Maifield takes easy A1 win even with last lap tumble

Ryan Maifield has won the first A-Main at the 2WD Offroad World Championship in China, the Yokomo driver having such a lead that he could still take the win despite needing to be marshalled in the jumps section on the last lap.  Top Qualifier for the 17th running of the event, Maifield was able to quickly build up an advantage at the front, ahead of team-mate Lee Martin who came under pressure from Ryan Cavalieri, the Associated driver briefly getting ahead of the British driver.  In the end however the Top 3 would finish in the same order as they started with Dakotah Phend getting 4th from 6th on the grid ahead of Jared Tebo.

‘It was nice to get away early and I was pretty comfortable out there’, was how Maifield summed up the first of the three A-Main encounters. He continued, ‘together as a team we have been able to get the car nice to drive and with the track getting worse I don’t know how thats happened because it didn’t start out that way. I’m glad to get the first one out of the way because of all the pomp & ceremony and BS that goes with it. Now we can just charge up the battery and we are ready go again’. Asked about his mistake he replied, ‘the jumps are gnarly so if you miss it by just a few inches it catches you out but I hold no value to the mistake. Having only been able to do one warm-up lap before, this time we could do two and that definitely effected the tyres because the wear is so high so I think for the next one I will cut back to just the 1 lap before the start’.

Describing his race, Martin said, ‘it was hard work and it wasn’t a hard race. It was just hard to drive because you were worried every lap about making a mistake. The track is really hard’. He continued, ‘the triple is hard now and it was one of the easier jumps before and when I jumped it long I had problems with the marshal blocking my view’. Having ‘a good battle’ with Cavalieri he joked, ‘Ryan (Maifield) made it exciting, its just a pity he couldn’t have crashed a second longer’.

‘It wasn’t a bad first main but we are a little off the pace’, was Cavalieri’s thoughts on A1. The former champion continued, ‘I ran a clean race with Lee and we almost caught up at the end. We just need to be a little faster next time’. Asked where he felt he was lacking the pace, the American replied, ‘I don’t know what to do but I think I need to drive a bit better and we almost need to figure out a few things on the car set-up’.

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Maifield Top Qualifier as Yokomo qualify 1-2 in China

Ryan Maifield is the Top Qualifier for the 2WD Offroad World Championships in Xiamen, China.  The Yokomo driver claimed his first 2WD Worlds’ pole position when he TQ’d the fifth & final round of qualifying ahead of team-mate Lee Martin who will line up second.  Having initially struggled with the challenging Xiamen ARC International Raceway track, Maifield finally turned things around at the close of the second day of the event when under the floodlights he topped Q3.  Kicking off finals day with a P3 in the penultimate qualifier, the American delivered his second TQ run in the final qualifier but with the running order reversed for Q5 he had to wait to see what Martin could do in the second fastest heat.  For a time it looked like Martin would secure his first Worlds TQ as he ran more than 1-second up on Maifield’s pace but with just under 2-minutes on the clock he would crash coming onto the straight handing to overall TQ to his new for 2017 team-mate. Behind the Yokomos it is Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri who will start third, the Q2 pace setter’s unable to challenge for the TQ in the final qualifier as he managed only P14.  The only other driver to TQ a round, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski saw his challenge for the TQ end with a mistake in the jumps section that knocked a front shock of his car so he starts fourth with Bruno Coelho completing the top half of the grid ahead of Dakotah Phend, David Ronnefalk, Jared Tebo, Joern Neumann and Kyle McBride.

Despite taking the TQ, Maifield said, ‘I am very annoyed at myself.  Why can’t they just tell you you are done.  I crashed on my cool down lap but didn’t know it was and got pissed that I had thrown way a TQ run and then drove my car off the track and now I’ve got to rebuild it’.  With his car requiring a new chassis following him driving it off the track, he continued, ‘why can’t they let you know what is going on’.  Looking to the finals, he said, ‘I’m just going out there and do what I can do.  I think there are couple of guys who are faster but I have been pretty good at not crashing so lets see what happens’.  Asked about track conditions, he replied, ‘there is only one race and its racing the track.  Yeah there will be others on the track but if you are too concerned about other people you lose focus on the main competition which is the track’.  He concluded, ‘I am going to try keep a cool head and drive my own race and see what happens’.

