Cavalieri first to double up in 2WD

Ryan Cavalieri is the first driver to double up 2WD at the Reedy Race of Champions, the Team Associated driver registering the win in the most heavily stacked heat of the third round. Starting from 4th on the grid, which also included former Champion Dustin Evans, World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Ty Tessmann, he would quickly find his way to the front with Rivkin coming through from 7th to get a second ahead of Evans and Tessmann.  Having come into the final day of the event as the points leader, Ryan Maifield had the perfect race converting his P10 starting position into a win over Jared Tebo to keep his one point advantage over Cavalieri.  Having had a bad finish to Day 2 of the event, when a rough encounter left him with a P6, Day 1 leader Dakotah Phend bounced back to claim his first 2WD win from 8th on the grid ahead of pole sitter Alex Kosciuszek.  Now sitting 3rd in the standings, if the defending champion discards his 6th as his 2WD throw out, he shares second spot, with Cavalieri 1-point ahead of Maifield.

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Maifield leads going into final day of Reedy Race

Ryan Maifield goes into the final day of the Reedy Race of Champions leading the points table, the Yokomo driver ending Day 2 with a P2 in the second round of 2WD to hold a 1 point advantage.  With Ty Tessmann getting a third in his encounter, Jake Mayo the winner of that, and Dakotah Phend having a rough race finishing 6th from 4th on the grid, a win over Jared Tebo, Maifield and Spencer Rivkin promotes Ryan Cavalieri to second in the standings.  Notching up his second win of the event from 4th on the grid, the result puts Cavalieri right in contention for a fourth Reedy Race title with the overnight Top 3 completed by Tessmann and Joona Haatanen who starting from last on the grid again got the better of Tessmann to finish second behind Mayo.  The third winner was Dustin Evans, the former Champion finally registering a win in impressive fashion having started from the back.

While pleased to be the overnight leader Maifield was ‘a little disappointed’ with his 2nd place in the concluding round of the day. Making his Yokomo race debut at the OCRC Raceway hosted event, the 2015 Champion and 2014 & 2016 runner-up said, ‘that was the best 2WD car I have ever driven, it was fricken awesome but I got so excited to catch Ryan I made too many mistakes.  I’m a little disappointed I was not patient’.  Having started the opening two 2WD encounters ‘deep in the field’ he said ‘hopefully for tomorrow the draw will give me some up front starts so I can cruise rather than hunt’.

‘I kind of needed something like that’, was Cavalieri’s reaction to his win.  The Associated driver continued, ‘I have just been really patient and sometimes it bites me a bit’.  Having a car that ‘feels really good’, he said he needed to ‘just keep driving it’.  One concern the multiple World Champion has for tomorrow’s four encounters is tyres saying, ‘I think tyres will come into play as they have really gone down’.  Having won his last title in 2014 he concluded ‘it will be interesting’.

Evans, who shares the same points as fifth placed Tebo, was relieved to clock up a win saying, ‘I’ve been right there but I’ve just not been winning due to dumb mistakes’.  Describing the latest race as the ‘best and most comfortable’ his Reedy powered B6 has been and ‘going from 10th to 1st was really good’ admitting ‘I was a little lucky too that there was some carnage’. Opening with a second behind Rivkin, after the strong start to 2WD the 2011 Champion is hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

Taking a very popular win in front of a home crowd, Invitation class debutant Mayo said, ‘I just drove smart. I got a little lucky too’.  Starting from 9th on the grid, the 18-year-old Team Associated driver whose previous best finish was a 5th in 4WD, said ‘I made a few changes to my car and that was the best it’s been.  They made it easier to drive’.

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Wins for Tebo, Rivkin & Haatanen in opening 2WD encounter

The switch over to 2WD at the Reedy Race of Champions opened with wins for Jared Tebo, Spencer Rivkin and Joona Haatanen but of the main contenders at the end of 4WD it was Ryan Maifield who posted the best result finishing second behind Tebo. The first race of the round saw Maifield and his points rival Dakotah Phend line up in the same race but starting from pole Tebo managed to register his first win of the weekend as the battling Maifield and Phend came through to complete the Top 3. The third driver to share the top spot at the end of 4WD, Ty Tessmann would end with a fourth in a race that Spencer Rivkin would take the win ahead of former Champions Dustin Evans and Ryan Cavalieri.  Having provided one of most entertaining battles of the morning’s 4WD action when he beat Tessmann in the final round, Haatanen continued to impress & become a crowd favourite as took the win over Aussie Kyle McBride.

‘Finally’ was Tebo’s reaction to putting a win on the board.  The Kyosho driver, for whom the Reedy Race is one of the big titles that eludes him, continued the win was down to the fact he ‘just drove good’.  Declaring ‘that race was fun to drive’, he said after stiffening up his RB6 for the extra traction the car ‘felt awesome’.  Leading away the 10 car grid, he said, ‘I sprinted the first couple of laps and then just drove around after that’.  Registering three P2 finishes over the six 4WD encounters he said the lack of a win ‘was all me’.  The former World Champion concluding, ‘I got a lot of good breaks but didn’t capitalise’ but opening 2WD with a win he hopes to make amends over the remaining races.

‘You’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities’ was how Rivkin summed up his win from the front row.  Despite winning by 2.6-seconds over his new Associated team-mate Evans, the World Champion felt he ‘could have drove better’ but added ‘there is still a lot of time for that’.  Happy with how his Reedy powered B6 was for the first race, saying he had made changes to it ‘on the fly’ while running 4WD to get it ready for the change in track conditions. Happy with how it ran he will however make ‘one adjustment’ for Round 2 to try make it ‘a little more balanced’.

14-year-old Haatanen took his second win of the day in his stride.  Last year’s Reedy Race of Champions’ 2WD Open winner, for which the prize is a place in the prestigious Invitational class, the Finn said his Associated was ‘super good and easy to drive’.  Having changed the car from how he ran it in Thursday practice to compensate for higher traction after 4WD, adding wider hexes and a harder spring, he said this made the car difficult to drive in the practice run between the classes switch over and so they went back to his previous set-up.  Surviving a roll when he ran wide after the step down to take the win, maintaining 7th in the standings, he said it was ‘a good start to 2WD’.

Of the current leading contenders, Maifield was happy with his first 2WD effort.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘It went good. I started 8th and myself and Dakotah picked our way through but by then Jared had quite a big lead.  It was a pretty good race with Dakotah and I just managed to hold him off.  8th to 2nd is a good start so I’m pretty stoked’.  ‘It went ok’ was Phend’s reaction, the TLR driver adding, ‘me and Ryan got through the pack and our battle was pretty good.  A Top 3 from the back row is a good start’.   Contact in the sweeper meant it was wasn’t a good start for Tessmann as he waited to give back position.  Following Cavalieri, who started 10th, through the field the Xray driver said as it was his first time to run worn tyres on his XB2 it ‘wasn’t perfect’ but it was something they could ‘fix for the next one’.

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