By the end of Day One, a handful of the Invitational class drivers began to emerge from the rest of the pack and distance themselves from the names found lower on the overall points spreadsheet. With each race featuring a mix of drivers of different speeds, often scattered throughout the double-file starting grid, the first few laps of most of these races were harrowing for the drivers looking to remain in contention and very entertaining for the spectators!
Round Three
Reigning champion Ryan Cavalieri held on for the third round win ahead of 2011 winner Dustin Evans, but their roads to get to those positions couldn’t have been more different. Cavalieri started sixth on the grid but was in the second spot by the end of lap one, while Evans moved from ninth to sixth in the same amount of time. He worked his way to third just two laps later, and both drivers passed Steven Hartson in the middle of the race to set the final finishing order.
1. Ryan Cavalieri (6) – 15/5:00.301
2. Dustin Evans (9) – 15/5:01.318
3. Steven Hartson (3) – 15/5:04.909
4. Barry Baker (8) – 15/5:06.271
5. Rob Gillespie (4) – 15/5:10.456
6. Oliver Scholz (7) – 15/5:12.488
7. Josh Pain (1) – 15/5:14.000
8. Tyler Vik (2) – 15/5:15.130
9. Christoffer Svensson (10) – 15/5:17.345
10. Cody Turner (5) – 8/2:55.257
2012 Reedy Race champion Joern Neumann started on the outside of Kody Numedahl on the first row, but got by him on the first lap and led every lap – it just wasn’t as easy as that sounds. Numedahl kept him honest for four minutes, but two late mistakes allowed Ryan Maifield and Jared Tebo to slip by for second and third. Maifield made a last-lap effort to pass Neumann and they drag raced to the finish line, with the final margin of victory being less than a second!
1. Joern Neumann (2) – 15/5:01.970
2. Ryan Maifield (3) – 15/5:02.047
3. Jared Tebo (7) – 15/5:03.193
4. Kody Numedahl (1) – 15/5:05.027
5. Ty Tessmann (4) – 15/5:06.112
6. Joseph Quagraine (5) – 15/5:13.829
7. Tanner Denney (9) – 15/5:14.703
8. Carson Wernimont (10) – 15/5:14.876
9. Mike Truhe (8) – 15/5:15.929
10. Brian Kinwald (6) – 15/5:17.715
Yokomo’s Lee Martin lucked out with the first starting position in his third round heat and took full advantage, waltzing away to the win with the fastest run of the round – and the only sixteen lapper. Behind him, Kyosho’s Cody King continued his impressive outing by getting around Ryan Lutz’s Team Durango buggy on lap two and barely missed out on making Martin race his way to the win. A mistake from Lutz just past the halfway mark dropped him from third to sixth, promoting the freight train of Travis Amezcua, Billy Fischer, and Marc Rheinard up one position each.
1. Lee Martin (1) – 16/5:17.129
2. Cody King (3) – 15/5:00.632
3. Travis Amezcua (6) – 15/5:04.501
4. Billy Fischer (8) – 15/5:05.748
5. Marc Rheinard (9) – 15/5:06.412
6. Dakotah Phend (10) – 15/5:07.071
7. Ryan Lutz (2) – 15/5:07.920
8. Neill Cragg (4) – 15/5:09.206
9. Brian Strange (7) – 15/5:09.774
10. Rick Hohwart (5) – 15/5:14.578
Overall standings after three rounds:
Click to view the full-size image.
Round Four
Lee Martin continued his hot streak with an even faster run than the previous round to grab the first win of round four, taking the lead on the first lap as the two drivers on the front row ahead of him, Joseph Quagraine and Brian Kinwald, both crashed. Behind Martin, current ROAR National Champion Dakotah Phend scored his best finish of the day after falling as low as sixth on the second lap of the heat. Neil Cragg held on for third after surviving a very mixed up heat by less than a tenth of a second after a last lap drag race to the line with Team Associated teammate Tanner Denney.
1. Lee Martin (3) – 16/5:16.481
2. Dakotah Phend (4) – 15/5:02.996
3. Neil Cragg (5) – 15/5:05.714
4. Tanner Denney (8) – 15/5:05.800
5. Ty Tessmann (10) – 15/5:06.332
6. Brian Kinwald (2) – 15/5:12.916
7. Joseph Quagraine (1) – 15/5:17.095
8. Carson Wernimont (6) – 15/5:18.401
9. Ryan Lutz (7) – 15/5:20.483
10. Brian Strange (9) – 6/2:08.332
In perhaps the most exciting performance of the day, Ryan Maifield passed five cars on lap one after starting on the outside of the final row, passed two more cars on lap two, and then drove around Jared Tebo with about one minute to go for a hard fought win. Tebo jumped from fourth to second on lap one and led the race uncontested until the pass by Maifield, but both drivers made it by for sixteen laps and he was well clear of Marc Rheinard in third.
