Video – 2wd, 2wd SC, Truck & 4wd A-main Leg 1

Tone to tone Buggy wins for Maifield at SmacTrac

The opening round of A-Mains at the JConcepts Winter Indoor National at SmacTrac in St.Louis saw wins in the main classes for all the Top Qualifiers with Ryan Maifield taking the two biggest wins steering his Associated cars to tone to tone wins in both 2 & 4WD Buggy ahead of Kyosho’s Jared Tebo. The other wins went to Tebo who took Mod Truck with team-mate Cody Turner taking his No.1 Ultima SCR to a convincing win in 2WD short course while 4WD Short Course went to defending champion Matt Olson.

In 2WD Buggy Maifield came under intense pressure from Tebo in the closing stage of the race but on the penultimate lap the latter, who predicted passing would not be possible without mistakes, got too close to the Top Qualifier tagging the back of the B4.2, the two cars getting interlocked. Allowing Maifield to retake the lead as they set out on the final lap Maifield took the win by 1.1 seconds from Tebo. Starting third Turner was to finish third .9 behind his team-leader after seeing off a strong last lap challenge from JConcepts Indoor National Series Champion Steven Hartson.

In 4WD Buggy Maifield took a very convincing win thanks to team-mate Hartson who mounted a challenge on Tebo allowing the Arizona driver to pull clear and cruise to the win by almost 4 seconds. As much as he tried to find a way passed Tebo, the winner of all five 4WD encounters in last year’s series couldn’t get it done crossing the line 3/10ths behind after 18 laps.

In Mod Truck Maifield got the opportunity to put the pressure on Tebo for 5-minutes after getting by the No.2 starting truck of champion Brent Thielke who eventually dropped back to finish the encounter in 5th. Setting the fastest lap of the race with his T4.2 Maifield said there was no way passed as Tebo kept his RT5 on line to win by 3/10ths.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:14.641
2.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:15.731
3.(3) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:16.674
4.(4) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:17.084
5.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:04.501
6.(10)Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:07.474
7.(8) Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:11.340
8.(7) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 16/5:00.379
9.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 16/5:01.591
10.(5)JP Richards – TLR – DNS

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 19/5:16.708
2.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:03.550
3.(3) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:03.878
4.(4) Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:04.901
5.(6) Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:07.949
6.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:10.231
7.(8) Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:11.905
8.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:12.993
9.(10)Dustin Richards – Associated – 18/5:14.355
10.(5)Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 1/0:16.768

View the event images gallery here.

Paige tops final 4WD Buggy Qualifier

Associated team driver Michael Paige has TQ’d the final round of qualifying in 4WD Buggy at the season opener of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in St.Louis. The 21-year-old took Q4 by a narrow margin from defending Champion Steven Hartson as the two swapped times after both Ryan Maifield, who wrapped up TQ honours in Q3, and Jared Tebo both made mistakes during the heat. The result will see Illinois driver Paige line up fourth on the grid for what has now been announced will be triple A-Mains rather than the single 10-minute final drivers where expecting. Up front Tebo will start second behind Maifield’s B44.2 with Hartson’s example lining up third.

In 4WD Short Course MIP driver & class champion Matt Olson took the final qualifier to secure overall TQ honours ahead of team-mate who yesterday took the 2nd round of qualifying.

4WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 4
1. Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:09.324
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:09.497
3. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 18/5:11.754
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:12.204
5. Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:13.108
6. Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:13.122
7. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:13.800
8. Kurt Kellum – Xray – 18/5:15.658
9. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:18.098
10.Nate Jaskot – Kyosho – 18/5:18.305

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 0 pts
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 4
3. Steven Hartson – Associated – 4
4. Michael Paige – Associated – 4
5. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 7
6. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 9
7. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 9
8. Al Horne – Associated – 10
9. Matt Gosch – Associated – 13
10.Dustin Richards – Associated – 18

View the event images gallery here.

Maifield 2WD Buggy Top Qualifier in St.Louis

Ryan Maifield will start both buggy finals at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals from pole position after the Associated star TQ’d the final round of 2WD Buggy Qualifying at SmacTrac in St. Louis, Missouri, this morning adding to the 4WD TQ he wrapped last night in the penultimate qualifier.  Mounting a serious challenge for the overall TQ until he hit traffic, literally, Tebo took second for the round which is the position he will start the single 10-minute Main.  Cody Turner completed the Top 3 for the fourth & final qualifier securing the 21-year-old 3rd on the grid ahead of defending Champion Steven Hartson who struggled with the wrong tyre choice in his last heat setting only the 15th fastest time.

Maifield’s first time to contest a round of the JConcepts Indoor National Series the Arizona driver was happy to take the overall TQ on a track which all the top drivers have admitted is going to be very hard to pass on.  Having resisted using additive for the majority of the event, Maifield used it in his last qualifier but said afterwards that he doesn’t think he will use it again in the finals as it feels like it needs to wear off before you can run fast laps and for the final he wants his buggy to be good from the start. Talking about the Main, Maifield said passing would be a ‘big task’ and the important thing for him starting out front is to just hold steady and not make an mistakes.

Tebo, who was on target for a TQ run in Q4 until the start of his penultimate lap saw him get caught up in a tangle between two slower cars, shared Maifield’s thoughts on this evening’s final saying passing was ‘not possible’.  Planning to leave his RB6 as is for the encounter he said his approach to the race had to be to pressure his big rival into making a mistake.

In Mod Truck, Tebo completed a clean sweep of qualifying taking Q4 ahead of Maifield but it is defending class champion Brent Thielke who will start second with Maifield lining up third.   2WD Short Course saw Turner TQ the final qualifier with his Kyosho Ultima SCR ahead of Steven Hartson, the result giving Turner the pole position on tie break with Losi driver JP Richards.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 4
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 17/5:06.113
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 17/5:06.642
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 17/5:10.055
4. Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:11.480
5. JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:11.910
6. Josh Wheeler – Kyosho – 17/5:14.975
7. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:15.002
8. Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:15.271
9. Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 17/5:15.781
10.Michael Paige – Associated – 17/5:15.865

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 0 pts
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 2
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 5
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 5
5. JP Richards – TLR – 10
6. Brent Thielke – Associated – 10
7. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 11
8. Cody Hollis – TLR – 12
9. Matt Gosch – Associated – 14
10.Al Horne – Associated – 18

View the event images gallery here.