Pudge luck in full effect as Martin & Evans clash

Pudge Luck seems to be in full effect on the opening day of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions as Ryan Cavalieri made 3 wins from 3 races at OCRC Raceway.  Starting from 8th on the grid, the reigning champion hit the front on lap 9 of 14 when he got by TLR’s Reno Savoya to extend his points lead as the only multiple winner so far at the 24th running of the event. Behind Cavalieri 10th place starter Cole Tollard came through to finish 2nd ahead of early leader and front row starter Michal Orlwoski while Savoya dropped back to 7th.  The big talking point of the round would however be the opening race and a clash between Lee Martin and Dustin Evans.  With no call made on the incident, in which Evans came off worse, Martin would register the first European win of the event ahead of Spencer Rivkin and a very unhappy Evans.  In the other encounter Joona Haatanen took an easy win from JP Richards while the same heat saw Ryan Maifield retire with a broken front centre shaft coupler.

Commenting on his latest win, Cavalieri said, ‘I had a really good start and was sneaking around. Then I was battling with Savoya (for the lead) but he really brake checked me’.  Getting into the rear of the Frenchman at the end of the straight but rolling himself after going by he said, ‘It was good he was able to get back into the lead but I had to work my way back up. It was kind deja vu of the first race’.  Dropping to 3rd behind team boss Brent Thielke, he would retake the position when Thielke got a jump wrong and then went to the front when Savoya landed in the face of the jump leading onto the straight. Set to start the final race of the day from 9th on the grid, he said, ‘I don’t think where you start makes too much difference to the race because everyone is making mistakes’.

‘An entertaining race’, was Martin’s view of his third round encounter.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘the car was probably the best it was so far and I tried to not make any mistake.  One lap would be really good and the next one you’d get out shape and be afraid of it for the next lap’.  Asked about his incident with Evans he said, ‘he got inside me one corner and I closed the door on the other and hit him’.  He continued, ‘I could of backed but I am trying to do my best at the same time. With Spencer there I didn’t. I don’t normally get into stuff like that but its one of them things that I’ve had happen to me many times before’.

Giving his opinion on the incident Evans was clearly irrate with Martin’s driving saying, ‘just watch the video’.  He continued, ‘I was making the pass and got smoked the next corner.  I used to have a lot of respect for Lee but not anymore.  If that’s hard racing then I’m going to have to start driving hard’.

Having had ‘bad starts’ in his opening two races, Haatanen said ‘that went very good’.  Lining up 8th on the grid, the Finnish teenager said ‘I was waiting at the start for others to crash and that worked good for me. My car is easy to drive and fast also’.  In the same race as Haatanen, the only European to ever win the Reedy Race title, Joern Neumann, would break in the warm-up with the 1-minute time out allowed not enough time for him to fix his Schumacher and make the start.

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2 out of 2 for Cavalieri

Round 2 of action at the Reedy Race of Champions saw Ryan Cavalieri pull off another win, this time the reigning champion taking a more straight forward victory over Lee Martin and Dakotah Phend.  For the other two winners of the opening round, the second encounter wouldn’t go as well.  Running in the same heat as Cavalieri, Spencer Rivkin would end up finishing as he started with fourth while Dustin Evans, running in the opening race, lost ground dropping two places to finish 5th.  The winner of that race would be Ty Tessmann who led home Ryan Maifield while the round was completed by reigning Open Class Champion Broc Champlin who took the win from Rob Gillespie when the latter got it wrong coming onto the main straight.

‘I got a good start that time’, was how Cavalieri summed up the race. He added, ‘starting on the inside you lose a little traction and Spencer got around me but then a few people made mistakes and I took advantage.  When I got in front I got into my groove and it was all good’.  He concluded, ‘it was a lot different race to the first one’, his gap over pole starter Martin 3.3 seconds at the finish.  Commenting on his race Rivkin said, ‘Me and Lee tapped. I messed up my own race.  He landed up in sea world (blue infield) and came back out quicker than I expected and we touched. It was my fault’.

Asked about his race, the Canadian’s heat opening the second round, Tessmann said, ‘It went good. I started 4th and had no issue. My car was just as good as the first round, easy and consistent to drive’.  Getting a P2 from the back of the grid in Round 1, the Xray driver said, ‘I landed inside the triple one lap but it didn’t cost me too much and once I got by Cole (Tollard) I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t want to risk breaking anything and wanted to get good points’.

