Ryan Maifield Takes Reedy Race Overall Lead After 2WD Portion

25 January, 2014

Most of the Invitational drivers were patient for the opening rounds on Friday, but as the 2WD portion of the event came to a close on Saturday morning many of the competitors started getting desperate – and that aggression made for lots of passing. The track also got faster as well, with more drivers making it by the loop to start the sixteenth lap in today’s two rounds than before. The result? Four of the six races today were won by drivers who didn’t notch a single victory yesterday.

Round Five

From the inside of row two on the grid, current ROAR National Champion Dakotah Phend made quick work of both Carson Wernimont and Cody King on the first lap and sped off to his first round victory of the weekend with a blazing 16-lap run. Ty Tessmann also took advantage of Wernimont’s first lap mistake, and managed to edge Cody King before the first time by the finish line as well, running in the second spot for the entire race. Lee Martin’s job was considerably more difficult, moving up from the outside of row four to the third spot just past the halfway mark to salvage a solid finish.
1. Dakotah Phend (3) – 16/5:17.408
2. Ty Tessmann (4) – 15/5:01.642
3. Lee Martin (8) – 15/5:06.475
4. Cody King (2) – 15/5:07.244
5. Neil Cragg (7) – 15/5:08.228
6. Tyler Vik (5) – 15/5:08.318
7. Carson Wernimont (1) – 15/5:12.845
8. Rob Gillespie (9) – 15/5:14.923
9. Christoffer Svensson (6) – 15/5:15.809
10. Oliver Scholz (10) – 14/5:02.406

Following in Dakotah’s footsteps, Team Durango’s Travis Amezcua also earned his first round victory of the weekend. Amezcua followed Team Associated driver Tanner Denney’s Centro C4.2 for two-thirds of the race and capitalized on the youngster’s mistake, then held him off for the remaining couple of minutes as they both got by for 16 laps. Despite giving up one spot with a slow start, Marc Rheinard continued his strong run here on the dirt this weekend by capitalizing on Jared Tebo’s late-race mistake to regain the third spot.
1. Travis Amezcua (2) – 16/5:18.597
2. Tanner Denney (1) – 16/5:21.521
3. Marc Rheinard (3) – 15/5:00.417
4. Joern Neumann (5) – 15/5:03.955
5. Jared Tebo (4) – 15/5:04.284
6. Steven Hartson (7) – 15/5:05.461
7. Ryan Lutz (10) – 15/5:05.956
8. Brian Kinwald (9) – 15/5:11.113
9. Rick Hohwart (8) – 15/5:11.555
10. Barry Baker (6) – 15/5:14.448

Ryan Maifield made the most of his draw of the first spot on the grid, leading every lap of his heat in round five to secure at least a near-perfect score for 2WD. One of his closest competitors in points, 2011 champ Dustin Evans, tore his way through the field from the outside of row three to get into the runner-up position just past the halfway point, and came within a half-second of Maifield by the end of the race. NorCal native Brian Strange kept his head up amid the stiff competition to hold off reigning champ Ryan Cavalieri to score his best run of the weekend.
1. Ryan Maifield (1) – 16/5:17.809
2. Dustin Evans (6) – 16/5:18.325
3. Brian Strange (3) – 15/5:03.523
4. Ryan Cavalieri (2) – 15/5:05.343
5. Kody Numedahl (5) – 15/5:05.924
6. Cody Turner (8) – 15/5:06.467
7. Mike Truhe (7) – 15/5:07.150
8. Josh Pain (10) – 15/5:11.490
9. Joseph Quagraine (9) – 15/5:12.421
10. Billy Fischer (4) – 15/5:16.082

Here’s what the points looked like after the fifth round:

Click to view full-size image.

Round Six
Dustin Evans grabbed the lead on the first lap from outside row one, but Ryan Maifield also cleared both Joseph Quagraine and Christoffer Svensson by the end of lap one and kept the pressure on the former champion for the entire race. Maifield made a late-race mistake and lost a few seconds, but then charged back to finish just a half-second out of the lead by race end. Ty Tessmann, running a Frankenstein buggy consisting of a Kyosho RB6 front end and Centro C4.2 rear end (which HPI engineer Torrance DeGuzman asked us not to photograph), scored his best run of the weekend from the outside of row four.

1. Dustin Evans (2) – 16/5:13.750
2. Ryan Maifield (4) – 16/5:14.293
3. Ty Tessmann (8) – 16/5:18.048
4. Ryan Lutz (5) – 15/5:03.072
5. Billy Fischer (6) – 15/5:07.495
6. Neil Cragg (10) – 15/5:08.972
7. Travis Amezcua (7) – 15/5:10.857
8. Joseph Quagraine (1) – 15/5:11.315
9. Tyler Vik (9) – 15/5:11.924
10. Christoffer Svensson (3) – 15/5:16.937

In his first event with the mid-motor Serpent SRX-2 buggy, Mike Truhe started up front and led every lap of his final 2WD run of the weekend. Team Associated engineer Kody Numedahl missed forcing a final lap battle by hundredths of a second, but held off Joern Neumann after the 2012 champion charged all the way from the back of the grid!

1. Mike Truhe (1) – 16/5:18.373
2. Kody Numedahl (2) 15/5:00.052
3. Joern Neumann (10) – 15/5:02.964
4. Lee Martin (7) – 15/5:03.198
5. Barry Baker (4) – 15/5:05.587
6. Tanner Denney (5) – 15/5:09.365
7. Dakotah Phend (6) – 15/5:10.081
8. Carson Wernimont (3) – 15/5:12.833
9. Steven Hartson (9) – 15/5:16.011
10. Rick Hohwart (8) – 15/5:18.892

Jared Tebo got around Marc Rheinard on lap two and kept his distance for his first win of the weekend, and Rheinard surprised the field again by hanging on for second – even as reigning champ Ryan Cavalieri poured on the pressure after stellar start in which he worked from ninth on the grid to fourth in less than a lap! Cavalieri passed Cody King at the halfway point and closed in on Rheinard, but came up just a bit short.
1. Jared Tebo (1) – 16/5:14.645
2. Marc Rheinard (2) – 16/5:18.228
3. Ryan Cavalieri (9) – 16/5:19.368
4. Cody King (3) – 15/5:03.596
5. Brian Kinwald (8) – 15/5:05.583
6. Oliver Scholz (10) – 15/5:08.585
7. Rob Gillespie (7) – 15/5:09.664
8. Josh Pain (4) – 15/5:18.612
9. Brian Strange (5) – 14/5:00.697
10. Cody Turner (6) – 14/5:10.544

Here are the points standings after 2WD:

2014_Invitational_Scoring_Round_6_for_web

Click to view full-size image.

Just as the 2WD half of the Invitational program finished, so did qualifying for the Open 2WD and 4WD divisions. Eight drivers each are locked into the double-A main format and will be joined by the top two finishers from each B-main, where they’ll then race for ten minutes in each of the two mains with the second finish having priority in case of a tie breaker. Here’s the top eight in each class: