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.

View our event image gallery here.

Evans tops second 2WD Buggy qualifier

TLR’s Dustin Evans completed a clean sweep of the feature buggy classes in the second round of qualifying at the JConcepts Clash in Flowood, Mississippi, by backing up his 4WD topping time with a TQ run in 2WD.  Having retired from both classes in Q1 yesterday due to broken shock towers, Evans took the second of the four scheduled 2WD Buggy qualifiers from defending champion Ryan Maifield by 2.5-seconds with JR Mitch completing the Top 3 who all managed 14 lap runs.

Describing his run, which was 6-seconds faster than Maifield Q1 pace, as a ‘conservative, clean run’ Evans said the approach ‘worked out’.  That approach may have been somewhat brought on by the fact that in the warm-up he broke his TLR22 2.0 and had to take a rear track rod off the buggy of his team manager Kevin Gahan.  Running with an all blue shell this weekend, the 2011 US Champion said his JConcepts Barcodes shod chassis felt really good helped by the fact that the track is ‘getting better and better’.  With conditions ‘quite a bit faster’ than Q1, Evans who finished runner-up here 12-months ago expects the track to be even faster in the reseeded 3rd qualifier but other than fitting a fresh set of tyres plans to stick with his current set-up.

Maifield said in terms of traffic his heat for 2WD Buggy is the worst he has ever encountered describing it as ‘a nightmare’. The Arizona ace said his Reedy powered C4.2 was good but ultimately it was his own mistake on his penultimate lap that cost him a shot at making it two TQ runs from two heats.  The only driver to run a 21-second lap time in Q2, Maifield is looking forward to running in the reseeded heats saying it should be a lot better and make for the chance to run a full clean 5-minutes.

Having had a good Q1 run ruined yesterday by traffic, Mitch was pleased to ‘get one decent run under his belt’.  Unable to drive from his regular position on the drivers stand for Q2, he said this forced him to drive a little more conservative than normal due to his perspective of the track being different but from his regular spot he feels there is about 5-seconds in the bag.  Motoring up to a Trinity 8.5 turn for Q2, Mitch said he was happier with the power now and in terms of his TLR22 2.0 set-up he will leave it as is describing it as having a ‘good neutral feeling’.

Setting the fifth fastest time behind the TLR of Cody Hollis, last year’s podium finisher Max Flurer described his second qualifier as ‘OK’.  The Associated driver said he had trouble keeping the front wheels of his B4.2 on the ground.  A ‘pretty clean’ 5-minutes he said he hopes adding weight to the front of the buggy will improve things for his next outing.  JConcepts’ Paul Wynn completed the Top 6.

Third fastest driver in Q1, Jason Ruona would pull up 3-minutes in to Q2. ‘Mr. JConcepts’ said his B4.2 didn’t feel right in the warm-up but he still started the run.  With the buggy not running freely off power he decided to pull it and do a full rebuild of the transmission.

In the other 2WD classes Maifield TQ’d Short Course from Q1 pace setter Evans with Wynn third.  In Mod Truck Hollis made it two from two again outpacing the similar 22T of Leon McIntosh.

View our event image gallery here.

Evans takes Q2 of 4WD Buggy at ‘Clash’

Having failed to finish yesterday’s opening qualifier at the JConcepts Clash, Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans bounced back to take Q2 of 4WD Buggy this  morning in Mississippi as Q1 pace setter Ryan Maifield failed to finish his second round, the Associated driver popping a front ball cup on his Reedy power B44.2.  Evans posted a time of 14 laps in 5:05.832 to top the round from Associated’s of Jason Rouna and Brett Kingsbury.

Having suffered a front shock tower breakage in Q1, Evans said after seeing Maifield, who is running a heat earlier, retire he just took a safe approach to his second run adding that he maybe drove too conservatively.  Running a fresh set of JConcepts Barcodes on his Orion powered XXX-4, he said the buggy felt good and the only change he plans for Q3 is to fit a fresh set of tyres.  With traffic having been a problem for many of the front runners in the unseeded opening two qualifiers, Evans said the reseeding of the Heats for the remaining two qualifiers should allow for much cleaner and therefore faster runs.

JConcepts founder Rouna was very happy with his run saying he drove a little more aggressively than in Q1 adding that he was quiet comfortable with it.  Fitting a fresh set of blue Barcodes all round on his B44.2, having only ran new rear tyres in Q1, he said the tyres came in really well with the buggy feeling really good to drive.  Running a 6.5 turn motor the former World Championship finalist and defending ‘Clash’ champion said the buggy ‘didn’t feel super fast’ but added this may have infact helped him.  Running a time of 5:11.478, he feels a time of 5:06 should be possible with a good clean run.