‘I just tensed up a little that run’ was Martin’s reaction after missing out on his first Worlds TQ.  The reigning European Champion continued, ‘I got the jump wrong and it cost me around 3-seconds which was enough to be pipped for the TQ.  At least it fell to Ryan and not somebody else’.  Runner-up at the 2013 Worlds in Chico when he finished ahead of Maifield and behind Jared Tebo, when asked about his thoughts for the finals the British ace replied, ‘we start 1-2, we’ll see what we can do. Ryan is going to drive his race and I’m going to drive mine’.

Asked for his reaction after the final qualifier Cavalieri said, ‘God damn the track has changed a lot today’.  The Associated driver continued, ‘we are definitely going to have to look over a couple of different things and make some changes for the final.  We need to get the car more stable in he rear’.  ‘Looking forward to racing’, the 2011 Champion said ‘I just going to be patient.  The rhythm section is going to be the hardest.  We’ll have to see who is going to be conservative and who is going to just jump it.  You are going to need to be fully alert going through there’.

‘It will be interesting’, that was Orlowski’s thoughts ahead of the finals.  The 16-year-old continued, ‘the track is getting harder to drive as it has more dust on it.  I think the jump section will be challenging as some are doing it single single while others are doubling all them so it will be difficult to race out there’.  Having topped seeding practice he added, ‘I have had good pace in my car from the beginning so I have the car. I’m looking forward to the finals and to the racing’.

While making his first 2WD Worlds final with 5th on the grid, reigning 4WD Champion Coelho said, ‘I can’t say I am that confident for the final’.  Having set the pace in free practice, the Xray driver continued, ‘the track has changed a lot over the last two days and the grip is getting worse and worse so we are struggling for rear traction on power and in braking. It is even more loose today so we will completely change the set-up.  We have nothing to lose.  It is only counts to finish first all the other places are like last place’.

A driver who ended qualifying with an ever improving form posting the 3rd fastest time in the final round, Phend said, ‘it is getting better every round. It’s going to be pretty hectic out there in the finals’.  The lead TLR driver continued, ‘everyone is making mistakes and the mistakes are going to cause pile ups so you have to try get through it and there will be a lot of luck involved’.  Having made ‘a couple of changes’ to his car for the final qualifier that gave him more grip he said, ‘I should have made them a round earlier but I didn’t expect the track to go downhill that quickly’.

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Martin takes penultimate qualifier from Orlowski

Having claimed two P2 result in qualifying yesterday, Lee Martin has opened the final day of the 2WD Offroad World Championships in China with a TQ run in the penultimate qualifier. Running in the second fastest heat, the reseeding after three rounds that would have put the Yokomo driver in the top heat been withdrawn this morning,  Martin’s time would see him post the quickest time ahead of Q1 pace setter Michal Orlowski. Having lead a Yokomo 1-2 last night from Martin in Q3, Ryan Maifield backed that up by posting a P3 run ahead of Chris Sturdy, Dakotah Phend and Jared Tebo.  For reigning champion Spencer Rivkin, the fourth qualifier saw the American’s hopes of defending his title come to an end as he again failed to register a competitive result.

‘The track is slick’, was Martin’s reaction after Q4. The European Champion continued, ‘I kept it relatively clean and had no mistakes although I had to single jumps a few times which lost time but it was nothing crazy’.  Having made ‘small tweaks’ to his YZ-2 for the morning qualifier, today a much warmer day than yesterday, he said they will make further ‘small tweaks’ to suit the track conditions.  Looking to ‘increase rear traction’, the British driver said this would make it ‘safer accelerating towards the jumps’.  Looking to the finals, the British driver concluded, ‘the racing is going to be difficult.  You are racing the track not each other’.

Orlowski said, ‘It started well and I had good pace.  I was leading the timing and running behind Maifield and tried to keep calm and run consistent laps but then had a mistake at the end of the straight.  My car flipped and I had to wait on the marshal so it cost me a lot of time’.  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘After that I had to push to get back some of the time so at least I got second for the round’.  Asked about track conditions, the Pole replied, ‘It felt very loose in the warm-up so I drove the heat with that in mind trying to make no mistakes’.  In terms of car set-up they will make some ‘small changes’ to keep up with the changing track conditions.

‘It was ok. Its the first time I didn’t have to get marshalled although I still crashed twice’, was Maifield summary of Q4.  He added, ‘the track is getting worse and worse and there are now a lot of holes out there’.  On his car he said, ‘I wouldn’t say it is going awesome but myself and Lee are working really well together and having Joe (Pillars) is a big help as he and Shin (Adachi) are spotting things were aren’t seeing out there.  There is no lack of communication within the team which is really helpful’.

