for much cleaner and therefore faster runs.

JConcepts founder Rouna was very happy with his run saying he drove a little more aggressively than in Q1 adding that he was quiet comfortable with it.  Fitting a fresh set of blue Barcodes all round on his B44.2, having only ran new rear tyres in Q1, he said the tyres came in really well with the buggy feeling really good to drive.  Running a 6.5 turn motor the former World Championship finalist and defending ‘Clash’ champion said the buggy ‘didn’t feel super fast’ but added this may have infact helped him.  Running a time of 5:11.478, he feels a time of 5:06 should be possible with a good clean run.

With two of four rounds counting, Kingsbury said with this in mind he just went for a ‘nice safe solid run’ which combined with his 4th in Q1 now locks him into a A-Main starting position.  Trying tyre sauce on his JConcepts Blue Barcode tyres for Q2, the Florida racer said it improved side traction and he will continue to use it in Q3.  Not planning to make any set-up changes he said with two good results in the bag he can now try to drive a little more aggressively.

In only his second race using a borrowed Xray XB4, Zack Genova set the fourth fastest time as the only other driver in the round to post 14-laps of the Flowood RC Indoor Park track.  Really liking the XB4, he said a switch to Proline’s ION tyre all round improved the buggy over Q1 with him having a lot better traction.  Looking for a little more stability the Team Novak driver plans to go up in his diff oils for Q3.

Despite suffering a front drive shaft failure on his XXX-4 with two laps to go, TLR team driver Cody Hollis set the fifth fastest time.  With lap times of 26 and 31 seconds respectively around the 21-second lap track, the problem cost him a repeat of his the Top 3 time he posted in the opening qualifier.

Setting the fastest lap of Q2 with a time of 21.143, Maifield said a change of driving style after his motor moved on the opening lap lead to his incident that result in his retirement.  With his Reedy motor having shifted, he said he knew that if he would use his brakes it would strip his gear so he had to ‘float’ around the corners.  Having to come off the power earlier into the corners he said this allowed him carry more speed something which proved faster to his regular driving as highlighted by his fastest lap.  ‘Super committed’ to the S corner after the main straight he said that commitment would eventually bite him as he clipped the pipe just coming up on the 2-minute mark into his qualifier.

In the other 4WD classes, it was TLR’s JR Mitch who set the pace in the biggest class, e-Buggy, at this the 7th running of the JConcepts Clash ahead of fellow 8ight driver Dylan Gerard.  Mitch would also set the pace in 4WD Short Course ahead of John Bernard Jr.  In 1:8 Nitro Buggy Associated driver Max Flurer took Q2 by 1.1-seconds from Tyler Jones with Gerard a further 2.2-seconds back in 3rd.

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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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