Maifield & Hollis up pace in Q2

Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield and TLR’s Cody Hollis upped the pace in 2WD Buggy and Mod Truck respectively in the second round of qualifying for the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals at Mike’s Hobby Shop in Dallas with both drivers improving considerably on their opening TQ run times.  Benefiting from much faster track condition Maifield improved his time by over 7 seconds as he set a new fastest lap in the event’s premiere class with the next best improvement coming from team boss Bent Thielke who moves up to fourth behind TLR’s Hollis and Dustin Evans who both failed to improve.  In Mod Truck, Hollis improved by over 10-seconds to take the second of the 3 scheduled rocket round qualifiers by 4.3 seconds from Maifield as the pair posted the first 16-lap runs of the day.

Running a fresh set of JConcepts Barcodes on his Reedy powered B4.2, Maifield said it took about a minute for the tyres to come in but overall the track was a lot faster than in the mornings first round.  Rebuilding his shocks and changing to a different spring to combat the slight understeer he experienced in Q1, he said it was hard to tell if the changes had improved the buggy as the track had so much more grip second time round.  Moving up from 3rd to 2nd overall in Mod Truck, Maifield said by the end of the run his truck was good but it takes a couple of minutes before he feel comfortable with the T4.2 and that is leading to ‘a lot of crashes’ early in the run. Planning to try a few changes for Q3 he said luckily it’s rocket round qualifying as he still has a chance at going for the overall TQ.

Having only set the 9th fastest time in Q1, Thielke was pleased with his second run saying he ‘old manned them all’.  Admitting that he was a bit off in outright pace he said he drove better and much more consistent for the round and it was this that helped him to improve by 5 places.  Trying a different tyre sauce on his B4.2 he said he drove a little too cautiously in the opening laps but as the run went on the buggy just got better and better.  After a poor start to qualifying, defending Indoor National Series Champion Steven Hartson’s day got worse as he struggled with ‘way too much traction’.  Running a different tyre sauce to his team-mate Maifield he said for the final qualifier would try running with no sauce in the hope he can get in a safe & clean round and improve on his current time which sees him just hanging for an A-Main start with the 10th quickest time.

For Hollis and Taylor Larsen the second qualifier looked to start off well but the TLR team-mates ‘wrecked’ a number of times in the closing stages of the run and were unable to better their impressive Q1 runs.  Hollis said his TLR22 was still too aggressive and he plans to make changes for this evening’s final qualifier but in Mod Truck he had no such issues describing Q2 as ‘another flawless run’.  14-year-old Larsen said he just lost it in 2WD buggy and happy with how his 22 handled the higher traction he needs to try and keep his calm for the full 5-minutes next time out and focus on his consistency.  Although he bettered his time in Mod Truck, just missing out on 16-laps, the defending event champion dropped back one spot to third.  Team Losi Racing lead driver Dustin Evans wasn’t happy with either of his runs, despite going faster in Mod Truck, saying he just isn’t having things go his way so far today and he hopes he can catch a break in Q3.

Having completed the Top 6 in Q1, Allen Horne moved up to 5th with another good run in Q2 with fellow Associated driver Spencer Rivkin posting the 6th fastest time.  14-year-old Rivkin said his run was not perfect as he had a few bobbles but with his B4.2 getting better and better as the grip comes up he is hopeful that with a clean run he can improve his time which was just 3 seconds shy of being a 16-lap run.

2WD Buggy Qualifying after Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:09.749 (2)
2. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:18.603 (1)
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:19.323 (1)
4. Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5:20.228 (2)
5. Allen Horne – Associated – 16/5:22.126 (2)
6. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 15/5:00.295 (2)

Mod Truck Qualifying after Round 2
1. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:13.351 (2)
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:17.653 (2)
3. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:00.498 (2)
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 15/5:02.527 (2)
5. Trevor Nault – Associated – 15/5:09.041 (2)
6. Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/513.499 (1)

View the event image gallery here.

Maifield sets Q1 pace in 2WD Buggy

The opening round of 2WD buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals in Dallas, Texas, saw Ryan Maifield set the early pace around the Mike’s Hobby Shop track with the Associated driver taking Q1 by 1.578 from the TLR of Cody Hollis with Dustin Evans completing the Top 3 as the only other driver to manage 16-laps.  It was good opening round of qualifying for Hollis as he took his TLR22-T to the fastest time in the other big class this weekend Mod Truck ahead of his young team-mate Taylor Larsen with Maifield taking his T4.2 to the 3rd fastest time.

Maifield described his opening 2WD Buggy run as a ‘rough heat’ after he had to contend with lapped traffic in the unseeded heat.  Having to be ‘patient’ while he had a few incidents none of them where anything major and all should be better for the second of the scheduled three qualifiers as the heats will be reseeded at the end of each round. Winner of the Winter Indoor Nationals, the opening round of the JConcepts sponsored Indoor National Series, Maifield said his B4.2 was safe to drive but could do with a ‘little more steering’ and he will make some adjustments to sort that for his second run.  In Mod Truck, the Arizona driver described it as ‘work in progress’ but added the biggest issue in Q1 was ‘too many mistakes’.

Hollis was pleased with his opening runs saying he had ‘no wrecks’ and now just needed to repeat that a ‘couple more times’.  Running JConcepts green compound Pressure Point tyres on both his Orion powered TLR22 and 22T, the 20-year-old said track conditions for Q1 were very consistent and he was enjoying driving the track which ‘has a really good flow to it’.  Planning to leave his truck the same for Q2 and just break in a new set of tyres, on his buggy he will made a front camber link change to try calm down the front end a little.

Team-mate Evans said his 22 was ‘awesome’ but the run had ‘5-seconds in crashes’ after a couple of ‘dumb mistakes’.  With rocket round qualifying being used this weekend, the winner of last year’s Fall Indoor Nationals said with the track going to get faster and faster he said the important thing was going to be on form for Q3 when the track should be at its fastest.  Fourth fastest in Mod Truck, Evans said his tyres where a little too new leading to a couple of mistakes but with a couple of small set-up changes planned for his next run he is confident he can easily improve on his time.

Fourth fastest in 2WD Buggy, 14-year-old Larsen felt he could have driven a lot better.  Happy with how his cars are working, the TLR driver said he needed to drive with more patience and stay in the groove.  Winner of Mod Truck at this event 12 months ago he would end the opening qualifier 2.668 down on Hollis but is confident he can improve a lot on that pace with tidier driving.

The defending series champion and dominator of this race last year, Steven Hartson could only managed 5th in Q1. Describing it as a ‘bad run’, the factory Associated driver said he never does well in his first run.  Making a number of ‘stupid mistakes’ he said his buggy has the pace, highlighted by his blistering fastest lap of the round which was a 19.069, he said the driver just needs to ‘slow down a little’ which should help eliminate most of the mistakes.  The Top 6 in 2WD Buggy was completed by fellow Associated driver Allen Horne while in Mod Truck AE team-manager Brent Thielke set the 5th fastest time ahead of his young team driver Spencer Rivkin.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 1
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:17.025
2. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:18.603
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:19.323
4. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:07.196
5. Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:07.482
6. Allen Horne – Associated – 15/5:09.756

Mod Truck Qualifying – Round 1
1. Cody Hollis – TLR – 15/5:04.832
2. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:07.500
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:08.007
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 15/5:09.300
5. Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/513.499
6. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 15/5:15.197

View the event image gallery here.