Maifield gets first win in Round 3

Reigning Champion Ryan Maifield claimed his first win of the 22nd running of the Reedy Race of Champions taking advantage of a pole position start for Round 3 to win ahead of 10th place starter Jared Tebo.  In the other two encounters, the round would also see a first win for Maifield’s TLR team-mate Dakotah Phend while Kody Numedahl added a second win to his tally.  Half way through the 2WD schedule it is Numedahl and Dustin Evans who sit at the top of the points, R1 & 2 winner Evans recovering from a disastrous first lap to get a third in Round 3 behind Maifield & Tebo.

Having started the first two encounters from the back row of the grid, resulting in a 5th and a 2nd, Maifield would lead away the field from the No.2 starting Schumacher of Michal Orlowski.  Once in front his Orion power 22 would pulled clear of the field as he laid down a new fastest lap, being the only the second driver to negotiate the OCRC track in 17-seconds.  ‘I didn’t crash so it was good’, was how Maifield summed up his first win.  Admitting that starting at the front was a help, the Arizona ace said he ‘just put (his) head down and did (his) own laps’.  Very happy with his car, he said the controlled JConcepts Dirt Webs where also getting better making the track a little less tricky adding he was hoping for ‘another decent run to end the day’, round four bringing the first day of racing to a close.  For a time it looked like Tebo might be setting himself up to mount a challenge on Maifield until the Kyosho driver crashed with four laps to go and needed to be marshalled.  This in turn turned Tebo in to the prey of a recovering Evans but the former champion ran out of laps and had to settle for 3rd.

Commenting on what has been a very strong start to his event, Numedahl said ‘the track is getting more grippy now which is making it hard to make up positions, the triple is not so hard now’.  Starting from 3rd, having started the previous rounds 9th and 7th, he said he had to check up while challenging pole sitter Billy Fischer for the lead but the contact with the rear wing of the Tekno team driver’s TLR meant Fischer would get out shape over the jump allowing Numedahl to take the lead. Out front Numedahl would start to come under pressure from team-mate Ryan Cavalieri but the 3-time champion would have a bad landing off the first triple on lap 5 and drop back to fifth from where he would recover to 2nd with Chad Due completing the Top 3.

In the concluding race of the round, starting from third on the grid Phend would take four laps to get a lead he would hold to the finish.  Having pulled a rear corner off his TLR22 in Round 2 after landing the first triple on the piping while running second, the 18-year-old said he was ‘patient at the start’ and ‘waited for an opportunity to pass’ and ‘made it happen’ when got down the inside of Rick Hohwart.  With his win and a second from the first round, Phend declared himself happy saying saying R2 was ‘just bad luck’.

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Evans doubles up in Round 2

Dustin Evans made it two from two at the Reedy Race of Champions, the former champion winning his second 2WD encounter from reigning champion Ryan Maifield.  Again a stacked race, Evans who started from 3rd on the grid would do just as he did in his opening race and go to the front after a mistake by Kyle McBride, this time the Australian flipping his Associated on the run down the main straight with 2-minutes to go.  Having started from the back of the grid Maifield would mount an attack on his team-mate but getting out of shape in the sweeper as he tried to get down the inside he would then crash at the following double to finish 1.4 seconds back.  In the other 2 encounters Spencer Rivkin cruised to an easy win in the opening race over Billy Easton & Jared Tebo.  A hectic Race 2 would see Steven Hartson win from JP Richards, the Durango driver having led 13 of the 16 laps, with Round 1 winner Kody Numedahl completing the Top 3.

‘They went my way in the first two. It doesn’t get much better than that’, said a very happy Evans.  The former champion added, ‘I just drove patient although I made one mistake.’  He continued ‘I got by Wesley (Van Helmond) and then McBride made a mistake but Maifield was on the gas. He was a man on a mission and forced me to push hard. I was trying not to make any mistakes, then he made one which lifted the pressure’. Setting the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, Maifield looked like he might just get down the inside on the final run through the sweeper but his 22 got out of shape leading to a mistake at the double, resulting in him losing over 1.5 seconds. 3-seconds further back McBride would complete the Top 3.

