Maifield takes new 2WD to victory at JConcepts INS

Ryan Maifield has taken the overall 2WD Mod Buggy win at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals in Omaha Nebraska.  Winner of A1 from fourth on the grid, the TLR driver was gifted an early Christmas present in A2 when arch rival & Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri rolled his Associated onto its roof on lap 6 allowing Maifield to go to the front.  While Maifield would make a mistake in the double double while leading, Cavalieri would simultaneously get it wrong in the same section of track allowing Maifield to survive to win the leg and claim the overall win on his dirt race debut with the TLR22 3.0.  World Champion Spencer Rivkin would take a hard fought win in A3 but on the tie break it was Cavalieri who got second with the the 17-year-old having to settle for completing the podium at the Hobbyplex.

‘Glad we showed she has some speed’, was how Maifield summed up his first win with his new car.  He continued ‘this is the first race (with the car) for me and we did a lot of development, put a lot of work into the car and once we found out what suspension set-up she liked it was super easy to drive’.  After winning A1, he said he again got a good start to get by Tebo’s No.3 starting Kyosho and being ‘patient’ with the fastest lap of the race thrown in for good measure he would ‘capitalise on a couple of mistakes’ by World Champion Spencer Rivkin and his great rival Cavalieri t go to the front.  Once there he said he ‘maintained’ his lead to finish  3-seconds up on Cavalieri.  With the HobbyTown USA Hobbyplex track the venue for the 2016 ROAR National Championship, Maifield said the race was a good preliminary test with both his buggies. Highlighting that next year is a 1:8 Offroad World Championship year, he said with a busy 1:8 program the mileage put on the cars this weekend were really important and very encouraging.

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Video – 2wd & 4wd Buggy A-Main Leg 1

Maifield & Rivkin take A1 wins at JConcepts Finals

Ryan Maifield and Spencer Rivkin drew first blood in the opening buggy A-Mains at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals in Omaha.  In the first of the encounters, 2WD Mod, it was Maifield from fourth on the grid who would take the win ahead of Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri.  In 4WD an early mistake from Top Qualifier Maifield would see the TLR drop to the back of the pack handing the No.2 starting Associated of Rivkin an unassailable lead the World Champion would never give up.  As the battled hotted up for second between Ryan Cavalieri, Jared Tebo and the recovering Maifeld, a mistake by Cavalieri coming onto the main straight in the late stages of the race would set off chaos. Maifield would come off the best of it to finish second in front of Tebo and Cavalieri.

Commenting on his 2WD win, Maifield, who is making his dirt racing debut this weekend with the new TLR22 3.0, said ‘I knew from Q3 yesterday that my car was really good’.  Getting by Tebo early he said he worked his way to the front getting by Rivkin when he made a mistake and then Cavalieri when he left the door open and once in the lead he could ‘just cruise’ adding his car was ‘fast and easy to drive’.  In 4WD, he said in the warm-up he could feel a problem with the front belt in his 22-4, the slipping belt causing the steering of the car to be inconsistent. Conscious of this for the race he said being over cautious this lead to his error at the double double on the opening lap. Dropping to last, he said he ‘put the head down’ knowing he could still try to salvage a podium. Setting the only 18-second lap of the race he would get up to fourth before Cavalieri’s mistake gifted him an easy second with him adding ‘Spencer was too far out’ to do anything about in terms of the win.

‘My 4WD is getting better & better and I also drive very well’, that was Rivkin’s response to his 4WD A1 win.  The 17-year-old was quick to add however, ‘Maifield’s mistake made things easier so I’m not counting him out and we’ll see what happens in A2’.  In 2WD he said a bobble in the triple which resulted in him parking up against the piping while heading the field cost him the win.  Although he would set the fastest lap of the race, he said he ‘just couldn’t get close enough’ to team-mate Cavalieri to attempt a pass.  Commenting on his races Cavalieri said in 2WD Mod Buggy he ‘just made a little mistake at the beginning’ and ‘came up short’ towards the end of the race.  In 4WD, he sad the rear end of his B44.3 ‘was hanging’, a broken diff housing discovered after the race.

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Rivkin TQs final qualifiers

Spencer Rivkin will line up second on the grid for both buggy classes after he TQ’d the third & final round qualifying at the JConcepts Indoor National Series at Hobby Plex in Omaha.  Third fastest in each of the two opening 2WD Mod Buggy qualifiers, the World Champion went into Q3 vying for second overall with Jared Tebo behind Top Qualifier & Team Associated team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  With his rival second fastest in Q1 & 2, Rivkin needed to TQ the round and the 17-year-old would deliver seeing off both Tebo and Ryan Maifield, both of whom would need to be marshalled over the entertaining 5-minute qualifier.  Again ending up second fastest, last year’s race winner Tebo will start tomorrow’s finals from 3rd while Maifield will make his dirt racing debut with the new TLR22 3.0 from 4th on the grid. Behind the four PRO drivers, Team Associated supported driver Austin Horne completes the top half of the A-Main grid.

In 4WD Buggy the position going into the final qualifier was the reverse of 2WD with Rivkin holding second and Tebo the only one who could deny him P2 on the grid – Maifield having already wrapped up the overall TQ after two rounds.  A closely contested climax to qualifying, once Maifield pulled over after a mistake while on TQ pace it was Rivkin who took command with a tangle between Tebo and Cavalieri giving him breathing space to TQ by 1.6 seconds from his team-mate with Tebo third.  P2 would be enough to secure Cavalieri third on the grid while last year’s Top Qualifier & winner Tebo starts 4th.  Young Associated driver and Hobby Plex Summer Series Champion Tom Rinderkneck completes the top half of the grid.  Completing a trio of TQ runs in Q3, Rivkin would secure the overall TQ in Mod Truck ahead of Cole Tollard, his fellow T5M driver topping Q2 to force the Top Qualifier to be decided in the last round.

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