May 21, 2015

Chassis Focus – Andrew Hardman

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – Orca 4.5
ESC – Orca
Batteries – Orca 6200 mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – KO Propo
Bodyshell – PF LTC-R
Remarks – Canadian Yokomo driver Andrew Hardman is in attendance at the Reedy Race with a pretty standard but very well Corey Whiteman prepared version of the Japanese car. Running almost everything as comes from the box, the only options to be found on the BD7 are a titanium screw set, titanium turnbuckles and shock bodies & shafts.

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May 21, 2015

Track Focus – Tamiya Raceway

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Track Name – Tamiya Raceway
Country – USA
Location – Aliso Viejo, California
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Previous Reedy Races hosted – 7

Combine what the World’s best touring drivers continually describe as their favourite track with their favourite race format and you have the Reedy International Race of Champions at the famous Tamiya Raceway in California.  Built next to the then American headquarters of Tamiya, the track opened in 1994 and hosted its first Reedy Race in 2002.  After a run of 6-years however a restructuring within Tamiya USA saw the entire site put up for sale with 2007 marking what was then thought to be the end of the road for the track and the hosting of the Reedy Race.  Luckily for racers, however, the new owners of the large former Tamiya building where Tamiya warehoused all its products had no interest in the track and it remained in the ownership of Tamiya USA whose offices are now 8-miles away in Irvine.

Following the building’s sale parking would become a new issue for the track and it wasn’t until last year with the clearing of an adjacent field that the Reedy Race’s return was possible. With the return to Tamiya Raceway combined with Scotty Ernst taking over the running of the event, 2014 saw a big revival of interest in the race that now remembers one of the sport’s great pioneers Mike Reedy.  Following on from last year’s successful return to its spiritual home, the event which this year celebrates its 18th continuous running has attracted its best quality of invite entry since its heydays.

Built in an area 170 ft wide by 70 ft deep, the first thing that hits you on seeing the track for the first time is how small it is but ask any of the drivers about this and it turns out to be irrelevant. They love it because of the opportunities it offers for overtaking, making it perfect for the 12 rounds of heads up racing that make up the Reedy Race schedule.  Having only raced on the Tamiya track once before the race had to find a new home but winning it on its return last year, Ronald Volker said the track is ‘perfect for heads up racing’, adding the ‘size and layout of the corners make for a few chances each lap to pass your rivals’.  The four time Euro Touring series Champion said having the straight in front of the drivers stand also adds an interesting element to the racing.   Commenting that the high curbing needed to be avoided, the German said the middle kink is the track’s key feature as risks through it can either help you gain time or send the car flying.  A four time winner of the event sharing the title of most crowned champion with Barry Baker, Marc Rheinard called the track ‘One of the best’. The Tamiya driver added ‘it’s small but nice’ and ‘even if it does have a few bumps, the layout is perfect for great racing’.

For the 12-months between Reedy Races, Tamiya use the track for marketing activities including the running of their Tamiya Championship Series. On a weekly basis every Saturday the track is opened to Tamiya customers to come and run their cars.  Every six weeks the track also runs a one day race event open to all brands of cars and later this year it will play host to the US National Championships.

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February 23, 2015

The Dirt Champion car – Buggy

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Ryan Maifield’s TLR 8ight 3.0

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February 23, 2015

Maifield wins exciting DNC Buggy final

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Ryan Maifield has won the big one at this year’s 16th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge.  The TLR driver would claim his 2nd buggy title at the Fear Farm but more significantly his first big nitro win for his new manufacturer when on the penultimate lap of the exciting 45-minute A-Main he got ahead of former team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  A race that saw four different leaders, Maifield went to the front ahead of defending champion Ty Tessmann 4-minutes in until a mistake at the 10-minute mark would drop him to third.  His challenge then looked to be over as he fell further down the order to sixth.  A driver famed for his late charges, the Arizona ace never gave up and as a gusting wind added to the challenges of the tough track conditions in the closing stages, Maifield was there to capitalise to take his second major title of the new season having last month claimed his first ever Reedy Race of Champions win.  Unfortunately for the stars of last night’s epic Truggy final Tessmann and new champion David Ronnefalk their races would hit trouble.  Holding a comfortable lead with just 8-minutes to go Tessmann would suffer a problem with his battery connector and losing over a minute in the pits fixing it the World Champion would be leaving with no titles this year finishing up 7th overall.  Trying to recover from a frantic start, Ronnefalk would twice run out of fuel after communication issues with his pit crew.  With Maifield and Cavalieri  separated by just 0.684, joining them on the podium would be the other of America’s offroad establishment trio Jared Tebo.  Leading a total of close on 1/3 of the race, Dakotah Phend would just miss out the podium by half a second, the wind being the downfall to the 18-year-old’s quest for a first DNC title.

