Maifield bounces back in Q3 of 2WD Buggy

Having been forced to pull out of the second round of 2WD Buggy Qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals after he couldn’t get a spot on the driver’s stand, Ryan Maifield bounced back in Q3 to head a Team Associated 1-2 ahead of series champion Steven Hartson who benefited from a mistake on lap 12 by Kyosho’s Cody Turner who went on to set the third fastest time of the round.

With the heats reseeded for the penultimate round of qualifying all the top contenders at the St.Louis event where now running together.  Leading away the field for the 5-minute qualifier was Maifield’s B4.2 followed by Tebo’s slightly faster RB6.  Closing in on his arch rival and on a TQ pace, Tebo would come undone on Lap 8 rolling at the end of the main straight and losing almost 3-seconds.  Maifield wasn’t phased by Tebo’s ability to close him in, saying it is ‘easier to go faster when your chasing someone’.  Admitting he would like a little more corner speed he plans to make some small changes for the morning’s final and deciding qualifier.  Comfortable with the feeling of his JConcepts equipped buggy he said with just one single 10-minute Main its important to have a safe rather than outright fast buggy especially on such a tight track as SmacTrac.

Hartson’s best points finish and also his fastest heat so far, the Californian driver said switching backed to JConcepts Rips on the front of his B4.2 was the correct choice but for the track conditions at the time of the night run he would have benefited from a larger pin on the rear tyres and should have went for a newer set of Barcodes.

Despite rolling away a potential second for the round, Turner said he was still happy with 3rd joking he was ‘pumped to beat Jared’.  Finding the track a little looser than the previous runs, something he has put down to a drier track, he said other than charging his battery for the final qualifier he wont be touching anything else on his RB6. Tebo said his buggy was ‘really good’ but he ‘just crashed’.  Recovering to take fourth for the round the Q2 pace setter said he will not make any changes for Q4 and ‘go after it (the TQ honours) tomorrow’.

In Mod Truck, Tebo secured pole position for tomorrow’s finals with a third TQ run of the day taking Q3 ahead of the Associated’s of defending Champion Brent Thielke and Maifield.  In 2WD Short Course JP Richards backed up his Q1 performance with a second TQ run in round 3 ahead of Hartson and Q2 pace setter Turner.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 3
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 17/5:05.901
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 17/5:08.408
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 17/5:08.747
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 17/5:09.274
5. JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:11.122
6. Aaron Breuer – Kyosho – 17/5:13.290
7. Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:13.444
8. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:14.048
9. Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:14.139
10.Michael Paige – Associated – 17/5:15.716

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Q2 Update 4WD Buggy

The second round of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals saw a 1-2 for the Associated team with Ryan Maifield again setting the top pace ahead of defending champion Steven Hartson with Xray’s Josh Wheeler taking his XB4 to the third fastest time for the round.  The round was a bad one for Kyosho’s Jared Tebo who could only manage the 9th fastest time saying afterwards that his zX5 was fine but the driver made a ‘bazillion mistakes’.

In 4WD Short Course, MIP are in early control of proceedings.  Defending Champion & MIP team leader Matt Olson topped the opening qualifier while in Q2 the order was reversed as team-mate Nate Jaskot set the pace bettering the previous fastest time by 8/10th, leaving the pair tied at the top of points.

4WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 2
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:06.288
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:07.639
3. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:08.204
4. Michael Paige – Associated – 18/5:08.610
5. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 18/5:10.411
6. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:11.577
7. Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:14.286
8. Aiden Horne – Associated – 18/5:16.129
9. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:16.449
10.Greg Niklas – Associated – 18/5:17.182

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Tebo ups 2WD Buggy pace in Q2

Kyosho Jared Tebo upped the pace in 2WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals taking Q2 from team-mate Cody Turner with TLR’s Cody Hollis completing the Top 3 for the round which saw Q1 Top qualifier Ryan Maifield forced to retire due to a complete lack of courtesy from a number of drivers running in his heat.

Having stood on the far right side of the drivers stand for his previous 2WD & 4WD Buggy and Mod Truck qualifier earlier in the day at SmacTrac, Maifield went up for his second 2WD Buggy heat, having stood in line, but there was no room left. Despite asking the drivers who had moved position if it was possible to just move over slightly his request fell on deaf ears.  With the heat about to start the Associated driver had no option but to move to far left hand side of the drivers stand but could only see the track by leaning forward which in turn blocked the view of the others drivers leaving him no choice but to pull up.  Having lost out on a TQ run in his second Mod Truck Qualifier after a back marker put his T4.2 on his roof, with AE team-manager Brent Thielke becoming a casualty of the same incident, the reseed for the third round of qualifying can’t come quick enough for the Arizona ace.

