Matsukura TQs second 2WD Buggy Qualifier

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura has TQ’d the second round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the 27th Proline Cactus Classic in Arizona, the Japanese driver topping the timesheets with a 4.9-seconds advantage over Tamiya’s Lee Martin who in turn was almost 2-seconds faster than TLR’s Dustin Evans who claimed a third for the round. A student of English and Communications the 3-time 1:12 World Champion certainly prefers to focus his attentions on his driving rather than his studies when at races having little more to say after his TQ run than ‘perfect’.

Running his B-Max 2 MR in mid motor configuration, the same configuration he used when he gave the new buggy its debut international win when he won Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Germany in January, the Japanese National champion looked considerably faster than his rivals on track as he set the fastest lap of the race which was 3/10ths faster than that of the second fastest lap of the round which was set by Q1 top qualifier Jared Tebo.

Having added a total of 56 grams to his Tamiya for Q2, Martin said his Speed Passion powered mid motor converted buggy was a lot more nimble to drive with the extra weight. Featuring a Vega gearbox and a Red Workshop Chassis kit, the chassis made from carbon fibre, the European Champion said along with lowering the ride height the extra weight made the buggy very easy to drive and he didn’t have to push hard to go fast. Changing to a softer insert in his Proline tyres, Suburbs on the rear and Scrubs on the front, he said this made it a little aggressive and he will revert to the tyre combo he used in Q1. Planning to rebuild his diff for tomorrow’s third qualifier he said he will use a thicker grease to help with traction.

Having broken in Q1, Evans said he ran a conservative second qualifier. With the high traction causing a lot more crashes than normal the lead Team Losi Racing driver said he knew if he kept his TLR22 on track he could get a decent result. Needing to be marshalled once he said getting third for the round was better than he expected. Planning to go for another safe run tomorrow which he hopes will lock him into the all important A-Main, the former US National Champion & Reedy Race winner said he will leave his buggy set-up as is for Q3.

Another driver who was out to put in a safe run was Ryan Cavalieri. Having suffered a number of mistakes in the opening qualifier on the left side of the track where the rear motored Associated B4.2 is at a disadvantage this weekend, he said he took it easy in that section to minimise mistakes and the end result was a solid run to take 4th for the round. A former 2-time winner of the Cactus in 2WD, his last being back in 2010, he said he had the pace to run faster so with one good run in on the board he will push a little harder in the morning. The B4 has ruled 2WD at this race for the last decade but the sugaring of the track this year, which as a positive has really helped the track stand up extremely well to the huge almost 500 entries, has put it at a disadvantage against its mid motored rivals.

Having changed his set-up to what he thought would adapt his Orion powered RB6 to the cooler conditions of the night time run second qualifier, Kyosho star Tebo said his buggy was not that good. Suffering a number of crashes at the double section after the main straight he eventually took 5th for the round. A double winner of the event and having the advantage of a mid motor car over his two biggest rivals Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield, who is going for a hat trick of Cactus buggy titles this year, he will be looking to put his buggy back on top of the time sheets in tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers.

Team Durango’s Joern Neumann who was second fastest in Q1 completed the Top 6 ahead of Kyosho’s Cody Turner, who said following the number of crashes he had he was happy to take a 7th, with Travis Amezcua and Carson Wernimont making it three Durango’s in the Top 10 which was rounded out by TLR’s Dakotah Phend.

2WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 2
1. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo/Yokomo – 14/5:07.266
2. Lee Martin – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 14/5:12.227
3. Dustin Evans – TLR/Orion – 14/5:14.160
4. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 14/5:14.509
5. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 14/5:15.529
6. Joern Neumann – Durango/Speed Passion – 14/5:16.346
7. Cody Turner – Kyosho/Orion – 14/5:17.373
8. Travis Amezcua – Durango/Viper – 14/5:17.411
9. Carson Wernimont – Durango/Reedy – 14/5:18.572
10.Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 14/5:18.696

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Q2 Truck Update

Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri backed up his TQ run in the opening qualifier at the Proline Cactus Classic when he again took his Orion powered T4.2 around SRS Raceway in the fastest time ahead of Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and TLR’s Mike Truhe. In Short Course the second round of qualifying belonged to Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz. In 2WD he was 4.7-seconds quicker than Cavalieri and Kyosho’s Cody Turner while in 4WD his Tekin powered DESC410 TQ’d ahead of the TLR’s of Dakotah Phend and Billy Fischer. Having been fastest in Q1, Fischer looked like he was on for a second TQ run but on the last lap the Team Losi Racing driver made a mistake allowing both Lutz & Phend, who posted the fastest lap, to finish ahead of him.

