Larsen TQ’s 2WD Buggy in Omaha

TLR driver Taylor Larsen has secured the overall TQ honours for the blue ribboned 2WD Buggy class at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals taking place in Omaha, Nebraska.  Getting the day off to a dream start by topping the opening round of qualifying for the event’s biggest class, with 71 entries, the 15-year-old will start the triple A-Mains ahead of factory Associated duo of Steven Hartson and Ryan Maifield.

Posting his worst of the three qualifiers in Q3, with the fifth fastest time, Larsen benefited from a coming together between Maifield and TLR’s JR Mitch which would cost Maifield a TQ run for the round to go with his Q2 topping time.  Having TQ’d round 1 and backed it up with second behind Maifield in Q2, Larsen said his final heat could have been better but his nerves got the better of him.  Running his Orion powered TLR22 in rear motor configuration while his rivals are running mid motored cars, he said it was ‘so cool to out qualify the best drivers in the world’. Looking forward to Sunday’s finals, he said the plan is to try & shake the nerves and just focus on doing his own race and try ‘not to wreck’, an approach that paid off for him in Q1 & 2.

With Maifield’s potential TQ run coming to an end on lap 12 of 14 when he had a 26 second lap, it was Hartson who would take the TQ ahead Maifield’s young protege Spencer Rivkin.  The 15-year-old will start the A-Main from 5th on the grid just behind TLR’s Dustin Evans who completed the Top 3 in the final qualifier ahead of Maifield.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Taylor Larsen
2. Steven Hartson
3. Ryan Maifield
4. Dustin Evans,
5. Spencer Rivkin
6. Kyle Skidmore
7. Cody Hollis
8. Chad Due
9. Alex Sturgeon
10.Allen Horne

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Maifield is 4WD Top Qualifier at JConcepts Finals

Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield pulled off another overall TQ at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals posting the fastest time in the third & final round to secure pole position for tomorrow’s 4WD Buggy A-Mains. His second TQ of the day, having earlier wrapped up the honour in 2WD Short Course in Q2,  the Arizona ace will start the triple Main ahead of fellow Associated driver Nick Gibson who starts from the no.2 spot.

With the heats reseeded for Q3, this was the first time all the top drivers ran together and in the first TQ to be decided 4WD, it was a close run battle between the similar Reedy powered B44.2s of Maifield and his World Champion team-mate Steven Hartson.  Hartson looked on target for a 15-lap run until a mistake on lap 8, which allowed Maifield to the front.  After a 25-second lap on Lap 2 which left him running 8th, Maifield would work his way to the top of the timing screens, posting a new fastest lap of the day with a 20.795 on lap 11.

Despite getting hooked up on the piping on the penultimate lap Maifield would hold on to take the final qualifier from Hartson, the only other driver to post a 20-second lap over the day, with JR Mitch third and Q1 pace setter Nick Gibson fourth.  With 17-year-old Gibson set to line up second on the grid, Hartson will start third with Mitch, the first non-Associated car lining up fourth. Unfortunately for Dustin Evans a blown rear diff in the warm-up put him out of contention for a competitive round.  Although he completed the run he finished outside the Top 10 and will line up 5th on the grid.

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield
2. Nick Gibson
3. Steven Hartson
4. JR Mitch
5. Dustin Evans
6. Matt Gosch
7. Aydin Horne
8. Chad Due
9. Carter Flotron
10.Mitchel Gardner

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Maifield from Larsen in 2nd JConcepts 2WD qualifier

Having suffered a ‘hurting’ opening qualifier in 2WD Buggy at the JConcepts Indoor National Series, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield produced the fastest time of the day around the HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex track in Omaha to top Q2 from Q1 Top Qualifier Taylor Larsen. Having failed to make the Top 10 in Q1, Maifield topped the second round by 2.365 seconds with team-mate Hartson completing the Top 3 who were the only drivers of the weekend’s biggest class to run 14-lap times.

Improving his mid motored C4.2 by sanding down his Barcode tyres to ‘almost slicks’ for the run, Maifield said a change of driving style was a big factor in his improved performance.  Having ran a point & shoot style of driving in the opening heat, the World Championship podium finisher adapted a more fluid style for Q2 which he said suited the track layout, helping to eliminate getting hooked up on the piping.  For his third & final heat Maifield plans to continue that approach along with going a little more with the sanding of his front tyres.

15-year-old Larsen said his second run was ‘almost the same as the first one’.  Going into the run with the same mind set of ‘do not wreck’ he said other than a few bobbles it again work out for him.  Very happy with the performance of his Orion powered TLR22, he believes he is right there in terms of pace and the plans to leave the cars as is and just cut out the bobbles.

