Maifield sets Q1 pace in 2WD Buggy

The opening round of 2WD buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals in Dallas, Texas, saw Ryan Maifield set the early pace around the Mike’s Hobby Shop track with the Associated driver taking Q1 by 1.578 from the TLR of Cody Hollis with Dustin Evans completing the Top 3 as the only other driver to manage 16-laps.  It was good opening round of qualifying for Hollis as he took his TLR22-T to the fastest time in the other big class this weekend Mod Truck ahead of his young team-mate Taylor Larsen with Maifield taking his T4.2 to the 3rd fastest time.

Maifield described his opening 2WD Buggy run as a ‘rough heat’ after he had to contend with lapped traffic in the unseeded heat.  Having to be ‘patient’ while he had a few incidents none of them where anything major and all should be better for the second of the scheduled three qualifiers as the heats will be reseeded at the end of each round. Winner of the Winter Indoor Nationals, the opening round of the JConcepts sponsored Indoor National Series, Maifield said his B4.2 was safe to drive but could do with a ‘little more steering’ and he will make some adjustments to sort that for his second run.  In Mod Truck, the Arizona driver described it as ‘work in progress’ but added the biggest issue in Q1 was ‘too many mistakes’.

Hollis was pleased with his opening runs saying he had ‘no wrecks’ and now just needed to repeat that a ‘couple more times’.  Running JConcepts green compound Pressure Point tyres on both his Orion powered TLR22 and 22T, the 20-year-old said track conditions for Q1 were very consistent and he was enjoying driving the track which ‘has a really good flow to it’.  Planning to leave his truck the same for Q2 and just break in a new set of tyres, on his buggy he will made a front camber link change to try calm down the front end a little.

Team-mate Evans said his 22 was ‘awesome’ but the run had ‘5-seconds in crashes’ after a couple of ‘dumb mistakes’.  With rocket round qualifying being used this weekend, the winner of last year’s Fall Indoor Nationals said with the track going to get faster and faster he said the important thing was going to be on form for Q3 when the track should be at its fastest.  Fourth fastest in Mod Truck, Evans said his tyres where a little too new leading to a couple of mistakes but with a couple of small set-up changes planned for his next run he is confident he can easily improve on his time.

Fourth fastest in 2WD Buggy, 14-year-old Larsen felt he could have driven a lot better.  Happy with how his cars are working, the TLR driver said he needed to drive with more patience and stay in the groove.  Winner of Mod Truck at this event 12 months ago he would end the opening qualifier 2.668 down on Hollis but is confident he can improve a lot on that pace with tidier driving.

The defending series champion and dominator of this race last year, Steven Hartson could only managed 5th in Q1. Describing it as a ‘bad run’, the factory Associated driver said he never does well in his first run.  Making a number of ‘stupid mistakes’ he said his buggy has the pace, highlighted by his blistering fastest lap of the round which was a 19.069, he said the driver just needs to ‘slow down a little’ which should help eliminate most of the mistakes.  The Top 6 in 2WD Buggy was completed by fellow Associated driver Allen Horne while in Mod Truck AE team-manager Brent Thielke set the 5th fastest time ahead of his young team driver Spencer Rivkin.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 1
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/5:17.025
2. Cody Hollis – TLR – 16/5:18.603
3. Dustin Evans – TLR – 16/5:19.323
4. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:07.196
5. Steven Hartson – Associated – 15/5:07.482
6. Allen Horne – Associated – 15/5:09.756

Mod Truck Qualifying – Round 1
1. Cody Hollis – TLR – 15/5:04.832
2. Taylor Larsen – TLR – 15/5:07.500
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 15/5:08.007
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 15/5:09.300
5. Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/513.499
6. Spencer Rivkin – Associated – 15/5:15.197

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JConcepts Spring Indoor Nats underway in Dallas

Round 2 of the JConcepts Indoor National Series got underway in Dallas, Texas, today with drivers taking advantage of a day of open practice at Mike’s Hobby Shop which plays host to the ‘Spring Indoor Nationals’ for a second year at its impressive and extremely large facility. With entries up on last year, the event has also attracted a much more competitive field setting the stage for an exciting weekend of racing which is set to get properly underway tomorrow with the first of three rounds of qualifying.