For defending Short Course Champions Ryan Maifield (2WD) and Joern Neumann (4WD) the second qualifier proved fruitless. Having got his title defense off to the best possible start this morning by TQ’ing the opening qualifier, Maifield would pull up his SC10.2 early in Q2, the factory Associated driver clearly not happy with something. Having been disqualified from the Q1 results for running a spoiler on his DESC410, Neumann didn’t even make the start of his second qualifier after the wires from the speedo to motor fell out during the single warm-up lap! Having set the third fastest time in Mod Truck in the morning, the evening’s round of qualifying hasn’t started well for the German as he failed to finish Q2 after breaking a rear arm on his DEST210.

Mod Truck Q2 Top 6
1. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 14/5:09.170
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 14/5:12.261
3. Mike Truhe – TLR/Novak – 14/5:17.925
4. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Reedy – 14/5:19.752
5. Steven Hartson – Associated/LRP – 14/5:20.215
6. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novak – 14/5:21.651

2WD Short Course Q2 Top 6
1. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Tekin – 13/5:02.683
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 13/5:07.413
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho/Orion – 13/5:09.334
4. Charles Hicks – TLR/Novak – 13/5:11.912
5. Briain Kinwald – Associated/Icon – 13/5:12.384
6. Matt Castellano – TLR/Orion – 13/5:15.918

4WD Short Course Q2 Top 6
1. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Tekin – 14/5:13.943
2. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 14/5:16.288
3. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novak – 14/5:16.874
4. Briain Kinwald – Associated/Icon – 13/5:02.263
5. Hupo Honigl – Durango/DualSky – 13/5:02.849
6. Travis Amezcua – Durango/Viper – 13/5:05.236

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Tebo & Cavalieri TQ opening Buggy Qualifiers

Jared Tebo and Ryan Cavalieri have TQ’d the first round of qualifying for the blue ribbon buggy classes at the 27th Proline Cactus Classic. In 2WD Tebo took his Kyosho around the super high traction SRS Raceway in the fastest time ahead of Team Durango’s Joern Neumann and practice pace setter Naoto Matsukura while in 4WD Cavalieri put his Associated on top also ahead of Neumann with TLR’s Dakotah Phend third. For defending double champion Ryan Maifield the first of the four scheduled qualifiers saw the Arizona ace take both his Associated buggies to the fourth fastest time.

Taking the opening 2WD Buggy qualifier by a massive 5.7 seconds, Tebo said his RB6 was ‘really good’ despite the traction being even higher than yesterday’s two practice rounds. While the sugaring of the track has left some drivers struggling to get a set-up for the unusually high traction Tebo said on the plus side for him it had made the track very consistent. Running AKA Handlebar rear tyres in medium compound and silver Losi Taper pins on the front of his buggy, Tebo said he was very comfortable with the set-up but with the timing of Q2 in mind, which will run later tonight, he will drop is shock oil accordingly. In 4WD, the former World Champion said his Lazer ZX5 didn’t feel that good. Setting the 7th fastest time, he will make front end suspension changes for Q2.

Cavalieri was very happy with his TQ run in 4WD Buggy saying his Orion powered B44.2 was ‘very good’. Having complained of a lack of power in the final controlled practice, he said having changed the timing on his motor by two clicks rather than change the speedo profile had giving him a really good power band which made the buggy really precise to drive. Running red Taper pins on the front and AKA Handlebars on the rear he said he plans to run everything the same for Q2. Failing to make the Top 10 in 2WD, Cavalieri summed up the run by saying he ‘sucked’. Over driving his B4.2 he had a couple bobbles and only when he calmed down did he start to put good laps together but at that stage any chance of a solid opening run were gone.

