Maifield leads Reedy Race at the end of opening day

Ryan Maifield leads the way at the end of the opening day of racing at the Reedy Offroad Race of Champions. The Yokomo driver enjoyed a strong first day of 4WD action being the only driver to record three wins which together with his second place from the first round gives him a 3-point lead over Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin. After a less than perfect start to the 26th running of the unique race format event, Dakotah Phend turned things around with two convincing wins to hold third overnight, the TLR driver putting an impressive move on Rivkin in Round 4, with both cars touching, to take the win and end the day holding 3rd position.  After kicking off his title defence with a win in the morning, Tebo holds 4th position going into Day 2 at OCRC Raceway with the same points tally as Phend.  Having become the first driver to register a double win when he took the opening two rounds, four time champion Ryan Cavalieri ended the day with a third in his final race ahead of Tebo.  With a 7th from Round 3 he will be looking to drop that result with two strong results in the final two rounds of 4WD tomorrow – each driver only able to drop one round per class.  Making his Reedy Race Invitational Class debut, Yusuke Sugiura would become only the second non-US drivers to win today with the Yokomo driver winning on his fourth attempt to leave him 6th in points.

‘It’s been a good day’, was how Maifield summed up his lead in the points.  Winner of the event in 2015, on his latest heat win the Arizona driver said, ‘the car was good and I had another good start.  All day I have tried to capitalise on my front row and Top 4 starts and I hope tomorrow we can end with a couple more good runs in 4WD before we get going in 2WD.  My car has crazy power and we are running a lot of new parts on the car which are working well’.  The former double World Champion said that tomorrow’s remaining 4WD races was going to be a ‘tyre game’.  He said, ‘They are getting loose especially towards the end of the races with the dust so we will run in tyres in the free practice in the morning and hope they come in’.

Reacting to losing out in the win in Round 4, Rivkin said, ‘It was not what I wanted but at lest I didn’t make any mistakes to finish below second’.  On the pass made by Phend, the only driver in the Top 5 to yet claim the Reedy Race title said, ‘He made a nice landing and sneaked down my inside. It was a good pass’.  Looking to the remaining 4WD encounters, the newly crowned 2WD World Champion said, ‘I need to be better at keeping it rolling throughout the run but to end the day with nothing more than 3 points is pretty good. I wish I had got that win but we are in the hunt’.

On his strong finish to the day, Phend said, ‘everything is working awesome. I was pushing the whole race and was able to catch Spencer and at the end could make the pass for the win. I’ll keep chugging away tomorrow to drop that 4’.  Asked about tyres for the remaining two rounds of 4WD, the 2016 Champion said, ‘we will run another set in practice in the morning to save this set because I hope I can run out the last two races on this set’.

Ending the day with his worst result having lost 3rd place with 2-laps to go, Tebo said, ‘that was the fastest my car has been just with the higher grip I had trouble with my timing at the first triple and two times it almost cost me. I need to slow my power down. The car felt great but I had too many bobbles out there’.  Asked about tyres, the Tekno driver said, ‘my front tyres are bald but they feel good so I don’t know what I am going to do yet’.

Becoming the 8th different race winner of the 2020 event, Sugiura was happy that he was able to register a win on his debut in the invitational class.  A previous Open Class Champion, taking the 2WD win on the Reedy Race’s only time hosted outside of the US at the Yatabe Arena in Japan in 2009, the 2019 World’s podium finisher is concerned about his tyres for the rest of 4WD saying, ‘now the tyres are very slick especially the front tyre so I will try new tyres in the morning practice but I am happy with how my first day has gone’.

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Maifield leads at RROC as Cavalieri has rough 3rd round

With racing now half way through the 4WD rounds at the Reedy Race of Champions, it is Ryan Maifield who leads the points after becoming only the second driver to record a repeat win in the third round of action.  Starting from third on the grid, the Yokomo driver quickly got to the front from where he controlled the race while behind him the rest of Offroad racings well know trio fought for the consolation placings.  In the end, Jared Tebo would come through from 5th on the grid to claim another second place while from the back row Ryan Cavalieri had a rough round to finish as he started to put a 7 on the board which he will be hoping becomes his dropped 4WD result.  The other two races of the round produced first time winners of the 26th running of the event with Dakotah Phend taking a dominant win in Heat 2 over Cole Tollard.  Breaking the US domination of the event, Lee Martin took the first visitor’s victory with the win in Heat 1 ahead of Alex Kosciuszek, who had led the first half of the race, and Spencer Rivkin who came through from the back of the starting grid.

