Video – 2wd, 2wd SC, Truck & 4wd A-main Leg 2

Maifield does the double at Winter Indoor Nats

Ryan Maifield secured the buggy double on his debut in the JConcepts Indoor National Series, the factory Associated ace driving another faultless round of Mains to wrap up the overall 2 & 4WD Buggy wins early. Starting the season opening Winter Indoor Nationals at SmacTrac in St.Louis, Missouri as Top Qualifier, the Arizona driver made it look easy winning both A2 encounters easily over Kyosho’s Cody Turner in 2WD and his own team-mate & defending Champion Steven Hartson in 4WD. Featuring a busy but narrow track layout that made any overtaking difficult, the second round of A-Mains saw the other three main classes of the series decided. In Mod Truck Jared Tebo put the win beyond his rivals with another tone to tone performance while team-mate Turner bagged the 2WD Short Course win. For MIP’s Matt Olson the weekend was the perfect start to his 4WD Short Course title defense as he claimed the overall win for Round 1 of the 5 race series.

Having had to see off very close attention from Tebo in the opening A-Main of 2WD Buggy, in Leg 2 Maifield had a much easier race recording a new fastest lap of the weekend of 17.121 on his way to a very comfortable 7-second win over Turner. All over the back of Tebo, Turner forced his team leader into a mistake just as they came to complete the penultimate lap. Rolling over his Orion powered RB6 it was enough to allow Turner’s example through, the 21-year-old holding on to take second 24/100ths from Tebo. The result means the pair will go head to head in the final Main to decide which step they will occupy either side of Maifield on the podium.

In 4WD Buggy just like in the first A-Main Maifield checked out early again being the only driver to run 19 laps over the 5-minutes. Behind the No.1 B44.2, the attention of the race was on the fight between Tebo and fastest man on the track Hartson. Posting a fastest lap of 16.468, Hartson eventually got the mistake he needed from Tebo to get by when four laps from home the Kansas City resident rolled over his Lazer ZX5. The result means while a sixth consecutive win in the series is no longer on the cards he is still in with a shout of making it a 1-2 finish for Associated if he can beat Tebo in A3.

In Mod Truck there was a little drama before the start when Maifield, as he put it himself, ‘ran out of talent’. Just as the trucks where called to the grid for the driver introductions Maifield’s T4.2 hit the wall at the end of the straight breaking the servo horn. Luckily, together with Jason Rouna, Maifield was able to fit a new horn while the drivers introductions continued getting back just in time for the race start. Shadowing Tebo in A1, Maifield could not repeat the performance in A2 and finished 2.3 seconds behind with his team boss & defending champion Brent Thielke completing the Top 3.

Having dominated the first A-Main of 2WD Short Course, Turner again made light work of the field taking his Proline equipped Ultima SCR to a 4.5 second win over TLR sponsored JP Richards with local Justin Driemeier third after he got ahead of fellow Associated driver Hartson when he rolled his SC10.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:09.672
2.(3) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:16.484
3.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:16.727
4.(5) JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:02.323
5.(4) Steven Hartson – Associated – 17/5:03.618
6.(7) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:04.354
7.(8) Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:06.916
8.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 17/5:10.441
9.(10)Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:12.492
10.(6)Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/5:05.237

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 19/5:16.312
2.(3) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:01.168
3.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:02.326
4.(6) Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:06.435
5.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:08.327
6.(4) Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:10.153
7.(8) Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:10.853
8.(10)Dustin Richards – Associated – 17/5:00.426
9.(5) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:05.022
10.(9)Matt Gosch – Associated – 6/1:46.568

View the event images gallery here.

Video – 2wd, 2wd SC, Truck & 4wd A-main Leg 1

Tone to tone Buggy wins for Maifield at SmacTrac

The opening round of A-Mains at the JConcepts Winter Indoor National at SmacTrac in St.Louis saw wins in the main classes for all the Top Qualifiers with Ryan Maifield taking the two biggest wins steering his Associated cars to tone to tone wins in both 2 & 4WD Buggy ahead of Kyosho’s Jared Tebo. The other wins went to Tebo who took Mod Truck with team-mate Cody Turner taking his No.1 Ultima SCR to a convincing win in 2WD short course while 4WD Short Course went to defending champion Matt Olson.

In 2WD Buggy Maifield came under intense pressure from Tebo in the closing stage of the race but on the penultimate lap the latter, who predicted passing would not be possible without mistakes, got too close to the Top Qualifier tagging the back of the B4.2, the two cars getting interlocked. Allowing Maifield to retake the lead as they set out on the final lap Maifield took the win by 1.1 seconds from Tebo. Starting third Turner was to finish third .9 behind his team-leader after seeing off a strong last lap challenge from JConcepts Indoor National Series Champion Steven Hartson.

In 4WD Buggy Maifield took a very convincing win thanks to team-mate Hartson who mounted a challenge on Tebo allowing the Arizona driver to pull clear and cruise to the win by almost 4 seconds. As much as he tried to find a way passed Tebo, the winner of all five 4WD encounters in last year’s series couldn’t get it done crossing the line 3/10ths behind after 18 laps.

In Mod Truck Maifield got the opportunity to put the pressure on Tebo for 5-minutes after getting by the No.2 starting truck of champion Brent Thielke who eventually dropped back to finish the encounter in 5th. Setting the fastest lap of the race with his T4.2 Maifield said there was no way passed as Tebo kept his RT5 on line to win by 3/10ths.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:14.641
2.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:15.731
3.(3) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:16.674
4.(4) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:17.084
5.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:04.501
6.(10)Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:07.474
7.(8) Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:11.340
8.(7) Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 16/5:00.379
9.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 16/5:01.591
10.(5)JP Richards – TLR – DNS

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 19/5:16.708
2.(2) Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:03.550
3.(3) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:03.878
4.(4) Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:04.901
5.(6) Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:07.949
6.(7) Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:10.231
7.(8) Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:11.905
8.(9) Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:12.993
9.(10)Dustin Richards – Associated – 18/5:14.355
10.(5)Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 1/0:16.768

View the event images gallery here.

Paige tops final 4WD Buggy Qualifier

Associated team driver Michael Paige has TQ’d the final round of qualifying in 4WD Buggy at the season opener of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in St.Louis. The 21-year-old took Q4 by a narrow margin from defending Champion Steven Hartson as the two swapped times after both Ryan Maifield, who wrapped up TQ honours in Q3, and Jared Tebo both made mistakes during the heat. The result will see Illinois driver Paige line up fourth on the grid for what has now been announced will be triple A-Mains rather than the single 10-minute final drivers where expecting. Up front Tebo will start second behind Maifield’s B44.2 with Hartson’s example lining up third.

In 4WD Short Course MIP driver & class champion Matt Olson took the final qualifier to secure overall TQ honours ahead of team-mate who yesterday took the 2nd round of qualifying.

4WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 4
1. Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:09.324
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:09.497
3. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 18/5:11.754
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:12.204
5. Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:13.108
6. Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:13.122
7. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:13.800
8. Kurt Kellum – Xray – 18/5:15.658
9. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:18.098
10.Nate Jaskot – Kyosho – 18/5:18.305

4WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 0 pts
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 4
3. Steven Hartson – Associated – 4
4. Michael Paige – Associated – 4
5. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 7
6. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 9
7. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 9
8. Al Horne – Associated – 10
9. Matt Gosch – Associated – 13
10.Dustin Richards – Associated – 18

View the event images gallery here.