European 4WD Champion Neumann was very happy to open the big two classes with Top 2 times. In 2WD the German ace acknowledged Tebo’s pace saying the American was ‘very fast’. Running JConcepts Barcodes all round on his DEX210 he said with the high traction he had trouble with understeer and so for Q2 he will run a different front compound which should allow him to push a little harder. In 4WD, in which he was just 8/10ths off the TQ pace, he said despite a broken sensor wire which caused him to loose some bottom end power, he was very happy with his DEX410. Team-mate Travis Amezcua had a good 4WD qualifier setting the fifth fastest time. Describing his Viper powered DEX410 as very consistent and easy to drive for the cooler conditions of Q2 he plans to change his shock location and springs.

Having set the pace in both 2 & 4WD buggy yesterday Matsukura would set the 3rd and 6th fastest times in Q1 respectively. The Japanese National Champion, who set the fastest lap of 2WD in Q1, said his B-Max 2 MR was good but two driver errors cost him a chance at the TQ but he is confident a cleaner run in Q2 will give him a better result. In 4WD he said his buggy was too soft for the hot conditions and they will change the oils appropriate to the conditions at the time of Q2, which will be the last heat to run on today’s schedule.

Looking to retain his run of titles in buggy at what is his home event, Maifield said both his buggies were good but he crashed too much. Crashing once in each qualifier he said it was ‘one time too many’ and his focus for Q2 is to tidy up his driving. It is worth nothing that Associated have a slight disadvantage at this year’s Cactus due to the high traction and their lack of having a mid motor configuration for the B4.2.

Third fastest in 4WD, TLR’s young gun Dakotah Phend plans to leave his XXX-4 the same for Q2 and instead try to eliminate errors. The 16-year-old had one crash and a roll over at the double after the straight which he said is an area of the track he needs to better master. Following his crash he said he throttled back a bit with little effect to his lap times so he will try this approach from the start of Q2. Running Proline Scrubs on the front and Suburbs on the rear he said he was happy with that tyre combination so will run it again tonight. Team-mate Dustin Evans failed to finish his opening 2WD Buggy qualifying due to a speedo problem but in 4WD posted the 5th fastest time with TLR’s aging XXX-4 chassis. Evans said the buggy was very aggressive mainly due to his choice of front tyres which was too soft so he had to drive easy and the end result was decent. For Q2 he will switch to JConcept Barcodes both front and rear.

One of the big surprises of the opening round was Team Associated’s Tanner Denney. Having struggled yesterday leaving him in one of the lower heat groupings the 17-year-old posted the sixth fastest time in 2WD Buggy. Denney said his low heat listing might have benefited him a little but the main reason for his jump in performance was that he had a properly built diff having discovered that he ran yesterday without the top shaft outer bearing which was the reason he broke gears in both his practices.

2WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 1
1. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 14/5:03.881
2. Joern Neumann – Durango/Speed Passion – 14/5:09.582
3. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo/Yokomo – 14/5:10.605
4. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Reedy – 14/5:12.130
5. Travis Amezcua – Durango/Viper – 14/5:12.903
6. Tanner Denney – Associated/Reedy – 14/5:14.253
7. Matt Castellano – TLR/Orion – 14/5:15.248
8. Lee Martin – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 14/5:17.496
9. Mike Truhe – TLR/Novak – 14/5:17.709
10.Steven Hartson – Associated/LRP – 14/5:18.059

4WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 1
1. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion – 15/5:15.123
2. Joern Neumann – Durango/Speed Passion – 15/5:15.917
3. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 15/5:19.172
4. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Reedy – 15/5:19.606
5. Dustin Evans – TLR/Orion – 14/5:01.598
6. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo/Yokomo – 14/5:02.688
7. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 14/5:04.688
8. Carson Warnimont – Durango/ – 14/5:06.116
9. Steven Hartson – Associated/LRP – 14/5:06.666
10.Cory Crosley – Associated/Reedy – 14/5:07.821

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