Champion Phend opens Reedy Race with a win

Defending Reedy Race Champion Dakotah Phend opened the 23rd running of the event with a win, the TLR driver cruising to victory in the most heavily stacked race of the opening round of 4WD racing.  Starting from the pole, Phend was never challenged for the lead eventually able to go an extra lap to win ahead of Ryan Maifield who came through from the back of the grid.  In the other races it was Tanner Denney from 6th on the grid who won the first encounter ahead of former champion Dustin Evans while Spencer Rivkin got a late win over Cole Tollard in Race 2.

‘I was starting from the front and it was a stacked heat so I had to make it count’, was how Phend summed up his win over Maifield, the race also featuring Ryan Cavalieri and Jared Tebo who finished 4th and 5th respectively.  The Michigan driver continued, ‘I got a good start and once I got into a rhythm I was able to run a smooth clean round.  He added, ‘having a clear track I also got a good feel for the track.  My car was super easy and on pace so I’m happy’.

Runner-up to Phend last year, Maifield described his result as ‘a good start’.  The new Yokomo signing said, ‘I was super patient and starting at the back I didn’t want to push the issue.  There were a couple of incidents which I crept around’.  Working his way from 9th to 3rd he said, ‘I was thinking this is not a bad result to start.  Then JP got a little loose and we touched mid air.  I spoke to him after and he said it was just a racing thing.  2nd was good’.  On his Orion powered YZ-4 he said ‘the car was a little loose so we’ll make some changes’.

Commenting on his win from 3rd on the grid, Rivkin said, ‘It was a good confidence boost.  I’m glad to get a good start but there is a lot more racing ahead’. Debuting Associated’s new B64D, the 2WD World Champion said a change to the car after the morning practice had made it ‘easy to drive’ and he was ‘more comfortable with it’.  Having one mistake over the race, he said, ‘I need to learn from that for the next time’.

Denney put his win down to getting a ‘pretty decent start’.  Following early leader Brian Kinwald, having come from the third row of the grid, he would make a mistake behind the former Champion but was able to catch back up before ‘finally’ getting passed the RC legend.  Out front he said he couldn’t let up as ‘Evans was hauling mail’ with the pair providing the closest finish of the first round, Evans basically pushing Denney across the line there separation on the clock 0.035.

‘9th to second, I’ll take that’, was Evans reaction to his opening race.  The 2011 Champion continued, ‘I had a good start and an opportunity to win but I came up on Kinwald faster than expected at the end of the straight and had to check up and ended up in the corner but the end result is a pretty good to start out with’.

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Maifield lays down 2WD pace at Reedy Race

Ryan Maifield has laid down the fastest lap of 2WD practice on the opening day of the Reedy Race of Champions.  The new Yokomo signing posted a best lap of 20.135 to top the times from 4WD pace setter Ty Tessmann, the separation 4/100ths of a second.  A good day for the new team debutants, a strong lap from TLR’s Tanner Denney would see him the fastest of regular team drivers in P3 while team-mate & defending Champion Dakotah Phend ended up only 18th fastest of the 30 invitational class drivers.

Having made ‘a few changes’ to his Orion powered YZ-2, Maifield described his car as ‘really good’ for the final of the day’s three practice rounds.  The 2015 winner added, ‘I am still working everything out but the team is really good to work with and there is good team work between everyone’.  Looking to the racing, he said, ‘any laydown car that fast isn’t easy to drive but it predicable so its looking good’.

Tessmann said changes to his XB2 were ‘very good’ making it ‘easier to drive and faster’. Declaring himself ‘very happy so far’, he is running a stock kit with the only optional on the car being extra chassis stiffeners.  While for 2WD there is ‘a long way to racing’, the Canadian said, ‘based on that run and how we expect the track conditions to be we will make a very small change for racing’ which for 2WD gets underway Saturday afternoon.

