Evans TQ’s 2WD Buggy at JConcepts Clash

Dustin Evans is the Top Qualifier of the main class at this year’s JConcepts Clash after the Team Losi Racing driver posted a third TQ run in the fourth & final 2WD Buggy qualifier at the Mississippi event.  Having set the pace in the two earlier qualifiers of the day, Evans’ only challenger for the top spot on the grid was Ryan Maifield, who topped the opening qualifier last night. A number of bad laps from the Associated driver meant Evans topped the timing monitors throughout the 5-minutes, setting the fastest time of the weekend with what he described as the ‘perfect run’.

Delighted at securing overall TQ honours, Evans said that just before the start of the deciding qualifier he made a last minute adjustment to the rear end set-up of his mid motored TLR22 2.0 which made the Orion powered buggy easier to drive.  Commenting on triple Main finals, last year’s runner-up said 2WD Buggy is the strongest of the three classes he is contesting this year and going into tomorrow he is pretty confident about his chances of claiming his first ‘Clash’ win.

Clearly not happy at missing out on the 2WD TQ honours, defending champion Maifield will start the other key class, 4WD Buggy, from pole position.  Along with Evans, Maifield dropped 1:8 Nitro Buggy this year in favour of 4WD Buggy due to the upcoming World Championships.  With Maifield posting TQ runs in Q1 & 3 and Evans fastest in Q2, this class was also set for a showdown in the fourth qualifier until the latter retired with a broken caster block on his aging XXX-4.  His second retirement of the four qualifiers, Evans said with his 4WD too fragile compared to his new 2WD and through the ‘flat out’ S bend at the end of the main straight any slight contact with the pipes is going end his race so he thinks challenging Maifield will be tough.

Starting behind the two World class offroad racers will be JR Mitch in 2WD and Cody Hollis in 4WD.  Switching to mid motor configuration for the final 2WD qualifier Mitch said the change required the buggy to be driven with a special finesse.  Unable to master that driving style he could only manage 8th for the round adding that he will revert back to the rear motor set-up for the finals as he finds it ‘more comfortable’ to drive.  For Hollis, who like Evans suffered two mechanical retirements in 4WD, the final qualifier produced his best run of the weekend as he posted his fastest time around the Flowood track finishing second behind Maifield with young talent Damion Borkowicz third.  The result will see the 13-year-old JConcepts driver line up 5th on the grid just behind his mentor and defending champion Jason Ruona.

In the other key classes Hollis completed a clean sweep of Mod Truck qualifying to top all four rounds to secure the overall TQ honours over the similar TLR 22T of Leon McIntosh.  In 2WD Short Course defending champion Maifield took the last qualifier to secure pole position over Evans with Paul Wynn set to line-up 3rd on the grid.  In the biggest class at the 2013 Clash, e-Buggy, JR Mitch is Top Qualifier despite a bad final qualifier and the Florida racer will also start on pole in 4WD Short Course.  In 1:8 Nitro Buggy young TLR driver Tyler Jones topped Q4 from Jake Dellinger to secure pole position for the 30-minute A-Main ahead of Dellinger’s Associated with Max Flurer securing third.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid (2 to bump up)
1. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 0 pts
2. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 2
3. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 6
4. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 6
5. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 8
6. Max Flurer – Team Associated – 9
7. Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 10
8. Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 10
9. Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 10
10.Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 11

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid (2 to bump up)
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 0 pts
2. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 2
3. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 4
4. Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 5
5. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 6
6. Brett Kingsbury – Team Associated – 7
7. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 9
8. Zack Genova – Xray – 9
9. Jimmy Vanderhaar – Team Associated – 12
10.Blaine Cavin – Team Associated – 15

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Update Q3 2WD Buggy – Evans TQ’s

The third round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the 7th running of the JConcepts Clash saw a repeat of Q2 in terms of the Top 3 with Dustin Evans claiming his second TQ run ahead of Q1 pace setter Ryan Maifield by a very similar margin of 2.6-seconds and his own TLR team-mate JR Mitch.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in mid motor configuration, Evans said while this might have not been the best set-up at the beginning of the Mississippi event the buggy is just getting better and better each run as the traction comes up.  Still struggling a little with the top right corner which he described as ‘weird’ he said if he can figure that out he thinks he can go even better in tonight’s final over TQ deciding qualifier.

