Maifield won 4x4 Short Course and Buggy, Rivkin won Truck at ROAR 1/8-Scale Electric Off-Road Nationals

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Last weekend, 158 entries competed at Stateline R/C Raceway in Fremont, IN at the ROAR National Championship for 1/8-Scale Electric Off-Road Buggies and Trucks and 4WD Short Course. In addition to Midwest racers and those who traveled from all corners of the country were heavy hitters from teams like Associated, Tekno RC and TLR. It was the seventh time the race has been held, and served as a testament to the staying power of the electric 1/8-scale classes that have maintained (and even grown in) popularity in many areas of the country where outdoor racing isn't possible year-round. Ironically, with the race behind held outdoors, weather played a part in how the weekend went down.

In the Buggy division, the largest of the weekend, Ryan Maifield set the fastest time in the first three rounds to lock up the overall TQ.

Spencer Rivkin earned the 0 in the fourth round, which when added to his second-place finishes in the first two rounds was good enough for second on the grid.

In 4WD Short Course, Maifield was in a class all by himself - not only did he win all four rounds, but his fastest run was the last round on Saturday afternoon.

Tekno RC’s Ryan Lutz finished second in three of the four rounds, which earned him the second spot on the grid, but it wasn’t close - he averaged about 12 seconds slower than Maifield each round.

In the Truck division, Maifield opened qualifying with a TQ run in round one.

Then in the second round, Maifield’s Orion-powered TLR teammate Dakotah Phend broke out with his best run to take the 0 in Q2.

After that, it was all Maifield - who locked up the overall with two more TQ runs.

By virtue of setting the fastest time in ten of the 12 times his vehicles hit the track, Maifield earned some serious hardware by the end of qualifying.

The race turned from the track to the weather by Saturday evening. With rain in the forecast for Sunday, ROAR alerted racers (and our audience watching live online) that some main events - including the first leg of A-Mains - would be completed Saturday following the fourth round of qualifying. It’s a good thing they did, too; the skies opened up on Sunday and washed out the remaining races, meaning that the overall finishing order was determined based on the results of the single A-Main.

In the Buggy class, Maifield shot out to an early lead while third qualifier Ryan Lutz and fourth qualifier Ryan Cavalieri took advantage of an early mistake from Rivkin, which dropped the Fuel Buggy title-holder to ninth. Lutz and Cavalieri traded positions a couple of times in the first half the race while Maifield led, then Lutz caught and passed Maifield at the halfway mark before making a mistake that let Maifield and Rivkin, who had fought his way back into contention, to slip past.

Maifield beat Rivkin to the line by 3.6 seconds to take the win, while Lutz traded spots with teammate Joe Bornhorst a couple of times in the final four laps before claiming the final spot on the podium.

The 4x4 Short Course final was much less eventful - Maifield got a clean start and drove off to the win by over 22 seconds, which earned him a victory lap with Lutz running in second for the duration of the six-minute race. 

After giving up a position to TLR teammate David Jenson on the first lap, defending champion Dakotah Phend fought past Jenson and Joe Bornhorst by the end of lap two to secure third place 6.3 seconds behind Lutz.

Note: Maifield's first lap position is an error.

Maifield led the first three and a half minutes of the 8-minute Truck final from the front of the grid, while Phend fell victim to Rivkin by the end of lap two. Maifield crashed on lap 10, which dropped him behind Rivkin and Phend. 

Maifield passed Phend three laps later, but then crashed again on the following lap and gave up positions to both Phend and Bornhorst. Rivkin got by the line before time expired to earn a victory lap, finishing nearly 19 seconds ahead of the field, while Phend held off Bornhorst by 1.8 seconds.

Special thank you to the Stateline R/C Raceway crew and ROAR for putting together a great event as well as proactively tackling the unfortunate weather situation.

CLICK HERE to view all of our photos from the race!