Maifield, Rivkin & Martin win opening 4WD encounter

The opening round of 4WD at the Reedy Race of Champions would produce wins for Ryan Maifield, Spencer Rivkin and Lee Martin but the big news of the round was the bad results for TLR’s Dustin Evans and Dakotah Phend.  First and second in the points at the end of 2WD and lining up in the same first 4WD encounter, Evans would struggle from 7th on the grid ending up only 6th while Phend, who was chasing down Rivkin for the race lead, who break on lap 6 at the same piece of track where he had a break in 2WD yesterday.  Opening the first of the six rounds of 4WD, Martin would take a tone to tone win over Ty Tessmann, both having started off the front row.  In the second race Maifield would somehow survive a roll on the straight to win ahead of Jared Tebo and long time race leader Brian Kinwald.  In Race 3 Rivkin had a good battle with Kyle McBride with Ryan Cavalieri looking to be getting into the mix from 8th on the grid until a mistake on the penultimate lap meant he had to settle for third.

The race which had most people talking and trying to figure out how he survived his clash with Kevin Motter on the straight, Maifield describing his first 4WD encounter as ‘Kind of F**king Nuts’.  The TLR driver said he ‘was trying to creep his way through the field’.  Coming up on second placed Motter, Maifield said last year’s Open class champion ‘got into (him)’ as he tried to make a pass down the straight.  Sending his 22-4 into a tumble the reigning Reedy Race Champion said he ‘kept it full throttle and prayed it would stay on its wheels’, something it did.  With the airshow allowing Tebo to catch him, the pair would touch coming off the sweeper in an incident Tebo would make clear with the referees after the race he wasn’t happy with.  In second behind offroad legend & 2-time Reedy Race Champion Kinwald, Maifield said he didn’t push the issue adding it worked out when the Associated driver made a mistake.

‘First off I had a good spot on the grid but I was just running my own race’, was how Rivkin who started 2nd summed up his race.  Following pole sitter Billy Easton for the first lap he would go to the front when the Serpent driver got it wrong coming onto the straight on lap 2.  A mistake on lap 11 of 17 at the first triple would loose him the lead to McBride but it was short lived as the Australian had an error.  On his mistake while leading, Rivkin said ‘I didn’t panic and McBride did the work for me when he crashed’. Double singling the second triple on the last lap he said having lost a win their yesterday on the last lap he took the ‘conservative’ approach to avoid a repeat.  While his B44.4 was ‘good’ he said his driving was only ‘ok’ but the important thing from the race was that he took points off Evans, Phend and Cavalieri who were all in his race.

Summing up his first win of the 22nd running of the Reedy Race, the first win of the event by a non-American, Martin said ‘It was ok’.  The Yokomo driver said he ‘need(s) a little more from the car’ and for the race he ‘just kept his nose clean’.  Looking to get his YZ-4 easier to drive, the Euro Offroad Series Champion said having got a win he at least ‘can now go home satisfied’. The result moves him into the Top 10 (9th) in the latest points standings.  Behind Martin, the big battle of the race was between Tessmann and Kody Numedahl until the 2WD triple winner rolled onto the straight allowing the Canadian, whose D413 set the fastest lap of the first round, open his stronger discipline with a P2.

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2WD complete at Reedy Race, Evans leads

With the first part of the 22nd running of the Reedy Race of Champions is complete and it is former Champion Dustin Evans who leads at OCRC Raceway in California.  The Team Losi Racing driver, who came into the second day of the event leading the points, finished up the 2WD action with a win in the 6th round allowing the Colorado driver to drop a third place from Round 3. One of only three triple winners, Evans goes into the 6 rounds of heads up 4WD racing with a 1-point lead over TLR team-mate Dakotah Phend.  It was a great start to Day 2 for Phend, the 18-year-old winning both his encounters with a 10th from Round 2 when he broke becoming his throw out round.  Behind the two TLR drivers, it is Team Associated’s Kody Numedahl who completes the Top 3.

Changing to a stiffer front suspension on his Orion powered 22, Evans said it was ‘awesome’.  With a 1st or 2nd required to better his points, he said he ‘had nothing to loose’ starting from 8th on the grid adding to ‘get the win was huge’.  Having ‘a good battle’ with pole starter Ty Tessman, getting by the Canadian on lap 12 of 17, he said 2WD had been a good start to the event.  Feeling he had a good draw in terms of his 2WD starting position he expects 4WD to involve some tougher grids. With his TLR22-4 having been good in practice he said while the track is going to be very different his plan is to go out ‘have fun and do what (he) can’.

Also winning his final encounter off the back of the grid having started 9th, Phend said he got a really good start and other than one mistake kept things smooth allowing him to benefit from a mistake by race leader Tebo who got the landing off the second triple, which has been christened the widow maker’, completely wrong four laps from the finish.  Phend said his 22 has been getting better as the traction comes up and he was particularly happy that he could ‘Drop a 10 with a 1’ thanks to his Round 6 win. Looking to 4WD, two of the six rounds taking place today, the Michigan driver said he is ‘really comfortable’ with his 22-4 and ‘looking forward to it’.

With three wins to his credit, Numedahl would fail to improve his points tally of 10-points.  After a rough 2nd lap he could only manage 4th in his final race behind Phend, Tebo and Cavalieri.  Also on 10 points, but with one less win, are former Champions Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield, as are 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Jared Tebo with 1 win each.  Rivkin would loose out on claiming a second win that would have left him 3rd overall at the end of 2WD with a late mistake that let AE team mate Steven Hartson through for the win in the final round.

Admitting he ‘got lucky at the end’ when Rivkin got the second triple wrong on the last lap, Hartson said getting to drop a 6th ‘helped a lot’.  Sitting 8th at the end of 2WD with 13 points, the former 4WD World Champion believes 4WD will be better for him at his home track and said ‘its still all to play for’.  With this year’s track layout popular with racers to drive on in terms of racing they have found it a challenge with many predicting 4WD is going to be hectic.

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