Maifield, Hollis & Evans TQ Spring Indoor Nationals

Ryan Maifield, Cody Hollis and Dustin Evans have TQ’d the three main classes at this year’s JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals in Dallas, Texas, Maifield giving Associated pole for the 2WD Buggy A-Main while TLR pairing Hollis and Evans will carry the No.1 in Mod Truck and 2WD Short Course respectively tomorrow at the at Mike’s Hobby Shop event.  The only driver to record a double TQ this weekend, Maifield will also lead away the field in the 4WD Buggy A-Main.

Running rocket round format, everything was still to play for in the third & final round of qualifying with Mod Truck producing the best showdown as Dustin Evans came so very close to denying his team-mate Hollis, who had set the pace in the opening two heats. Running a fresh set of tyres on his Orion powered 22T in Q3 in preparation for the finals, it was clear early on in the heat that Hollis would have to depend on his Q2 time standing with Evans and Maifield on a charge to try and outpace the 20-year-old.  Evans came really close, recovering from a number of moments to start his final lap just 1/10th of a second off Hollis’ provisional TQ pace but try as hard as he could he was not able to find the 1/10 he required, crossing the line to end up .095 shy of Hollis. Despite missing out, Evans said he was much happier with his truck after a change from green to the harder blue compound JConcept Pressure Point tyre and he was looking forward to a good race tomorrow with his team-mate.

Very happy at having out qualified his team-mate to take the honour of Top Qualifier, Hollis said he is confident he can see off the challenge of his more experienced team mate but added that the key to the race is going to be ‘no wrecks’.  Securing third ahead of his team-manager Brent Thielke, Maifield said his T4.2 is getting better every run but he is still not comfortable enough to really push it but he said he will wait to see what the race brings.

In 2WD Buggy Maifield had not such problems with his B4.2.  With 9 of the Top 10 improving their times in Q3, Thielke the only driver not to better his time, Maifield said he had a good run and while Evans & Hollis had good pace early on he felt he seemed to deal with traffic better which helped him to a TQ time that was 6.2 seconds clear of Hollis who will start the triple A-Main second.  Asked who he expected to be his biggest challenger in the final he said both Hollis and Evans were serious contenders but he hoped the two would end up battling one another leaving him to just try and run a clean 5-minutes.  Evans, who said the change from green to blue compound tyres on his TLR22 didn’t have the same positive effect as it did in Mod Truck, feels while his buggy has good pace, starting from 3rd it will be hard to go for the win and picking the right tyre was going to be key to him having a good race.

Coming into the final qualifier holding onto the last A-Main grid spot, defending JConcepts Indoor National Series Champion Steven Hartson managed his cleanest round to secured the fourth fastest time.  Switching to green Barcodes and a different tyre sauce he said once he got passed the first minute mark with the new set of tyres his B4.2 felt really good with him making just one mistake over the 5-minutes.

While the names filling the Top 4 places on the grid are all established racers the driver who will start fifth is going to be one to watch for the future.  Running in the C heat, reseeding being done at the end of each round,  12-year-old Austin Horne put in the drive of his life in the final qualifier to put his Associated B4.2 smack in the middle of the A-Main where he will start ahead of his father Allen who starts 7th.  Happy with how his buggy has run all day and making no changes over the day he said his impressive pace was just down to him putting together a clean round.  Delighted at making the A-Main, he said his target coming to the race was to qualifying in the Top 10 but to achieve Top 5 and out qualify his dad had made this by far his best race yet.

In 2WD Short Course, Evans managed to improve on his Q1 TQ pace by 2.3 seconds in the final qualifier taking the round ahead of 14-year-old team-mate Taylor Larsen who managed to bump Q2 pace setter JR Mitch back to third.  In 4WD Buggy it was a similar story as Maifield, who had held the TQ since Q1 managed to improve on his time in Q3 getting his B44.2 around the track marginally faster, shaving .928 of a second of his previous time.  Unable to better his Q1 time Hartson will start 2nd with Xray’s Paul Lemieux completing the Top 3 with his Q2 run time.