After a rough start to qualifying yesterday with things improving over the day, Sturdy was delighted with his P4 having had a best run of 16th fastest in Q3 last night.  The Team Associated driver said having struggling with ‘dept perception’ in last night’s closing run under food lights, today he was a lot more comfortable driving with his B6 also ‘nicer to drive’ and having more steering.  On his Q4 performance, the 21-year-old said, ‘It started off well but when I got called in the lead I got a bit shaky and had a tumble in the jumps section but the marshal was really good and I didn’t lose much time’.

‘The track is definitely getting more slippery the more we are running on it’ was Phend’s reaction after setting the fifth fastest time for the round, his best qualifying result so far.  Describing his TLR22 4.0 as ‘not too bad’, the American said, ‘we are making a few changes each time for the track as its getting looser and looser’.  He concluded, ‘It should be good for the last one so I’m chasing a Top 5’.  Behind Phend, fellow countryman Jared Tebo completed the Top 6 ahead of Naoto Matsukura, Joern Neumann, Bruno Coelho and Ryan Cavalieri.

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Maifield leads Yokomo 1-2 in Q3 at WC

Ryan Maifield became the third different driver to post a TQ on the opening day of qualifying at the 2WD Offroad World Championship, the American leading a Yokomo 1-2 in China in the third round of qualifying.  Having not featured in the opening two qualifiers, with a best run of P9 in Q2, Maifield took set-up direction from team mate Lee Martin for the final action of the day to top the third of the five qualifiers by 0.375 of a second from the British driver who also managed a P2 in the previous round.  Behind the Yokomo duo, the round would see another of US Offroad racing’s big name drivers turn around a challenging day as Jared Tebo took his Kyosho to the third fastest time even with an error on his final lap.  Having taken Q2, Ryan Cavalieri would conclude a long day, due to morning rain delays, with a P4 ahead of Q1 pace setter Michal Orlowski while TLR’s Dakotah Phend rounded out the Top 6 with his best run of the day.

Commenting on his turn around in performance Maifield said, ‘We made a couple of changes and they were good. Lee was going good and we have been working well together so I did a few things he did and the car felt better’.  He continued, ‘It was still sketchy to drive so I tried to drive more calm but it was still not calm enough.  For tomorrow I need to make sure I don’t drink any Redbull because you have to be so calm out there’.  With 3 of the 5 rounds to count, the result is a huge boost going into the final two qualifiers tomorrow with the former runner-up saying, ‘we have a good plan for tomorrow and have a good idea what direction to go with our set-up’.

Summing up his run, Martin said, ‘ Overall it was a good run but I got held up a lot by traffic.  I’m not blaming the drivers as it was too dark to see who is around you but there are four guys on the drivers stand and big numbers on the cars but still nothing was called so can we not take these big ugly numbers off the cars’.  On his YZ-2 performance he said, ‘we made a small tweak to get more rear bite on power. It was quicker in the turns but didn’t solve the issue’.  With the Q3 result booking the European Champion’s place on the A-Main grid he conclude, ‘I’m excited for tomorrow’.

‘Awesome’ was Tebo’s reaction to P3 time, the former Champion only managing a best run of P13 in the opening two qualifiers.  He continued, ‘my car felt good and I finally got my confidence back.  I made a mistake myself when I messed up on my last lap which cost me the TQ but still this one kept me in with a chance’.  Having got his car set-up back to where the car is comfortable to drive he said, ‘I ‘m positive about tomorrow because now that I have confidence in the car I know there is room for improvement’.

Cavalieri said his run ‘started off good’ but then he had a ‘really bad one’ at the table top on the right side which cost him over 5-seconds.  While he ‘almost saved it’, the Associated driver admitted he was ‘lucky to salvage 4th out of something that could have been a lot worse’.  Feeling his car was too aggressive when he TQ’d Q2 due to the amount of wear on his front tyres he said ‘I really like the new front after the first 3 to 4 laps’.  Counting his P2 in the Q1, TQ in Q2 and P4 in the third, the multiple former champion holds the overnight provisional TQ in Xiamen.

‘It was difficult with the light. It was hard to see the pipes even with them painted white (in the corners)’, was Orlowski’s reaction to setting the fifth fastest time for the round.  The reigning Euro Offroad Series champion added, ‘I had two costly mistakes in the last double off the jumps section but the base is there and we don’t have to change anything on the car.  Tomorrow I will just try to drive around and make the best laps I can’.  Behind the Schumacher driver, while Phend’s 6th would be the first Top 10 for the TLR team it would also be the first time reigning champion Spencer Rivkin had a single digit result with him getting a P9 behind HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk and the privately entered Associated of Joern Neumann.

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