Maifield, who said Evans pace is getting better highlighted by their fastest laps being separated by just 14/1000ths of a second, was pleased with the performance of C4.2 but said traffic again played a big part in his second place finish.  Suffering three crashes he said he seemed to always come upon slower cars through the super fast ‘S’ bend after the main straight where due to the speed it is very hard to react quickly enough to a slower buggy.  One such incident on lap 8 while on a TQ pace resulted in 27-second lap for the Team Associated star.  Aside from his traffic issues, Maifield said he was pretty happy with how his mid motor buggy is performing.

Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Mitch said the rise in traction for Q3 was starting to make the buggy a little aggressive to drive.  Happy to claim a second 3rd fastest run time, thereby ensuring him of good starting position on the all important A-Main grid tomorrow, he plans to use final qualifier to compare motor positions by changing over to the mid motor layout.

Behind the Top 3 missing out on the 14 laps by little under 4-seconds, Max Flurer took his rear motored B4.2 to the fourth fastest time just 3/10th ahead of the rear motored Kyosho RB6 of Ryan Eckert.  Running his TLR22 2.0 in rear motor configuration Cody Hollis, who wrapped up the overall Mod Truck TQ honours by completing a hat trick of fastest runs, completed the Top 6.  In the other 2WD class, Short Course, Maifield bagged his 2nd TQ run of the day as he again headed the times from Evans and Paul Wynn with X-Factory’s Paul Sinclair fourth.

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Maifield pips Evans in penultimate 4wd Buggy Qualifier

Ryan Maifield pipped his main rival for the JConcepts Clash title Dustin Evans by just 2/10ths of a second on the final lap of the penultimate round of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the Mississippi event.  With a reseed putting the fastest 12-drivers in the top heat, the round would see the times tumble as the Associated and TLR stars posted 15-lap runs of the Flowood RC Indoor Park track.  Behind the two Pros, up & coming talent Damion Borkowicz completed the Top 3 turning around his event after finding a better set-up for his Associated B44.2.

Breaking into the 20-second lap times for the first time of the weekend, again setting the fastest lap for the round, Maifield said he had to gave a 110% on the last lap to deny Evans.  Evans was setting the pace until a mistake on lap 11 allowed Maifield to the front but then on the next lap he too had a moment. With Evans back to the front another mistake on the penultimate lap looked to hand Maifield Q3 but later on in the same lap the Arizona ace made a mistake setting up a showdown between the rivals.  Busting out a final lap time that was half a second faster than Evans he bagged his second TQ run by .215 of a second.  Having changed his front suspension set-up for the run, Maifield said the changes took a few laps to get used to but once he had found his rhythm it felt better for the changes.

Evans, who was the only other driver to post a 20-second lap time, said his XXX-4 is ‘really consistent’ but in terms of outright speed is lacking a little against Maifield’s Associated.  Feeling he needs to find a little more steering to be able to match his rivals outright pace he will try making the first set-up change to his buggy since practice.  For team-mate Cody Hollis a potential top 3 run was again ruined by a broken front drive shaft.  While he managed to complete Q2, the failure of the opposite drive shaft this time with a minute to go would result in a DNF.  Getting a new set of drive shafts from Evans the 20-year-old hopes this will bring him better luck for this evening’s final qualifier.

Clearly happy with his P3 run, 13-year-old Borkowicz said the removal of the rear ballast weight from his buggy made it a lot more stable.  Running blue Barcodes he said that apart from one spin out the rest of the run was clean.  The protege of JConcepts’ Jason Ruona, he outpaced the former World’s finalist and defending champion by .354 of a second.  Ruona who was 2nd fastest in Q2, reran his tyres and they ‘felt really good’ so much so that he is now considering running them for a third time in the last round.  Starting behind Maifield and Evans, he said that he tried to keep up with them but over did it on lap two resulting in a 23 second lap his best of the run being a 21.148.  The Top 6 for the round was completed by Ryan Eckert and Brett Kingsbury.

In the 1:8 Buggy classes Associated driver Jake Dellinger narrowly topped the nitro field with a time just .616 faster than Max Flurer who took Q2.  In e-Buggy it was another TQ run for TLR’s JR Mitch who was 3.1-seconds faster than Justin Cranford.  In 4WD Short Course the Top 2 for Q3 was a reverse of the result of Q2 with Tekno RC driver John Bernard Jr getting the better of Mitch with Justin Fales completing the Top 3.

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