2WD Buggy Top 10 Qualifiers (A-Main Grid)
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:04.898 (3)
2. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:11.117 (3)
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:13.990 (3)
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 16/5:16.916 (3)
5. Austin Horne – Associated – 16/5:18.102 (3)
6. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 16/5:18.615 (3)
7. Allen Horne – Associated – 16/5:18.940 (3)
8. Trevor Nault – Associated – 16/5:19.722 (3)
9. Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5:20.228 (2)
10.Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 16/5:20.962 (3)

Mod Truck Top 10 Qualifiers (A-Main Grid)
1. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:13.351 (2)
2. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:13.446 (3)
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:14.419 (3)
4. Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5.19.128 (3)
5. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:00.498 (2)
6. Trevor Nault – Associated – 15/5:09.041 (2)
7. Aaron Reynolds – TLR – 15/5:14.267 (2)
8. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 15/5:15.197 (1)
9. Eric Larsen – TLR – 15/5:15.462 (3)
10.Dustin English – Kyosho – 15/5:16.526 (2)

2WD Short Course Top 10 Qualifiers (A-Main Grid)
1. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:17.458 (3)
2. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:01.634 (3)
3. JR Mitch – TLR – 15/5:04.345 (2)
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:10.973 (1)
5. Michael Twilling – Kyosho – 15/5:11.416 (2)
6. Mike Stoll – Associated – 15/5:13.699 (2)
7. Cody Hollis – TLR – 15/5:15.791 (3)
8. Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/5:19.456 (3)
9. Gary O’Brien – Durango – 14/5:08.627 (3)
10.Kyle Skidmore – Associated – 14/5:10.992 (3)

4WD Buggy Top 10 Qualifiers (A-Main Grid)
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 17/5:17.329 (3)
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 16/5:06.004 (1)
3. Paul Lemieux – Xray – 16/5:15.841 (2)
4. Kyle Skidmore – Associated – 16/5:17.266 (2)
5. Trevor Nault – Associated – 16/5:17.533 (2)
6. Aydin Horne – Associated – 16/5:19.437 (3)
7. Aaron Breuer – Kyosho – 16/5:19.478 (1)
8. Michael Twilling – Kyosho – 15/5:03.940 (2)
9. Jordan Born – Xray – 15/5:04.245 (2)
10.Rhett McNair – Schumacher – 15/5:04.711 (2)

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Mitch tops Q2 but Evans remains fastest

JR Mitch set the fastest time in round two of 2WD Short Course qualifying to move up to second overall behind TLR team-mate Dustin Evans who, a long way of his Q1 pace, posted the third fastest time behind Taylor Larsen who despite improving his time drops to third overall as the 22T holds the Top 3 spots on the grid with Associated’s Steven Hartson best of the rest in 4th.  Mitch said his 22SCT was ‘so much better’ after he changed pretty much everything that can be changed on the truck and moved to the same set-up as Evans is running. Confident that his Q1 time would be hard to beat Evans used the round to try a different tyre sauce which he said while it made the truck easy to drive overall he didn’t have enough grip to get even close to his morning pace.

In 4WD Buggy, Hartson topped the Q2 times ahead of Xray’s Paul Lemieux but it was a slower time for the Associated driver who remains 2nd overall behind team-mate Ryan Maifield who lasted less than a minute retiring after he popped a dog bone on his B44.2.  Switching from blue to green compund Barcodes on his B44.2, defendng champion Hartson said his buggy felt better with him able to set a new fastest lap time of 17.844 but too many crashes meant he could convert that into an overall faster time.  Lemieux’s improved time sees the Touring Car ace move up a stop to hold third overall.

2WD Short Course Qualifying after Round 2
1. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:19.789 (1)
2. JR Mitch – TLR – 15/5:04.345 (2)
3. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:07.547 (2)
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:10.973 (1)
5. Michael Twilling – Kyosho – 15/5:11.416 (2)
6. Mike Stoll – Associated – 15/5:13.699 (2)

4WD Buggy Qualifying after Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 17/5:18.257 (1)
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 16/5:06.004 (1)
3. Paul Lemieux – Xray – 16/5:15.841 (2)
4. Kyle Skidmore – Associated – 16/5:17.266 (2)
5. Trevor Nault – Associated – 16/5:17.533 (2)
6. Aaron Breuer – Kyosho – 16/5:19.478 (1)

View the event image gallery here.

