Tessmann opens with another win to go at Reedy Race

Ty Tessmann has opened Day 2 of the Reedy Race of Champions with an important win that moves the Xray driver to the top of the points table with one round of 4WD racing remaining at OCRC Raceway.  Making the win even more valuable was that Tessmann lined up in the same race as overnight points leader Dakotah Phend, the TLR driver having a tough races from which he would salvage a fourth. Ryan Cavalieri failed to convert a pole position start into an expected win with Alex Kosciuszek surviving a last lap challenge from the 3-time champion to register his second win for the Invitation class debutant.  Starting the opening race of the fifth round from last on the grid alongside Jared Tebo, Spencer Rivkin would benefit from a huge pile-up on the third lap to find his way to the front to win ahead of Chad Due who just managed to hold off a recovering Tebo who had a disastrous first lap.

‘The start was a little sketchy and scary but once I got into a rhythm it was pretty good’, was how Tessmann summed up his 3rd win on what is his debut event with the Slovakian made cars.  Starting from fourth on the grid he said ‘once I made the next two passes and was out front I had a clear track and was able to pull away.  The car felt good again as it has all week’.  Looking to the final 4WD encounter which he will again start from fourth, he said, ‘hopefully I will be able to drop one of my fours’, the former HB driver having opened with a pair of fourth places yesterday.

Winner of 3 races yesterday defending champion Phend said, ‘my car was really good but unfortunately I had bad luck’.   Lining up 7th for the start, the 19-year-old continued, ‘some drivers crashed in front of me and some cut across my line but I salvaged it’.  Pulling a great pass on Serpent’s Barry Baker into the last corner to out drag him to the line for fourth, he concluded ‘it is what it is’. For the Michigan driver he will again have to contend with starting towards the back of the grid having been drawn for another P7 start.

Notching up his 2nd win, having won his opening race of this the 23rd running of the legendary race, Rivkin said, ‘I’ll take it’.  He continued, ‘I started 10th with Tebo at the back and there was a pile up and I took advantage of it’.   The Team Associated driver added, ‘it helps a lot to have two wins and with a few more I can be right in it’.

‘It was alright I guess’ was how last years Reedy Race 4WD Open Class Champion Kosciuszek described his second win.  The Team Associated driver adding ‘I looked like a squid out there’.  Starting on the front row alongside Cavalieri, he said ‘I got a better start than Ryan but then my car bounced weird and touched his car which kind of screwed his race’.  Just managing to keep Cavalieri at bay in the dying laps, the 17-year-old said, ‘my last lap was slow as I was pretty nervous but I just had enough to hold onto it’.

Venting his frustration, for missing out on what should have been a straight forward win, as he left the drivers stand, Cavalieri summed up the race with ‘mediocre I’d say’. He continued, ‘Starting on pole and finishing 2nd when I had the pace is not great’.  Describing his new B64D as ‘really good now’, he said having changed it every round so far now there would be ‘no more changes to the car’. Having dropped down the order in the race he said luckily he was able to better his opening round P4 finish which he hopes will be his 4WD throw out result – driving count 5 of the 6 rounds.

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Phend leads Reedy Race overnight with 3rd win

Dakotah Phend is the overnight leader at the end of the first day’s racing at the Reedy Race of Champions.  The defending champion took an impressive third win in the closing race which was to prove the most entertaining of the day’s 16 races. Starting on pole it was his former TLR team-mate Dustin Evans who lined up beside him who would get the better start.  Battling clear of the pack out front, the pair would make contact on the main straight allowing Alex Kosciuszek with Jared Tebo in toe to go to the front setting up for a thrilling showdown.  Tebo’s chances of a first win however where short lived as he made an error and it wasn’t long before Kosciuszek followed suit with Phend there to pick up the pieces for an important win ahead of Cole Tolland.  With drivers allowed one dropped score, as it stands this leaves Phend with the perfect score with two 4WD races remaining as he heads Ty Tessmann and Ryan Cavalieri who sit joint second in the points.  The fourth round would see Tessmann become the only other multiple race winner of the day as he notched up a second win ahead of Ryan Maifield and Cavalieri. Claiming the first European win, Lee Martin was the other winner of the round after getting around Malin Karlsen, the Norwegian teenager making history as the first female to compete at the Reedy Race in the Invitational class.

‘I’m pretty happy’ was how Phend summed up the first day of his title defence before adding, ‘but I already have to use my throw out’.  Targeting Top 3 runs in tomorrow’s concluding two 4WD encounters before the switch to 2WD,  Phend said the day’s final race was ‘a lot of fun’ continuing ‘me and Dustin had a blast, it was an exciting race’.  Commenting on his contact with Evans, he said, ‘I went wide coming onto the straight trying to get by Dustin but hit the wall and got sideways.  It was just a racing incident’.

Tessmann declared it ‘a good finish to the day’ adding ‘I got to keep getting low points I guess’.  Planning to ‘keep pushing forward’, the new Xray signing said his car is ‘awesome’ and referring to his opening two races, in which he got P4, he said he ‘just need(s) better luck’.  Starting the closing race on pole but losing out to Tanner Denney off the line, the former 1:8 World Champion said, ‘It was a little hairy at the start’.  Surviving a rollover once in front after Round 1 winner Denney made a mistake he was able to control the race for an easy 3.6 second win over Maifield.

The Reedy Race of Champions most successful driver, winning the unique prestigious race 3-times, Cavalieri said, ‘I’m really happy so far especially with having a new car’.  With Team Associated using the race to debut their long overdue new 4WD platform, the B64D, he continued, ‘we have been all working hard to making it a little quicker’.  Making changes for Round 4 to the diff oils and removing the front swaybar he said this gave him more corner speed and now they will try some changes in the rear to ‘try get a little more for tomorrow’.

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