‘My car is really good but I need to make it a little quieter, it was super loud’, was how Denney summed up his practice. Rebuilding his gearbox, when asked what the cause of the noise was he replied, ‘a bad mechanic’.  Describing his TLR22 as ‘easy to drive’, the 21-year-old said ‘we’ll see how the racing goes but its all down to the luck of the draw. Phend, summed up the first day of his title defence by saying, ‘I think it going good, tomorrow will tell the truth’.  Like his team-mate, the 19-year-old said ‘both my cars are safe and easy to drive’.

Setting the fourth fastest lap time, Lee Martin said overall practice ‘wasn’t too bad’ but for the final run they ‘went a different direction with the set-up and it wasn’t as good’.  With some elements of the changes better for racing he will ‘go to what Ryan (Maifield) is running’.  The British driver said he also hopes the track changes, adding ‘more grip would be good’.

‘I’m happy now’ was how Dustin Evans summed up posting the 5th lap time.  The fastest Associated driver in 2WD,  having made a rear end set-up change to his Reedy powered B6D he said it was ‘now where I want it to be’.  Admitting ‘Maifield was super fast that time’, he added ‘my car is very consistent which is good for racing’.

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Tessmann tops 4WD practice at Reedy Race

Although speed is not the main ingredient for Reedy Race of Champion glory, Ty Tessmann has got his Xray debut off to a positive start by setting the outright pace over the three rounds of 4WD practice at OCRC Raceway in California.  Posting a time of 19.613, the Canadian was fastest from Ryan Maifield who was another of the big American names to switch teams over the winter, the new Yokomo driver putting in a 19.845 second lap. Behind, Ryan Cavalieri would post the third quickest time and while he hasn’t changed team the former champion is debuting Associated’s well overdue new 4WD.

Summing up the performance of his XB4, Tessmann said, ‘It was really good but a little on the hard side to drive, but its really fast’. Looking to ‘take a little steering away’, he plans to make a small change for the morning practice to ‘see if that helps’.  Describing the third round of practice as the best the track has been, the former 1:8 World Champion said they still need it to improve a little more as it’s still ‘a lot different’ to what they did all their testing on.

‘Dialled’ was how Maifield summed up his YZ-4.  The 2015 champion & last year’s runner-up, he continued ‘the car feels really good’, adding it is ‘easy to drive’ and had ‘a lot of corner speed’. 3/10ths off Maifield’s pace Lee Martin would take his example to the 11th fastest time of the 30 invited drivers.

Cavalieri was content with his pace saying his new B64D was ‘very nice & easy to drive’.  Feeling he still needs to find a little more steering he plans to ‘throw one more thing at it in the morning practice’. Behind, Spencer Rivkin would clock the fourth fastest lap.  Finishing on the podium last year, the 2WD World Champion said, ‘I think it’s going good and it is just going to get better and better each time we hit the track’.  One area the 18-year-old felt was letting him down was his own driving which is something he hopes to improve on for tomorrow with just one final morning practice before the first of the six rounds of heads up 4WD racing.

Fifth fastest, Jared Tebo said he has been making little changes to his Kyosho to get it dialled into the handout Pro-Line tyre.  Feeling the tyre has ‘a lot less steering than the Electron’ he would normally choose to run, he was particularly pleased that even though he was on a new set of tyres for the final 4WD practice of the day he still managed his fastest lap. A driver for whom the Reedy Race of Champions has so far eluded him, he said a ‘not fully filled’ centre diff meant he was not getting full drive and with this correct for tomorrow the extra drive should make some of the jumps ‘easier’.  Behind Tebo former Champion Dustin Evans would complete the Top 6 in terms of fastest lap times on his Team Associated debut.

