Ryan Maifield TQs ROAR Nats and Debuts JConcepts Stacker
During one of the most competitive events of the year on the US tour, Ryan Maifield took three of four rounds of qualifying to secure the 1:8 buggy TQ position at the 2012 ROAR Off-Road Fuel Nationals. Top qualifying or sitting on the pole position is nothing new for the Arizona-based pro driver, but the dominance shown during qualification is noteworthy to say the least.
During one of the final rounds of practice, Ryan revealed the latest tire from JConcepts, the Stacker. During a blistering three-lap seeding round, Ryan placed on top of the field for the re-sort and A-group of drivers. Driving with that patented aggression, Ryan continued to power down on the competition taking the first two official qualifiers earning at least a first or second and his place on top of one of the semi final events. As the track conditions dried out and became more grooved and some heat saturated into the track, Ryan closed the deal in round four of qualifying, again besting the field to dominate qualifying officially taking the TQ of the weekend. Joining Ryan qualifying directly into the buggy semi final were JConcepts drivers Dustin Evans, Tanner Denney and Jeremy Kortz. Joining Ryan in the truggy semi final were drivers Dustin Evans, JR Mitch and Steven Hartson.
Barry Pettit, Billy Fischer, JR Mitch, Steven Hartson and Jason Smith were among the other JConcepts drivers in contention in the quarter final events with Barry, Billy and JR bumping out of their respective mains and into the semi final to battle with the other top drivers. During the semi finals, Maifield, Pettit and Kortz made the bump-up into the A final in the buggy class and only Maifield made it out of the semi final in the truggy class to start third in the main event.
At the start of the truggy final, Maifield was poised and ready for a complete 45-minute final. Ryan started the A final with an unknown and unproven truggy tyre. Only four Stacker 1:8 truck tyres existed and Ryan took full advantage by mounting them up and being ready with fresh tread for the extended fnal. Right off the start it was Tessmann and Maifield getting out to a strong lead and Maifield applied pressure throughout several pit stop exchanges. Maifield took the lead and a small battle heated up with Ty Tessmann for first place for several minutes. As the race wore on it was evident that Maifield’s truggy engine was just not right. Either by tune or by some other unforeseen problem, it slowed considerably on the straight high-speed sections and lost valuable space to Tessmann. Near the end of the main event Maifield found himself battling for third and fourth after an extra, safety pit stop dropped him out of his comfy second place position. A successful tyre debut for the Stacker with post race inspection showed very good wear characteristics and incredible lap-times throughout. Congratulations to the top three drivers – Ty Tessmann, Dakotah Phend and Josh Wheeler.
Ryan Cavalieri started on the pole position in the 1:8 buggy A final but after only several laps it was Ty Tessmann leading and Ryan Maifield second. The two drivers exchanged the lead on a few occasions and allowed Dakotah Phend to catch and move himself into the top three. Jared Tebo ran in the fourth position with many others running in fifth at different times including quarter final bump-up driver, Barry Pettit. Maifield encountered a small problem in the pits and a mistake on the track allowed the two leaders to gain roughly an eight second lead. Maifield pushed and cut into the eight second margin and looked to become a factor once again. Just then, a mechanical issue on the track forced him out of the race completely dropping him from the top five. The pit crew feverishly tried to fix the vehicle but it was not a quick fix item and he was forced to permanently retire from the race.
Out front, Ty Tessmann and Dakotah Phend had a race for the ages with the 60 minute final coming down to the last several laps. Dakotah led with two laps to go but needed to be turn-marshaled twice in the whoops section and Tessmann gained space and took the lead. Dakotah was on a mission on the last lap, but he hit the inside of the turn on the centre double section and went tumbling but was quickly marshalled. At the exact same time Ty cased the double jump and went upside down allowing a fight to the finish. Dakotah had the wider (inside) line in the double-double section approaching the front straight-away and looked to have an advantage. Ty made up space and held a beautiful corner just bumping the rear-end of Dakotah’s vehicle enough to get him wide in the final turn. Ty made the pass stick, taking his second win of the day. First place would go to Ty Tessmann with Dakotah Phend second and Jared Tebo third.
JConcepts would like to congratulate the ROAR RMT on another successful nationals. Give credit to the 2012 National Champion Ty Tessman and give a special thank you to the LCRC crew and raceway on hosting a one of kind and first class event. Looking forward to 2013.
Source: JConcepts