Summing up Round 2, Evans said, ‘That was a bad run. The car doesn’t feel quite as good as yesterday now that the grip came up but I have a set-up I will go back to that is better for the higher grip’.  The 2011 Champion added, ‘hopefully thats my throw out so I keep pulling away’.

In a heat void of any invitational clash champions it was a battle of Open Class Champions in the final encounter of the round.  Former Champion Gillespie started on pole and led the way for 6-laps but was chased down by Champlin, he gave up that lead with a mistake coming onto the straight.  Making an attempt to retake his Associated team-mate after the whoops section they would make contact but Gillespie waited and gave back position with Champlin holding on for the win with Joseph Quagraine completing the Top 3.

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Cavalieri kicks off Reedy Race defence with a win

Defending Reedy Race Champion Ryan Cavalieri has kicked off the 24th running of the event with a hard earned win.  Starting from the second row of the grid, the Associated driver would win the opening race at OCRC from team-mate and pole starter Alex Kosciuszek but he had to work hard for it following a poor opening lap and a mistake 3-minutes in while challenge for the lead.  Last year’s 4WD Open Champion Broc Champlin made an impressive Invitational class debut as he led for 5-laps from 7th on the grid before getting pushed back to 4th. In the second of the three encounters, Spencer Rivkin took the win over Ryan Maifield, the World Champion having led for a lap before a mistake – this year’s track challenging all the drivers.  Behind, Jared Tebo completed the Top 3.  Having set the pace in practice yesterday, Dustin Evans would round out the first round of races with the most convincing win.  Starting on pole he immediately built up a massive lead to cross the line 7.3-seconds ahead of Ty Tessmann who was pleased to have been able to work his way through from 10th on the grid.

‘I like to make it more difficult for myself’, joked Cavalieri after his win.  Chasing a 5th Reedy Race title, he continued, ‘I got bumped around a little down the stairs but I kept composed and worked my way back up but it wasn’t easy, its a difficult track’.  On his pass for the lead he said, ‘I had a drag race with my team-mate Alex down the straight and managed to hold on to the inside line and by the end of the race I was getting more comfortable with the track. I’m pretty happy with the car and minus my mistake at the end of the straight it was a good start to the day’.

Reacting to his win, Rivkin said, ‘I drove my tail off, that was one of the toughest races in a long time’.  The 2015 World Champion whose best Reedy Race result was third in 2016, continued, ‘I changed my car after practice and didn’t like it but I drove it the best I could and somehow got the win. I will go back (with the set-up) for the next one’.

Evans said, ‘the first round is always pretty nerve wrecking but it couldn’t have gone any better and now I’ll try to keep it going’.  The former Champion added, ‘in the other two races second on the grid got the holeshot but the kid (2nd place starter Kouki Kato) gave me space.  Once in the lead I drove pretty conservative and just tried to make no mistakes’.

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Track Focus – OCRC Raceway

Track Name – OCRC Raceway
Country – USA
Location – Huntington Beach, California
Surface – Dirt
Direction – Clockwise
Previous Reedy Races hosted – 2014 to 2017

OCRC Raceway hosts the Offroad Reedy Race of Champions for a fifth consecutive year, the Huntington Beach track taking over the honour of having hosted the greatest number of Mike Reedy’s famous race format event.  The 24th running of the Reedy Race, the first held in 1987, OCRC’s Nick Black has created a track he describes as ‘a lot harder than it has been’. Having gained ‘full control this year’ of the track design on watching the Invitation class drivers do their first laps he declared ‘I’m happy with the end result’.  He said his aim for this year’s design was to ‘purposely create multiple sections with different line options and the result is there is a lot of places to set someone up to pass them’.   He also single out the whoops section as something that ‘adds uncertainty to each lap’.  Reigning Champion Ryan Cavalieri, who is targeting a 5th Reedy Race title, said ‘for sure the track this year is more challenging than before.  There is a little more going on so we are going to see some more carnage.’  His thoughts were echoed by his rivals will all liking the challenge the more technical layout presents but wary of getting caught up in other’s mistakes when they can’t execute certain sections with the varying line options.

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