Starting on row 2 behind pole sitter Kouki Kato and Ron DeVoll, summing up his race Maifield said, ‘I was kind of nervous about the front row but it was a clean start and after the rhythm section I was took the lead when I got down the inside.  After that I tried to run clean. I cased the jump one time’.  Looking to the final round of the opening day of racing, the 2015 Champion said, ‘I’m just going to reset and think what to do with tyres for tomorrow.  The tyres are kind of wearing out now and start to balloon out’.

‘I kind of had a crappy start’, was Tebo’s reaction to his race, the defending champion saying, ‘I jumped on Ty in the first triple and dropped down to fourth.  Then I made a really good pace on Dustin and another good pass on Yusuke but made a mistake and he got by me again.  On the last lap then he had a mistake and I got the 2nd back’.  On his car, the Tekno driver said, ‘That was the best I felt out there so far.  My speed is really good’.

The points leader after two rounds but dropping to 5th after Round 3, Cavalieri said, ‘It didn’t really go that good that one.  I should have been more aggressive at the start when I am starting so far back.  I made a mistake at the triple and I could make it back up as no one made mistakes I could capitalise on. I was stuck were I was’.

‘I got a good start and put in clean laps’, was how Phend summed up his win, the TLR driver finishing almost 7-seconds clear of Tollard.  The former champion continued, ‘the car was awesome so I made no mistakes out there. I was just consistent from the start where as I made mistakes on my own part in the previous ones that made things more difficult for myself’.  Asked about tyres, the 2016 Champions said, ‘definitely the tyres are wearing a bit so I’ll keep an eye on that and what the track is doing’.

Asked about his first win having had two 5th places finishing in the opening two rounds, Martin, who started 4th, said, ‘the first few laps I just kept my nose clean and when the people in front made mistakes I picked up the places.  Once in front I switch to survival mode and made sure I left no opportunities to pass.  I had one scary moment when I landed in the triple but no one got passed.  Spencer’s mistake on the last lap gave me breathing room. It is always nice to win one’.  On his car, the Yokomo driver said,  ‘It was a little bit loose because one of my tyres is a slick and one isn’t’.  Suffering more excessive wear than others the British driver said he hopes he can adjust his set up to balance out the difference in tyres.

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Cavalieri doubles up in second round

After a win in the opening round of racing at the Reedy Offroad Race of Champions, Ryan Cavalieri became the first driver to double up at OCRC Raceway with a win over defending champion Jared Tebo.  Starting from 6th on the grid, Cavalieri worked his way to the front in his Sworkz getting by on lap 3 after a mistake from pole sitter Cole Tollard.  While he had the faster car and looked set to challenge Cavalieri for the lead on a few occasions, bobbles prevented Tebo from making it two out of two with Ty Tessmann completing the Top 3.  The other winners of Round 2 would be 17-year-old Broc Champlin who got by long time leader Ron Devoll with a well planned and executed pass on the final lap.  Finishing second to Rivkin in Round 1 after an early mistake having started from pole, Ryan Maifield convert a P4 start into a win reversing the Round 1 result as Rivkin came home second followed by pole starter Tommy Hinz who had led for the opening four laps.

‘Definitely went in the right direction, it was a lot more racey that time’, was Cavalieri’s reaction after his win, the multiple champion having made a number of changes to his car after Round 1.  He continued, ‘Somehow I got a really good start from the outside of the third row.  I got the jump on 5th and made 3 spots in the first corner. It was a really great start and I also capitalised on mistakes by the leaders, then I just kept my head down and drove for the W’.  On further set-up changes, the Cali driver said, ‘I am very happy with the car right now but I think I am going to go in one other direction with the set-up for the next one’.

Summing up his race, Tebo said, ‘I feel I threw away a possible win. I had a really hard time staying accurate on the third triple but it’s more solid points on the board’.  The Tekno driver explained, ‘I added toe-out in the steering to get better steering but this seems to affect the car on the angle jump so I will put it back for the next one’.

Commenting on his start to the 26th running of the iconic Reedy Race, Maifield said, ‘As I said yesterday I am still figuring out my new electronics and in the first round I didn’t have the best feeling in the jump section which lead to my mistake at the start.  I was still able to come back through the field and get a 2.  You want the 1 & 2s’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I adjusted my speedo for Round 2 and I was way more confident with the car. It was a much cleaner round, I think I had 8 mistakes in the first round.  I started 4th and made my way passed guys as they made mistakes. I knew Spencer was second but I could hold him off and got the win.’  Maifield’s Round 2 winning time is the fastest race time so far which could prove vital in the final result.

Rivkin said, ‘that was as good as it can go without taking the win’.  The Associated driver added, ‘I had Maifield ahead of me but I wasn’t able to catch up so I accepted second for the round. I started 5th and finished 2nd for the round which for my mid pack starts is most important’.  On his car, the Arizona driver said, ‘I ran the car the same and it got better from Round 1 to Round 2 which is good. I’m going to continue to run it the same for the next one’.

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