Maifield leads Reedy Race at the end of Day 1

At the end of the first day of racing at the 21st running of the Reedy Race of Champions, it is Ryan Maifield who leads the way at OCRC Raceway in California.  Opening the day with a second the TLR driver would also end the day with a second after a good battle in the days closing race with team-mate Dakotah Phend.  Claiming a third in Round 2 and a win in Round 3, Maifield holds a one point advantage over his protege Spencer Rivkin, the Associated driver claiming 3 second places finishes and a third in Round 4 behind Maifield.  One of the day’s three double winners, Jared Tebo sits third, a mistake in the final round leaving the Kyosho driver with fifth.  With drivers allowed one throw out result per class with that taken into account after 4 of the 6 rounds it is another of the days double winners Kody Numedahl who leads the way from Steven Hartson, the Associated driver also enjoy two wins.

‘A good first day, nothing amazing, nothing bad’, that was how Maifield summed up the first of the three days of heads up racing at the unique event that was first organised by Mike Reedy back in 1987.  Runner-up in last year’s event when the title went down to the final round of racing, he said his last race was ‘fun’ but at the same time a little ‘frustrating’.  Starting third with Phend on pole, he said running behind the 17-year-old it was ‘crazy how many mistakes he makes without losing time’.  With a few opportunities presented to him to go for the lead he said under normal circumstances he would have pushed more but with little difference between a win & a second he said the risk was not worth it as the second could as valuable as a win come the end of the event.

After a bad start to the day, his first race netting him a 8th place finish, Phend was pleased with the improvement that came over the day.  Getting 4th in Round 2 he followed that up with a second before ending the day with his win from Maifield.  The reigning US National Champion said his team-mate was ‘pushing really hard’ and having to push so hard they both had a few mistakes.  Pleased to end the day on a high he said he hoped to be able to carry that form through to tomorrow when after two more rounds of 2WD we will see the switch over to the first of the 4WD action.  Round 4 would also a first win of the event for former Open Champion Chad Due, the Associated driver seeing off defending champion Ryan Cavalieri in the opening race of the round.

Rivkin said while he was pleased with his results, pointing out this is his first time running in the invitational class, he was just taking the event race by race.  Winner of the Open class in 4WD last year, the prize for which is a place in the 30 driver line-up, he said today had taught him that even ‘if you get a bad start don’t give up’.

‘Not a result I was wanting to end up with but it was a mistake of my own doing’ was Tebo’s response to his 5th place finish in Round 4.  The 2WD World Champion said hopefully I will use that result as my throw-out as I am really happy with a 3, 1, 1 in the opening three rounds.  With 5th dropped he sits equal on points with Neumdahl but with his race winning time slower than both Neumdahl and Hartson the tie-break also leaves him third in the standings.

Getting the better of a battle of the car designers in Race 2 of Round 4, seeing off Serpent’s Billy Easton, Numedahl said ‘normally I am flirting with a Top 10’ so to be in this position he can only describe Day 1 of racing as ‘good’.  Describing his B5M as ‘awesome to drive’ he said he didn’t actually do anything special today in terms of his racing.  The only blotch in his day was Round 2 when starting out from 9th and having worked his way up to sixth he pulled a rear corner off the car while chasing fourth position.  Commenting on his second win, his first being unchallenged, he said Easton was ‘actually a little faster but his car looked harder to drive’.  With his B5M faster at the end of the straight than the SRX2 he said every lap he had to be sure to make up time there.

Starting from 8th on the grid in Round 4, Hartson said the race contained ‘a lot of people trying to race to hard’ referring to an opening lap pile up as the field came onto the straight for the first time.  While the 4WD World Champion said this didn’t help his race in the end he himself ‘crashed too much when (he) didn’t need too’.

The consistency award of the day goes to new Team Associated signing Carson Wernimont.  Claiming 3rd places finishes in all four races, the 18-year-old sits fourth in standings. Summing up his day, he joked that he ‘should go to a casino tonight because in Vegas three across the board is good’.  He said his focus all day has been ‘trying to stay out of trouble on the first lap’ describing his starts as ‘timid’, he said he’s very happy with how how the day has gone as in 4WD he feels he will be ‘a lot stronger’ and to have a good tally from 2WD he is really looking forward to the switch to 4WD tomorrow afternoon.

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Video – 2wd Invitational Rd3

Tebo sees off Phend for second win

While the first two encounters in the third round of the Reedy Race of Champions saw easy first wins for Ryan Maifield and Kody Numedahl, it was the closing race that would provide the main entertainment with Jared Tebo just seeing off a last lap challenge from Dakotah Phend to notch up his second win of the Day.  The result means that Tebo now shares the early points lead with Steven Hartson who after wins in the first two rounds finished 3rd from 6th on the grid.  Running in the same race as Tebo, it was another fraught round for defending champion Ryan Cavalieri as he got caught up in pile ups twice during the race eventually finishing 5th.