With two of four rounds counting, Kingsbury said with this in mind he just went for a ‘nice safe solid run’ which combined with his 4th in Q1 now locks him into a A-Main starting position.  Trying tyre sauce on his JConcepts Blue Barcode tyres for Q2, the Florida racer said it improved side traction and he will continue to use it in Q3.  Not planning to make any set-up changes he said with two good results in the bag he can now try to drive a little more aggressively.

In only his second race using a borrowed Xray XB4, Zack Genova set the fourth fastest time as the only other driver in the round to post 14-laps of the Flowood RC Indoor Park track.  Really liking the XB4, he said a switch to Proline’s ION tyre all round improved the buggy over Q1 with him having a lot better traction.  Looking for a little more stability the Team Novak driver plans to go up in his diff oils for Q3.

Despite suffering a front drive shaft failure on his XXX-4 with two laps to go, TLR team driver Cody Hollis set the fifth fastest time.  With lap times of 26 and 31 seconds respectively around the 21-second lap track, the problem cost him a repeat of his the Top 3 time he posted in the opening qualifier.

Setting the fastest lap of Q2 with a time of 21.143, Maifield said a change of driving style after his motor moved on the opening lap lead to his incident that result in his retirement.  With his Reedy motor having shifted, he said he knew that if he would use his brakes it would strip his gear so he had to ‘float’ around the corners.  Having to come off the power earlier into the corners he said this allowed him carry more speed something which proved faster to his regular driving as highlighted by his fastest lap.  ‘Super committed’ to the S corner after the main straight he said that commitment would eventually bite him as he clipped the pipe just coming up on the 2-minute mark into his qualifier.

In the other 4WD classes, it was TLR’s JR Mitch who set the pace in the biggest class, e-Buggy, at this the 7th running of the JConcepts Clash ahead of fellow 8ight driver Dylan Gerard.  Mitch would also set the pace in 4WD Short Course ahead of John Bernard Jr.  In 1:8 Nitro Buggy Associated driver Max Flurer took Q2 by 1.1-seconds from Tyler Jones with Gerard a further 2.2-seconds back in 3rd.

View our event image gallery here.

2WD Buggy a repeat of 4WD

The opening round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Clash was almost a carbon copy of the earlier 4WD Buggy qualifier with Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield setting the pace again from TLR’s Cody Hollis and JConcepts’ Jason Ruona as Dustin Evans suffered another retirement due to a broken front shock tower.

The only driver to run 14 laps over the 5-minutes, Maifield was happy to end Day 1 of qualifying with two TQ runs from the 3-classes he is contesting but added that had Evans not retired it would have been very close between him and the TLR driver in the events blue ribbon class. Suffering a few mistakes over the run, the defending champion said his mid motored C4.1 felt pretty good helped by the fact that the traction was starting to get better. Running additive treated JConcepts Blue Barcodes, and based on the improvement in grip over the course of Q1, for the first of tomorrow’s three scheduled rounds of qualifying he plans to switch to a closed cell front foam insert along with making a few set-up adjustments to his buggy to suit the rising level of grip.

While Hollis backed up his 4WD Buggy performance by also posting he 2nd fastest time in 2WD Buggy for a strong first day of action, for TLR team-mate Evans it was a frustrating day.  Topping the timesheets in 2WD Short Course ahead of Maifield for a strong start to the event, the former US Champion and Reedy Race winner had a frustrating ending to the day.  While his 4WD buggy shock tower breakage in Q1 was due to moment of his own doing, in 2WD Buggy it was a problem with traffic that lead to his unnecessary retirement just after the half way distance of the run.  Jumping the large centre double Evans’ collided mid air with a slower buggy causing his Orion powered TLR22 2.0 to land awkwardly resulting in his second broken shock tower of the day.

Ruona said he ran a cautious qualifier but in terms of the set-up on his  rear motor mounted B4.2 he was ‘pretty happy’ as the buggy was really easy to drive.  Aiming for a Top 5 result, he said posting the 3rd fastest time was pretty good however had Evans not had his problems & JR Mitch not been hampered by traffic he is pretty sure he would have been classified in 5th spot.  1.2 seconds behind Ruona was JConcepts bodyshell designer Paul Wynn.  Like his boss, he ran blue Barcodes putting in a ‘safe run’ to secure 4th for the round.  Planning to drive a little more ‘aggressive’ for his next outing he also plans to adjust his B4.2 set-up to give himself a little more steering.

View our event image gallery here.