March 23, 2012

Maifield completes clean sweep in practice

Ryan Maifield completed a clean sweep of controlled practice at the 26th Annual Pro-Line Cactus Classic steering his Team Associated buggies and trucks to the fastest three consecutive laps in all four classes he is contesting at the famous Arizona race. The defending champion of both buggy classes and 2WD Short Course, Maifield said he was helped by his ‘home field advantage’ but added it had been a good day with his equipment working well and needing little or no adjustments in terms of set-up. With two of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying on tomorrow’s timetable he said other than preventative maintenance his biggest job for the rest of the event will be making the right call on which tyre will best suit the conditions at the time of each of his heats.

In 2WD Buggy it was Kyosho’s Jared Tebo who was closest to Maifield’s pace with TLR’s young star Dakota Phend third fastest. Tebo was much happier with both his buggies in the second practice saying the day ended up ‘pretty good’. Planning to run a stiffer rear spring on his Ultima RB5 for qualifying he also plans to fit a fresh Orion motor, while on his Lazer ZX5, which he took to the 6th fastest time, he will run the buggy 4mm shorter.

Behind Maifield in 4WD Buggy it was Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz and Travis Amezcua with Tamiya’s Lee Martin completing the Top 4. Lutz said after his run that his DEX410 still felt loose but put that down to the fact that he was running a used set of tyres from a previous event but expects a fresh set of AKAs tomorrow will give him a even faster buggy.

The defending champion of Mod Truck Cavalieri had to settle for second behind his team-mate Maifield with Dustin Evans’ TLR 22T third fastest. Evans was best of the rest in 2WD Short Course with Associated driver Kody Numedahl setting the third fastest three consecutive laps for the class around the Scottsdale R/C Speedway track.

With Maifield sitting out 4WD Short Course, the fifth of the big classes that make up the Pro-Line Cactus Classic, it was German ace Joern Neumann who set the pace ahead of Team Losi Racing’s Frank Root and Phend with Amezcua fourth followed by defending Champion Mike Truhe.

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March 23, 2012

26th Cactus Classic underway

First held in 1986, the Cactus Classic is one of the blue ribbon events on the international 1:10 Offroad race calendar and with a massive 423 entries this year the event is as strong as ever. Attracting some of the biggest names in the sport from around the world, the 26th running of the event marks the return of Pro-Line as title sponsor. The tyre company has a long history with the Arizona event and they are delighted to be back involved with the prestigious event which has been held at the current Scottsdale R/C Speedway track location since 1994. For former World Champion Mark Pavidis this will be his 24th time to contest the race, an honour he shares with Richard Lake, while for legendary race announcer Scotty Ernst 2012 marks his first time as race director of America’s longest running international offroad event.

Holding three of the five big titles up for grabs at this year’s Proline Cactus Classic, Ryan Maifield is the pre-event favourite as this is his home track. Living just 10 minutes from the Hobby Town owned track and shop, it was at the previous SRS track location in Scottsdale that the now factory Team Associated driver got his first taste of r/c racing. Competing in his 19th Classic, the 2WD Vice-World Champion, who appears very relaxed, said he is pretty confident ahead of the event adding his aim is to ‘have fun and see what happens’. Set to defend his 2WD & 4WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course titles, Maifield will also compete in Modified Truck, the class in which his team-mate Ryan Cavalieri is Champion. With enough work in preping four cars both Ryan’s will not run in 4WD Short Course, the other big class of the event.

Winner of 4WD Short Course last year Team Losi Racing’s Mike Truhe said his truck felt good to drive in open practice yesterday but added he expects the competition to be a lot tougher this time round especially from the Team Durango of German ace Joern Neumann.

Neumann is one of a number of top European drivers who have traveled over for the Classic and earlier this year created a major upset for the Americans when he beat them on their own doorstep to become the first ever European to win the Reedy Race of Champions. The current European 4WD Buggy Champion, Neumann has gained a lot of experience of racing on clay over the past year is confident he can get all three of his cars in their respective A-Mains as he competes in both Buggy classes and 4WD Short Course in which he finished runner up last year.