Only seventh fastest in the opening qualifier, Hartson said his C4.2 was the best its been since arriving in Nebraska in Q2.  With a ‘super twitchy’ buggy first time out, a change of tyre combination gave him what he called a ‘really good’ feeling.  Going for a higher pin on the front and less pin on the rear of his Gold compound Barcodes he said it was really good and only for one mistake he was really pleased with the run.  Planning to leave things the same for Q3 he said he wants to do this to gauge how much the track changes between rounds thinking ahead to tomorrow’s Mains.

Fastest of the drivers on 13-lap runs to take 4th for the round was TLR’s Cody Hollis. Having made ‘too many mistakes in Q1’, he said he drove better second time of asking with his Orion powered 22 very consistent.  With his young team-mate Larsen in contention for the overall TQ honours, for the last round Hollis will copy his set-up and run a longer wheelbase for Q3.

For Team Losi Racing’s two lead drivers it was a frustrating Q2. Second fastest the first round, JR Mitch was at a loss to why his 22 was nothing like he had expected, leaving him to struggle and finish well down the order.  Like team-mate Dustin Evans, he ran the same tyres as he ran on his TLR22-4 which both drivers were very happy with in the earlier Q2 of 4WD Buggy.  ‘Expecting something else’, the Florida driver said the tyre ‘just did not work’.  Planning to revert to his Q1 tyre set-up he said he hopes this puts him back in contention to challenge for a spot at the sharp end of the A-Main grid.  Evans suffered similar issues but these were compounded by a collision on the main straight as he came up to pass another car.  Put out of his rhythm by the incident, the former US National Champion had a series of mistakes resulting in him finishing outside the Top 10 and leaving him to need a good final qualifier.

Completing the Top 6 just behind Kyle Skidmore, was Spencer Rivkin.  The Associated supported teenager said after a less than perfect start to the run with the first half containing many mistakes he was able to get things together for the final 2 minutes and claw back some time to repeat his 6th from Q1.  Running the same set of tyres he started with in the opening qualifier he said the black rear/front gold combination of Barcodes is getting better and better each run as the wear down.

Round 2 of the 3 scheduled qualifiers saw the overall TQ honours of 4WD Short Course get wrapped up by MIP team driver Matthew Olson.  Having topped Q1 the Calfornian Short Course specialist repeated the feat again and will start on pole position in tomorrow’s three leg A-Main.

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Maifield sets 4WD Buggy pace in Q2

Having suffered a non-finish in the opening round of 4WD Buggy qualifying, Ryan Maifield bounced back at the JConcepts Indoor National series Finals in Nebraska to set the pace in Q2 ahead of Dustin Evans and Steven Hartson.  The second of the three rounds of qualifying at the HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex track also saw the Arizona ace set back up his Q1 topping run in 2WD Short Course to secure him the overall TQ honours for tomorrow’s finals.

Changing to a combination of Black compound rear and Gold front JConcepts Barcode tyres, with the rear pin considerably sanded down in the centre,  Maifield said his B44.2 felt really good and was probably capable of more.  Having went out in Q1 with a broken drivetrain, he said he had to put in a safe run. Planning to leave his car as is for the third & final qualifier he plans to push a little harder but adding that the Omaha track leaves little room for error making it very easy to push too hard.  Despite securing the TQ for the triple A-main of 2WD Short Course by topping Q2 from MIP driver Matthew Olson, he said he ‘got lucky’.  Crashing on his opening lap he said it was only due to Evans crashing that he was able to take the round.  Not happy with his SC10, for Q3 he will try a different tyre combination to try and give himself a more competitive car for the finals.

Only fourth in Q1 after losing 9-seconds on his opening lap, Evans again had a bad start but this time when he got stuck in the pipe he wasn’t as heavily punished.  Making the same tyre change as Maifield, he said his Orion powered TLR22-4 was ‘a lot better’.  In 2WD Short Course, in which he posted the 3rd fastest time, he said the start of the run was ‘awesome’.  After a mistake it would go downhill for him with his tyres, which are great for the first half of the 5-minute run, fading badly in the last minute.

Running a much more heavily sanded front tyre on his Associated B44.2, World Champion Steven Hartson said the buggy felt much better.  Suffering one mistake, the Californian driver describing the rest of the run as ‘pretty good’ claiming a much needed 3rd having DNF’d Q1.  Asked if he planned any changes for the final qualifier he said he will ‘probably’ leave everything as is, having to play safe to book himself a place in the A-Main.  Unable to repeat his 2WD Short Course Q1 Top 3, Hartson said his truck was ‘terrible’ in Q2. Suffering ’10 mistakes’ he said he just had an overall lack of grip.

Behind the Top 3, Kyle Skidmore set the fourth fastest time ahead of TLR’s JR Mitch with Matt Gosch completing the Top 6.  For Q1 pace setter Nick Gibson he struggled with the set-up on his B44.1 combined with the nerves of leading away the top heat leaving the 17-year-old to finish well outside the Top 10.

Another overall TQ to be settled in Q2 was the Mod Truck class with TLR’s Cody Hollis backing up his Q1 topping run to take Q2 ahead of team-mate Taylor Larsen.

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