1. Ryan Maifield (10) – 16/5:18.501
2. Jared Tebo (4) – 16/5:19.231
3. Marc Rheinard (7) – 15/5:05.878
4. Travis Amezcua (2) – 15/5:09.448
5. Mike Truhe (5) – 15/5:12.000
6. Steven Hartson (3) – 15/5:12.171
7. Cody King (6) – 15/5:12.187
8. Josh Pain (9) – 15/5:14.239
9. Tyler Vik (8) – 15/5:16.587
10. Oliver Scholz (1) – 14/5:00.061
Defending champ Ryan Cavalieri ended Day One on a high note, converting his up-front starting position into a wire-to-wire victory over 2012 champion Joern Neumann. Neumann never had a chance, needing less than one lap to move from fourth to third, but waiting two minutes before a small but costly mistake from Cody Turner dropped Turner from second to fifth (and eventually sixth). Kody Numedahl stayed near the front all race long, swapping positions a couple of times with Dustin Evan before Evans dropped back to fifth and leaving Numedahl to claim third.
1. Ryan Cavalieri (1) – 16/5:16.548
2. Joern Neumann (4) – 15/5:01.847
3. Kody Numedahl (7) – 15/5:02.060
4. Billy Fischer (9) – 15/5:05.166
5. Dustin Evans (8) – 15/5:06.522
6. Cody Turner (2) – 15/5:06.987
7. Rob Gillespie (10) – 15/5:07.787
8. Christoffer Svensson (6) – 15/5:15.245
9. Barry Baker (3) – 12/4:15.154
10. Rick Hohwart (5) – 1/0:24.009
Here’s what the points look like after Round Four:
Click to view full-size image.
Saturday is a mixed one for the Invitational drivers, who will compete in two more rounds of 2WD before kicking off the 4WD portion with two rounds Saturday afternoon. Most of the drivers remarked that the 4WD racing will be even more exciting, with the superior acceleration and braking abilities of the all-wheel-drive cars sure to create more passing opportunities! We caught up with some of the Day One round winners for these quick interviews:
While the Invitiational drivers competed four times today with one car, the Open class competitors each had six qualifiers split between 2WD and 4WD! They’ll run one more round tomorrow morning before the lower main events begin in the afternoon, with two bump-ups from each moving up one spot closer to the double-A mains. The top prize for the Open classes is an invite to join the elite division at next year’s race, and with only 30 spots available for the top pros from North America and Europe there’s plenty of top-class talent in the Open ranks! Here’s the top 16 (the spots guaranteed in the A and B mains) in each class with one round left to go:
Open 2WD – Best two of three
1. JP Richards – 3 points (0, 3)
2. Spencer Rivkin – 4 points (0, 4)
3. Brent Thielke – 4 points (0, 4)
4. Frank Root – 4 points (2, 2)
5. Jason Corl – 10 points (5, 5)
6. Chris Jarosz – 11 points (5, 6)
7. Charles Hicks – 13 points (3, 10)
8. Kobe Yonker – 16 points (7, 9)
9. Ben Jemison – 16 points (7, 9)
10. Jake Thayer – 16 points (3, 13)
11. Cody Hollis – 17 points (6, 11)
12. Max Flurer – 19 points (6, 13)
13. Daimon Borkowicz – 21 points (7, 14)
14. Aaron Lane – 24 points (7, 17)
15. Cole Tollard – 24 points (10, 14)
16. Kevin Motter – 25 points (2, 23)
Open 4WD – Best two of three
1. Spencer Rivkin – 0 points (0, 0)
2. Eric Albano – 4 points (2, 2)
3. Kobe Yonker – 6 points (0, 6)
4. Max Flurer – 6 points (3, 3)
5. Kevin Motter – 6 points (2, 4)
6. Chris Jarosz – 9 points (4, 5)
7. Damon Borkowicz – 11 points (4, 7)
8. Luke Smith – 17 points (5, 12)
9. Nolan Anderson – 18 points (9, 9)
10. Cody Hollis – 19 points (8, 11)
11. Jason Corl – 19 points (9, 10)
12. Ben Jemison – 20 points (6, 14)
13. Brett Kingsbury – 21 points (8, 13)
14. Brent Thielke – 22 points (3, 19)
15. Nick Wautlet – 22 points (7, 15)
16. Jimmy Barnett – 23 points (10, 13)
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