Avoiding the traffic issues he had in Q1, Tebo said changing to a white spring on the rear of his Orion powered RB6 gave him more grip.  Despite a mistake in the closing part of the 5-minute run, He was able to knock over 5-seconds off his previous time bettering Maifield’s pace by almost 2.7 seconds.  Very happy with how his AKA shod buggy is working he plans to leave everything as is for the third and final heat of the day. Turner also attributed less traffic issues to his improved pace as he knocked 2 seconds of his morning time. Like Tebo, the 21-year old will leave his Proline fitted RB6 as is for Q3.

Team Losi Racing’s Hollis was very happy with his run after a poor Q1 performance  saying he did nothing different to his JConcepts equipped TLR22 other than just put in a clean run.  The 19-year-old from Oklahoma, said his focus for Q3 is to focus on his driving and try put in another clean 5-minutes of driving.

Defending champion Steven Hartson set the 5th fastest time behind fellow Associated driver Mitchel Gardner.  Changing to JConcepts Barcodes all round on his Reedy powered B4.2 for the second qualifier he said he didn’t like the feeling it gave him and this resulted in a number of mistakes.  Having run Rips on the front in Q1 when he was 3rd fastest he will good back to that tyre combo for the penultimate qualifier.

In Mod Truck Tebo made it two out of two, taking the second round in a slightly slower time than Q1 ahead of Hollis’ 22T and Justin Driemeier’s Associated.  In 2WD Short Course Turner set a new fastest time with his Kyosho Ultima SCR ahead of Q1 pace setter JP Richards.

2WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 2
1. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 17/5:03.285
2. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 17/5:07.922
3. Cody Hollis – TLR – 17/5:09.992
4. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 17/5:11.297
5. Steven Hartson – Associated – 17/5:12.481
6. JP Richards – TLR – 17/5:12.608
7. Matt Gosch – Associated – 17/5:13.389
8. Brent Thielke – Associated – 17/5:13.860
9. Luke Richards – Associated – 17/5:13.966
10.Al Horne – Associated – 17/5:14.358

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Maifield doubles up to TQ opening 4WD Buggy qualifier

Having TQ’d the opening round of 2WD Buggy Qualifying at the JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield notched up a second TQ run of the day when he claimed the first qualifier of 4WD Buggy again outpacing arch rival Jared Tebo.  Tebo’s Kyosho team-mate Cody Turner completed the Top 3 just ahead of defending champion Steven Hartson who is this weekend chasing a sixth consecutive 4WD Buggy win in the JConcepts Indoor National Series.

Like in 2WD, Maifield used a brand new set of unmodified JConcepts Barcodes tyres on his Reedy powered B44.2 and despite a few small issues with traffic declared himself happy with the run.  Associated team-mate Hartson also ran new tyres and was happy with his buggy but said he just had a few too many bobbles leaving him over 4 seconds off the TQ pace.

In the Kyosho camp both Tebo and Turner were happy with their opening 4WD heats. A second off the TQ pace, Tebo said his Lazer ZX5 SP2 was decent but needs just a little more steering and then he should be good to take the challenge to Maifield. Turner said his run was very steady and the plan was is to try continue with that approach for the rest of the day.

Making his first big race appearance with the Xray XB4, RC America team driver Josh Wheeler set the sixth fastest time despite a crash that lost the 1:8 Offroad World Championship finalist 3-seconds.  Running the same set of AKA Handlebar tyres as he used in yesterday’s practice he said they are getting better each run and overall he is really happy with how everything is working.  Commenting on his crash he said he tried to pass a slower buggy down the inside but cut the corner too tight launching the car over onto its roof.

4WD Buggy Qualifying – Round 1
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 18/5:07.081
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 18/5:08.100
3. Cody Turner – Kyosho – 18/5:10.911
4. Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/5:11.249
5. Mitchel Gardner – Associated – 18/5:12.235
6. Josh Wheeler – Xray – 18/5:12.886
7. Justin Driemeier – Associated – 18/5:13.956
8. Matt Gosch – Associated – 18/5:14.372
9. Al Horne – Associated – 18/5:15.059
10.Dustin Richards – Associated – 17/5:00.713

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