Maifield & Hollis up pace in Q2

Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield and TLR’s Cody Hollis upped the pace in 2WD Buggy and Mod Truck respectively in the second round of qualifying for the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals at Mike’s Hobby Shop in Dallas with both drivers improving considerably on their opening TQ run times.  Benefiting from much faster track condition Maifield improved his time by over 7 seconds as he set a new fastest lap in the event’s premiere class with the next best improvement coming from team boss Bent Thielke who moves up to fourth behind TLR’s Hollis and Dustin Evans who both failed to improve.  In Mod Truck, Hollis improved by over 10-seconds to take the second of the 3 scheduled rocket round qualifiers by 4.3 seconds from Maifield as the pair posted the first 16-lap runs of the day.

Running a fresh set of JConcepts Barcodes on his Reedy powered B4.2, Maifield said it took about a minute for the tyres to come in but overall the track was a lot faster than in the mornings first round.  Rebuilding his shocks and changing to a different spring to combat the slight understeer he experienced in Q1, he said it was hard to tell if the changes had improved the buggy as the track had so much more grip second time round.  Moving up from 3rd to 2nd overall in Mod Truck, Maifield said by the end of the run his truck was good but it takes a couple of minutes before he feel comfortable with the T4.2 and that is leading to ‘a lot of crashes’ early in the run. Planning to try a few changes for Q3 he said luckily it’s rocket round qualifying as he still has a chance at going for the overall TQ.

Having only set the 9th fastest time in Q1, Thielke was pleased with his second run saying he ‘old manned them all’.  Admitting that he was a bit off in outright pace he said he drove better and much more consistent for the round and it was this that helped him to improve by 5 places.  Trying a different tyre sauce on his B4.2 he said he drove a little too cautiously in the opening laps but as the run went on the buggy just got better and better.  After a poor start to qualifying, defending Indoor National Series Champion Steven Hartson’s day got worse as he struggled with ‘way too much traction’.  Running a different tyre sauce to his team-mate Maifield he said for the final qualifier would try running with no sauce in the hope he can get in a safe & clean round and improve on his current time which sees him just hanging for an A-Main start with the 10th quickest time.

For Hollis and Taylor Larsen the second qualifier looked to start off well but the TLR team-mates ‘wrecked’ a number of times in the closing stages of the run and were unable to better their impressive Q1 runs.  Hollis said his TLR22 was still too aggressive and he plans to make changes for this evening’s final qualifier but in Mod Truck he had no such issues describing Q2 as ‘another flawless run’.  14-year-old Larsen said he just lost it in 2WD buggy and happy with how his 22 handled the higher traction he needs to try and keep his calm for the full 5-minutes next time out and focus on his consistency.  Although he bettered his time in Mod Truck, just missing out on 16-laps, the defending event champion dropped back one spot to third.  Team Losi Racing lead driver Dustin Evans wasn’t happy with either of his runs, despite going faster in Mod Truck, saying he just isn’t having things go his way so far today and he hopes he can catch a break in Q3.

Having completed the Top 6 in Q1, Allen Horne moved up to 5th with another good run in Q2 with fellow Associated driver Spencer Rivkin posting the 6th fastest time.  14-year-old Rivkin said his run was not perfect as he had a few bobbles but with his B4.2 getting better and better as the grip comes up he is hopeful that with a clean run he can improve his time which was just 3 seconds shy of being a 16-lap run.

2WD Buggy Qualifying after Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:09.749 (2)
2. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:18.603 (1)
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:19.323 (1)
4. Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5:20.228 (2)
5. Allen Horne – Associated – 16/5:22.126 (2)
6. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 15/5:00.295 (2)

Mod Truck Qualifying after Round 2
1. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:13.351 (2)
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:17.653 (2)
3. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:00.498 (2)
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 15/5:02.527 (2)
5. Trevor Nault – Associated – 15/5:09.041 (2)
6. Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/513.499 (1)

View the event image gallery here.