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Evans & Cavalieri set early pace at Reedy Race

New Team Associated recruit Dustin Evans and team-mate Ryan Cavalieri have set the pace in early practice for the 23rd running of the Reedy Race of Champions at OCRC Raceway.  With Associated using the event to debut their long overdue new 4WD, all their drivers in the invite class running the new B64D chassis, Evans got his first appearance with the team off to the best possible start as he topped the times ahead of his young team-mate Joona Haatanen.  After the 2 rounds of practice, the first round not more than a track break-in run, it was Cavalieri who set the fastest 3-consecutive laps for 2WD ahead of Ty Tessmann for whom the event marks his debut with Xray.  Mr. consistent over both classes was defending champion Dakotah Phend, the TLR driver taking his cars to the 3rd fastest time.

‘It was good, I’m really happy with my 4WD’, was how a very pleased looking Evans summed up the first 2 of the 3 scheduled rounds of practice.  The 2011 Reedy Champion said, ‘I will make a couple of adjustments for the last one to get a little more steering’ adding ‘the car is really consistent and i could driver it all day’.  Finding himself P18 in 2WD, he said he had made a few changes between rounds but in a change to the traditional running order of the event with 2WD running after 4WD he expects the track to change a lot and be ‘way different’ so 2WD set-up was not the main focus for now but more scrubbing in tyres.

Cavalieri was pleased with his early runs saying his cars were ‘working really well’.  The 3-time winner said on his 2WD he hadn’t touched the set but instead working on getting his slipper right and breaking in tyres.  Describing this year’s track layout as ‘pretty fun’, this being the fourth year OCRC has hosted the legendary race, he added, ‘it’s a nice racing layout and should be good to battle on, I also like that its more challenging than the normal layout they run here’.  On his 4WD, he said ‘we adjusted a couple of things in the front and it felt a little quicker and now we’ll make a few changes in the rear and go from there but overall its good’.

Describing the opening practice as ‘super loose’, Tessmann said, ‘we haven’t touched anything yet and its pretty good so far’. Declaring himself confident with his new cars, adding ‘we know there is a lot of adjustments we can do and we just need time to figure out what each does’, the Canadian said he hasn’t been ‘too focused on 2WD yet’ due to it running later in the event.  On his 4WD, his XB4 11th fastest over three laps but second fastest on outright lap times, he said ‘its been pretty good’.

Phend was happy with both his cars but felt his TLR22 was ‘just a little lazy’ and so for the days closing practice he will ‘make a couple of small changes’. On his 4WD, he added he will ‘just keep running it as is’.  On track conditions, the Michigan driver said the traction was ‘coming up pretty quickly’ adding for him ‘it seems more abrasive than last year’.

Making the trip to California from Finland, rising star Haatanen couldn’t hide his delight with Associated’s new 4WD saying, ‘the new car is so much easier’. Having 2-days with the new car in San Diego as preparations for the Reedy Race, the 14-year-old feels there is still ‘a lot more potential’ to come once he gets more used to the B64D.  Suffering an issue with the first set of tyres he got for 2WD, he said he had to change to another new set for the second round of practice so his tyres are a little behind those of his rivals in terms of being broken in.

Lee Martin would set the pace of the Yokomo drivers in 2WD posting the 4th fastest time while in 4WD he was P5 behind the YZ-4’s designer Shin Adachi. Summing up his opening practices as ‘not too bad’ he said he was ‘trying to get comfortable’ with his cars adding ‘we all know this race is not about speed’. One area the British driver was worked on each practice, has been to try different positions on the driver stand.  He said with the stand at OCRC ‘naturally low’ and this year’s track featuring ‘high elevation changes’ he said ‘there are a few spots you can lose sight of the car’.  New team-mate Ryan Maifield declared his ‘cars are good’ adding ‘I’m just bedding in tyres’.  The 2015 Champion said, ‘the track is going to be different for racing especially for 2WD’ and while making a few setting changes the practices so far was about ‘just getting tyres broken in’.  Describing the layout of the track as ‘fun’ he added ‘it has a little more technical elements to it which is nice to see’.

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