In a race that started off with it hard to keep track of all the incidents, Hartson summed up his start to the event as going ‘better than expected’ jokingly ‘it usually starts off rough’.  Starting from 8th on the grid, the opening lap would see the former World Champion drop to last after contact with former team-mate Tanner Denney.  Fifth by the end of lap 1, he said ‘I just let everyone crash and it seemed to worked out the best’.  Chasing down JP Richards, with the first and so far only 17 lap of the OCRC track, he would get down the inside of the former Reedy Race Open Class Champion but at the double the Durango driver would make contact.  With both cars needing marshalling Richards got released first, something the race referees didn’t like, but by the time he got to Richards to give up the position he had crashed coming onto the straight handing Hartson back the lead.  Giving his view of the incident Hartson said, ‘I made the inside pass and then he Monster Trucked me but it all worked out as he ended up crashing later in the lap’.  Taking a win in Round 1, Billy Easton’s foot would end Ryan Cavalieri’s chances of doubling up.  Coming onto the straight for the first time, as Easton marshalled a car his foot would block the Associated driver dropping him to the back of the field – a rare occasion when his ‘Pudge luck’ left him.  By the end of the 5-minutes he worked his way back to fourth, a result he will be hoping is his dropped 2WD result.

Giving his view of a rather dull opening encounter to Round 2, Rivkin said, ‘I took advantage of a pile up at the start and made the most of it’.  Starting from 6th on the grid, the World Champion managed to slip through a pile up started as front row starters Carson Wernimont and Billy Fischer made contact.  Once in front Rivkin pulled clear to win by over half a lap from Serpent’s Billy Easton.  Again the race would see a bad first lap for Jared Tebo but the Kyosho driver would recover to finish third, half a second back on Easton.

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22nd RROC opens with wins for Cavalieri, Evans & Numedahl

The 22nd running of the Reedy Race of Champions opened with wins for former Champions Ryan Cavalieri and Dustin Evans, but it was Kody Numedahl’s win that provided the most entertainment.  Starting from 9th on the grid, the Associated driver would see off a late charge from a recovering Spencer Rivkin. With both drivers wheelying across the finish line Numedahl took the win from the World Champion by 0.044 of a second.  In the other 2 encounters Cavalieri and Evans took wins from 2nd on the grid, Evans winning the most stacked race of the opening round from TLR team-mate Dakotah Phend.

Commenting on his race, Numedahl, who would go to the front after contact with early leader Travis Amezcua, said after a ‘shaky first lap’ he benefited from his rivals ‘one by one wrecking at the triple’.  Moving into second after Rivkin made contact with the second placed Carson Wernimont, an error by Amezcua put the AE designer in the hunt for the win.  After the sweeper at the end of the straight Numedahl would try a pass on the inside but ended up touching the rear wing of the Durango, the two cars tangling.  Numedahl would get going first admitting himself he expected to be called up by the referees but no call came.  Giving his view on the incident, Amezcua who led for 10 of the 16 laps before finishing 3rd, said ‘They made it clear at the drivers briefing that if you hit someone from behind or spin them out there would be a penalty but he (Numedahl) just drove.  I want to talk to them (the referees) to find out why no penalty was called’.

Having got the first race start abort after he jumped the start, Rivkin said ‘It was good but it could have been better’.  The 17-year-old said ‘I had a rough 3-minutes after I touched Carson and waited. I should have been more patient in trying to get by him’.  Setting the fastest lap of the race as he chased down Numedahl he said ‘I’m still pretty happy with a 2nd so its on to the next race and hopefully I can repeat a good finish’.

Winning the opening race from Steven Hartson, Cavalieri was able to get the jump on pole sitter Jared Tebo off the line for a lead he would never relinquish.  Starting from 2nd on the grid, the 3-time Reedy Race Champion said the outside of the grid had a better groove and that helped him to drive around the outside of Tebo.  Hartson was closing on Cavalieri until a small error just before entering the main straight. After bad opening lap on which he dropped to 5th, Tebo would recover to 3rd but was made work for it by Chad Due, the Associated driver coming onto the last lap on the rear wing of the Kyosho but making a mistake after the first triple that gave Tebo enough breathing room to finish third.

The 2011 Reedy Race Champion, Evans would also win from starting 2nd on the grid.  The third of the 2WD encounters, it was Australia’s Kyle McBride who led the way for the first half of the race.  The Associated driver would come undone when he came up short on the second triple which was enough to let Evans go to the front where he would stay to the end while Phend came through from 10th to finish half a second behind. Commenting on the race Evans said ‘I tried to get the holeshot but Kyle got a good start so I didn’t push the issue.  A stacked heat I decided to jusy follow until he made a mistake’.  Making a mistake while in the lead, he said ‘I was cruising and then rolled which made the race a little more stressful than it needed to be.  The first round is always nervous so its good to start with a win’.  A loaded race, reigning champion Ryan Maifield looked like getting a good result from his 9th starting position.  Getting up to third after an inside pass on Yokomo’s Lee Martin, the TLR driver would have a rollover at the end of the straight damaging his rear wing with some rough laps to follow.  In the end he would finish 5th behind Rob Gillespie and ahead McBride.

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