Heading the entry is defending series champion Steven Hartson who took a clean sweep of wins here in 2012 claiming victory in 2WD & 4WD Buggy and 4WD Short Course. Switching his 4WD Short Course for 2WD Short Course this year, the factory Associated driver was complimentary of the track created by Mike Darnell and his crew saying it had a much ‘better flow’ than last year’s layout with the jumps also ‘better built’.  Spending most of his day working on tyre combinations, the Californian driver said he was happy with how all three of his cars are working and he is looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

One of Hartson’s biggest challengers this weekend is going to come from within his own team with Ryan Maifield making his first ever visit to Mike’s Hobby Shop.  Winner of 2 & 4WD Buggy at Round 1 of the series, the Winter Indoor Nationals, back in February at SmacTrac in St.Louis, Maifield has been very impressed by the facility describing it as a ‘real nice building’ adding that the ‘rocking hobby shop had way too much nice stuff in it that he would like to go play with’.  Winner of the recent Cactus Classic at his home track in Scottsdale where he has been doing all of his recent running, Maifield said the ‘dirt in Arizona is not even close to the type of dirt they are using here’ and it took a bit of getting used to.  Racing 2WD Short Course alongside his buggies, he said in terms of set-up his main focus for the day has been ‘figuring out’ shocks and tyre choice.

Associated Team Manager Brent Thielke, who last weekend was over in Germany racing on a carpet surface track at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series, is also in action this weekend but said most of his day was spent helping his drivers who are running three cars each.  Racing 2WD Buggy and Mod Truck, having built a brand new T4.2 kit for the weekend to replace his previously updated T4.1 truck, he said of the runs he did do both cars ran decent.  Having raced here last year, taking a podium finish in 2WD Buggy, he echoed Hartson’s thoughts on the track saying it flowed better adding that already the grip was better than it reached last year. Describing the event has having a much more competitive feel to it he said it was ‘cool’ having more fast guys here this weekend and he was particularly looking forward to battling it out with TLR’s Dustin Evans and JR Mitch.

Evans, who dominated the final round of the 2012 JConcepts Indoor National Series at the RC Excitement track in Massachusetts last October, was happy with how his practice went, saying ‘everything was good’.  Having raced here once previously when he took part in a round of the Short Course Showdown Series, he said the track for this weekend is fun to drive and the layout & track conditions should make for good racing.  Happy with his 2WD Buggy and Short course truck he said most of his focus today was on improving his Mod Truck.

TLR team-mate Mitch said he was familiar with the track having raced here in March at the Bigfoot Extravaganza.  Taking the TQ in 2WD Buggy and the win in 2WD Short Course at that event he said today was a very productive day as he was able to work with Evans on trying a number of different set-ups leading to him improving both his cars from when he last ran here.  Also competing this weekend for TLR is Cody Hollis.  A 2WD Buggy A-Main finalist at the Winter Indoor Nationals, Hollis won Mod Truck at the recent Bigfoot Extravaganza and will be looking to try repeat that form this weekend.

One interesting entry this weekend is top US onroad racer Paul Lemieux.  Better know for racking up wins for his Xray team in touring cars, the release of the European manufacturers’ XB4 4WD Buggy has seen him pop up at a number of offroad meetings this being his biggest event yet although around 10-years ago he did race at the US Nationals and the Cactus Classic where he says he qualified 4th in the A-Main. Making the trip out from Milwaukee for the race, Mike’s Hobby Shop is somewhat of a local race for his sponsor RC America, who look after Xray’s distribution in the US, which are based just 5-minutes away.  His first time to race offroad at Mike’s Hobby Shop, Lemieux has tasted success here before becoming the 2012 US National Onroad TC Champion on the facility’s carpet track.  Asked what target he had set himself on his first outing against some of the biggest names in offroad racing he replied that it was ‘to have less than 5-seconds of mistakes at the end of each qualifier’.  Enjoying driving offroad he added he still has to get used to the racing as compared to onroad its not as easy to keep your rhythm while running along side others on the track.

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