Starting fourth on the grid, Tebo described the early part of the race as challenging.  Starting on pole Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would lead the pack from the number 2 starting Durango of Travis Amezcua with Tebo complimenting the 13-year-old’s driving saying he was ‘driving good up front’.  However the 2WD World Champion said with the Polish drivers pace a bit slower this caused him to get out of his rhythm.  At the start of lap three this led to Tebo causing a pile up.  Running third and catching the leaders he said got caught out by how early they braked for the first corner and coming in at his normal pace he had no choice but to throw his RB6 sideways so as not to take out the leaders but this led to him getting collected by the following cars, dropping him back to fifth.

Working his way back to 3rd a mistake on lap 11 at the Esses by leader Orlowski would turn the race on its head as the Schumacher set off a chain reaction of crashes that would see legend of the sport Brian Kinwald go to the front to a huge roar from onlookers. Leading for two laps the multiple World Champion would make a mistake allowing first Tebo through and then Phend.  Having started from 9th on the grid, Phend would set the fastest lap of the race as he closed in on Tebo attempting a number of moves looking like he might just have got it done, out jumping Tebo onto the straight but Tebo was already on power and saw off the challenge to the line by 0.311 of a second.  Commenting on the closing stages of the race, Tebo said when he got into the lead he wanted to keep it safe but with Phend having a similar pace this forced him to push.  While calling Phend’s attempted pass a ‘clean move’ he added ‘I’m happy he didn’t pass me’.  Behind, Amezcua would come away with 3rd followed by Kinwald, Cavalieri and Orlowski.

In the opening race, Maifield easily converted his first pole starting position into victory winning by 8-seconds from his protege Rivkin who started from fourth.   The third second place finish of the day for Rivkin the result puts the 16-year-old equal third in the points standings with Maifield.  The big battle of the race was for third with Hartson, who having started 6th dropped to 9th on lap 2, getting the better of the fights with both new Serpent signing Hupo Honigl and former Champion Joern Neumann to complete the Top 3.

Race 2 saw Kody Numedahl take up the early lead that he would see through to the end.  While the Team Associated engineer cruised to the win, behind there was a good battle for 2nd between Ty Tessmann, Dustin Evans and Carson Wernimont.  Unfortunately Tessmann would get it wrong at the triple on lap 11 sending the HB’s driver back to fourth as both Evans and Wernimont went through.  For new Associated signing Wernimont, the race would net his third third place finish in as many races.

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Video – 2wd Invitational Rd2

Hartson doubles up in Round 2

Steven Hartson made it two out of two at the Reedy Race of Champions however the second win for the Associated driver came after a much more fraught & chaotic second encounter.  Also running in the same race defending champion Ryan Cavalieri would fall fowl of the chaos ending the race 7th having at one stage looked like a contender for a second win of the day.  In the other two races Jared Tebo, who got a third in Round 1, and Dustin Evans, who having started his opening race on pole ended up only 5th, would register their first wins.

‘Crashed a couple of times but it ended out a good result’ was how Hartson summed up what was by far the most action packed encounter of the 21st running of the Reedy Race.  Again starting from the front row, Cody King on pole, Hartson went to the front when King’s Kyosho made contact with the piping on lap two but mistakes on the next two laps would see him drop to 5th. The second mistake at the Associated Esses would drastically change the race spinning out and facing the pack Hartson’s B5M would send Cavalieri’s example into a roll with Ty Tessmann also making contact with Hartson’s car with the HB ending up on its roof.  Hartson said having dropped to the middle of the pack after the incident ‘it was pretty easy to give up but I kept it going and in the end got the win’.  The win would come late however after a last lap error from King would allow Hartson, who had to wait on the Kyosho driver 4 laps earlier after they tangled, to go to front.  For King the same corner at which he tangled with Hartson would again strike as Chad Due also tangled with him allowing Tessmann through to take second with King crossing the line 3rd.

Evans’ win would come courtesy of mistakes from the two drivers who converted back row starts in Round 1 into significant 2nd place finishes.  Starting from pole position Spencer Rivkin would lead the field for four laps. Intially leading from Evans, the former champion would open up for TLR team-mate Maifield who would go to the front after a mistake from the 16-year-old that dropped him to third.  6 laps later it was the turn of Maifield to make a mistake as he entered the section leading on to the main straight dropping him to third behind his young protege, the order remaining unchanged for the remaining 4 laps with Evans winning by a 2.1 second margin.  Evans said with Maifield pushing hard at the start he let him passed as he let him go at Rivkin.  Less nervous than in Round 1, he said just drove his own race and ended up benefiting from the leaders mistakes describing the race as ‘a good confidence maker’.

In the opening race of the round, starting from pole position, Tebo led away the field and looked in control building up over 2-seconds of a lead over Neumann up until half way into the race.  Clipping the piping in the Associated Esses, the 2WD World Champion would put his RB6 on its roof allowing Neumann to the front.  However Tebo wasn’t letting the 2012 Champion have the win that easy and fought back hard.  4-laps later, at the triple Tebo would land in the rear wing of Neumann’s Yokomo putting the German out of shape leading him to hit the piping and roll.  While Tebo initially waited on Neumann, with Carson Wernimont coming he resumed racing to take the win from Neumann by 2.8 seconds with Wernimont third. Afterwards Neumann said while the win would have been nicer he couldn’t be unhappy with a 1st and a 2nd from the opening two rounds.

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Video – 2wd Invitational Rd1