Team-mate Hupo Honigl, who had an event here last year he would prefer not to remember said things should be a lot better this year as their cars, in particular their 2WD Buggy, has seen a lot of development in those 12 months. Honigl is one of the most experienced Europeans to compete in the Cactus Classic, the Austrian having been a regular for many years now. European 2WD Buggy Champion Lee Martin has also made the trip over, this being his 6th Classic appearance. Racing only 2 classes, the Tamiya Racing Factory driver who finished on the podium in 4WD Buggy last year, said he is happy with how both his buggies have run in early practice.

While drivers had the opportunity to get in some track time yesterday, today the event officially kicked off with two rounds of controlled practice from which a drivers fastest three consecutive laps will be used to determine a reseed for qualifying tomorrow. After the first round of practice, which due to the size of the entry took 6 hours to run, the early pace is being set by Maifield in 2WD & 4WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course, by Cavalieri in Mod Truck and Neumann in 4WD Short Course. The second round of practice is set to end later tonight under spotlights.

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February 27, 2012

Tessmann does double at Dirt Nitro Challenge

Ty Tessmann pulled off the double at the Dirt Nitro Challenge in Phoenix, Arizona, late on Sunday night when he cruised to victory ahead of his Hot Bodies team-mate Jessie Robbers, as the only two drivers to mount any sort of challenge on the Canadian both ran into problems. Driving his prototype D8, such was the pace of the 19-year-old that he was on target to lap the entire field before his father & pitman Gord called him in for an extra splash of fuel in the final minutes of the race so as to keep out of the closely fought battle for second and third.

His first big double victory, Tessmann said he always felt in control of the race and even with Ryan Maifield right on his case he just focused on keeping his lines tidy as he knew he had one less stop to do over the Associated driver. That approach paid dividends as Maifield got out of shape on a number of occasions as Tessmann kept a cool head and build back up a comfort zone.

Team Associated were the only team to ever threaten Tessmann’s ruling of proceedings in the 45-minute final. Starting third on the grid Cavalieri got by the No.2 TLR 8ight of Dakota Phend and chased down the Top Qualifier but it was to be in vein as the US Champion suffered a steering servo failure in his Orion powered RC8.2 ending his race 13-minutes in. Following the demise of Cavalieri, the race didn’t pick up again until it reached the 30-minute mark as Maifield got right within striking distance of Tessmann. While a more serious challenge Maifield would too succumb to a steering problem this time with a broken steering rod end. Associated team manager Brent Thielke said afterwards that they suspect an impact with Adam Drake’s out of shape TLR 8ight had cracked the part and it just eventually broke completely ending Maifield event. Maifield rejoined the race after repairs to finish 9th.

Robbers was delighted to join his younger team-mate on the podium but almost didn’t make the start after he broke an arm during the warm-up laps. Starting fourth on the grid with his CR8 chassis, he was able to get the buggy fixed but said the drama unsettled him and it was not until around 5-minutes into the race that he found his rythm. Also suffering a flame-out as he was being fuelled on the first of his 7.30 stops, Robbers said his HB Gridlock equipped buggy felt really good and once he got up to speed he knew he had the pace for a strong result. Battling with Tebo and Drake he said he drove cleanly and this ultimately secured him second.

Outgoing champion Tebo described his 3rd place finish as an ‘alright result’. Starting 9th on the grid after a tough qualifying, the Kyosho driver went with too soft a tyre choice running super soft AKA Impacts on his MP9. Tebo described the race as ‘busy’ in which he had an instense battle with team-mate Cody King, who set the fastest lap of the race, and went wheel to wheel with both Drake and Robbers. With a less than perfect buggy Tebo said he had a number of costly mistakes but added they had learned from the experience.

Just missing out on the podium, Drake said he had a rough start but with his buggy working well in the conditions he was able to make a strong come back. A bad mistake however in the middle part of the race cost him a Top 3 finish. Getting to within striking distance of Tebo he ran out of time to mount a challenge and had to settle for fourth. Unfortunately for Drake’s up & coming team-mate Dakota Phend, who TQ’d the final round of qualifying, a broken arm saw the 15-year-old’s race end after just 7 laps.

Although another super late finish to Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s signature event, the 13th running of the Dirt Nitro Challenge was a great show and we would like to thank Joey and Proline for their hospitality during our time at the Fear Farm.

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