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A home race for the Arizona ace with his victory proving a popular one, Maifield said ‘to win buggy class was all the more sweeter after the bad luck of the World Championship’.  Describing the Main as ‘a really fun race’ he said he enjoyed his battles with both Tessmann and Tebo.  Making contact with Tessmann as they fought over the lead, he said ‘I got into Ty but it was just racing and I let him go’ back into position adding it was a ‘bummer’ the Canadian had a problem with his car.  Also describing TLR/Orion team-mate Phend as ‘super fast’, Maifield said when he dropped down the order he ‘kept the head down’ knowing anything can happy in ‘these crazy ass races’.  Admitting that while luck ‘sure didn’t at the beginning, it fell (his) way at the end’.  Asked about the significance of his first big TLR nitro win, he said ‘I stepped into a great progamme and that’s why I wanted to work with them’.  Running JConcept’s blue compound Diamond Bar tyres on his 8ight, he said going into the race the mileage from his Orion engine was ‘questionable’ but leaning it out ‘quite a bit’ he ‘throttle drove it’ allowing him to go 9-minutes between stops.

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Cavalieri said the ‘start was really aggressive’ and he ‘got shuffled around quite a bit’ but once he settled-in the race went good for him.  A former champion, but never at the Fear Farm, the Associated driver said after moving to the front when Tessmann hit problems he tried to drive a conservative ending but the wind was ‘gnarly’ causing him to have a bobble that would drop him behind Maifield.  Trying to put pressure on Maifield he said his great rival ‘didn’t make that mistake’ he needed to go back to the front.  Running AE’s RC8 Prototype chassis and having made the switch to MX engines, he said the result is a good start to the new year .

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Double winner of the 2011 DNC held at the Nitro Pit, Tebo said he ‘so badly wanted to get a podium’ and overall he was very happy with the result having started out 9th on the grid.  Describing his new MX engine powered MP9 as feeling great in the final, he said ‘a couple too many crashes’ cost him a chance at challenging for the win.  Running AKA’s super soft Grid Iron tyre, the Truggy Top Qualifier, who on Saturday night missed the podium, said they were great and that is what he should have run in Truggy.  Packing up after 5 long days at the track, Tebo said he was leaving Phoenix ‘happy’ having been able to fight for the win in all three classes.

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Having claimed podium finishes in all three Pro classes at last year’s DNC, there would be no podium celebrations this time round for Phend.  The 18-year-old, who had an extra stop over his rivals as he ran  7:30 fuel intervals, said the race started off well as he made a good start and was part of the group of 8 cars that where covered by 5-seconds after 15-minutes of racing.  With himself and Tessmann eventually able to pull clear, when the latter hit trouble it left him with a few seconds lead over Cavalieri.  However then the wind arrived and catching his 8ight badly a few times he would relinquish his position.  Describing his car which was running on Pro-Line M3 Lockdowns as ‘awesome’, despite no podium finish he said he was happy with how he drove as he did everything he could and came close to pulling off the win.

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A driver whom has become expected to dominate at least one nitro class at Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s event, Tessmann said things were a little sketchy at the start.  With the track breaking up there were holes coming onto the straight which he couldn’t see and he didn’t know were to go to avoid them causing his D815 to get out of shape numerous times one of the moments handing Maifield his earlier lead.  After getting passed Phend, Tessmann was about to pull away slightly with ‘the race going as expected’ before the car unplugged itself. Rejoining after his issue he would finish 7th overall.

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The first European to win a nitro title at the DNC,  Ronnefalk said it was ‘probably the worst start (he) had ever seen’.  Describing it as ‘a big mess’, the Swede felt he came off worst out of it dropping from 4th on the grid to the tail end of the 15 car field.  Unfortunately this would be the least of his problems in the race as the call for his first stop was made just as he passed the entry to pitlane and the extra lap left him to run dry.  Posting the fastest lap of the final, the 2 time European Champion would run out of fuel again on his next stop.

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View the event image gallery here.

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