CACTUS: Phend, Maifield, Tebo, and Tessmann top overall standings after two rounds

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Day One of the qualifying at the first ever indoor Cactus Classic started with curiosity over what racing would be like on the sticky, but inconsistent, clay, and ended in drama - with accusations of cheating and one of the top 4WD racers breaking down in warm-up before a miraculously quick wrenching session got him back on track in time for a clutch points grab. Here were the top racers heading into last night’s break.

4WD SHORT COURSE

Sweeping the first two rounds despite having never run his TLR TEN-SCTE 2.0 on slicks, Dakotah Phend said, “it was actually really good.” The defending champion went to heavier springs and oil, as well as a longer camber link on the rear tower, all in an attempt to limit the truck’s body roll. “It’s not nearly as tippy as everyone else’s trucks, I don’t think,” said Dakotah. His game plan for the class was simple, as he said, “I just tried to drive the same laps every time.”

Jörn Neumann narrowly missed 16-lap runs in both rounds, finishing second each time. With Serpent not currently producing a 4x4 short course truck, Neumann is running his old Team Durango chassis for some extra track time. “It’s okay,” said the German, who added, “it flips a lot.”

Behind Phend and Neumann there’s quite a gap, as Phend’s TLR teammate David Jenson finished third in both rounds - one lap slower than Neumann in the first heat, and nearly twelve seconds behind in the second. After going up in springs and oil for his first time running on slicks, the young SoCal racer said, “It’s good, really good. In my second run I didn’t even have a bobble.”

STADIUM TRUCK

Ryan Maifield turned in two nearly identical times in the first two rounds of stadium truck, finishing second each time but holding the top overall position Friday night. “It was pretty good, but I made some changes throughout the day,” said Maifield, who said he could use more grip at the end of the run. When asked why he thought his truck might be falling off more than others, he simply said, “I’m following the rules and not using sauce.”

Defending champion Jared Tebo made a few changes to his mid-motor RT6 in practice to suit the high traction, but didn’t touch his truck through yesterday’s first two rounds. “It was pretty good,” he said after setting the fastest time in round one but finishing fourth in round two. He added, “I just had two really big crashes at the beginning of the second round.”

Ryan Cavalieri, who won the T5M’s debut at the CRCRC Midwest Winter Championships in January, was the top seed after practice but got off to a slow start in round one, finishing sixth. He came out firing in round two, though, with the fastest time giving him six points overall and the third spot after two rounds.

2WD SHORT COURSE

“My truck has been really good,” said Jared Tebo of his Kyosho SC6, which he hasn’t really changed since running at the CRCRC Midwest Winter Championships in Ohio in January. Without a local track that runs slicks he didn’t have a chance to test setup changes before arriving, but it hasn’t seemed to matter. “The track was a little bit loose in the second round, but my truck still felt awesome,” said Jared.

Citing a lack of overall grip compared to Tebo’s truck, Ryan Maifield said his TLR 22SCT 2.0 was “okay” in the first two rounds, but he hadn’t really made any changes to it either. “My runs were about as clean as they could be,” he said.

Like the two drivers ahead of him, TLR driver Dustin Evans finished in the same spot in both rounds - with two 3’s good enough for third overall Friday night. He was a few ticks slower than Tebo and Maifield, but had quite a gap to the fourth fastest times in both rounds.

2WD BUGGY

Driving a HB/HPI Racing test mule for their upcoming prototype buggy, which his father Gord said they hope to have in time for this year’s ROAR Nationals, Ty Tessmann was lights out in 2WD - winning the first round by nearly 1.5 seconds and the second round by more than six. The car originally started as a Kyosho RB6 front end and Centro C4.2 rear, connected by a hand-built platform designed by HB designer Torrance DeGuzman - the chassis has evolved, though, with new shock towers holding dampers borrowed from the D413, a wide pivot with zero-offset hubs, and more. “The track here has more grip than the carpet at home,” said Ty, who has been running slicks on Ozite to prepare and test. In the search for more steering, he changed Ackerman, went to lighter oil, added caster, and lowered the front hub - as well as settled on a rear shock package that he thinks is far off of what everyone else is running: 1.2mm four-hole pistons and 30 wt. shock oil.

“It has been pretty good,” said Ryan Cavalieri of his Team Associated B5M after finishing second in each of the first two rounds. “I’m just fighting the track a little bit, as it seems to be changing every run.” Echoing similar comments from other drivers about the changing traction levels, Cavalieri said, “I’m trying to find some extra grip - I think everyone is. I really haven’t touched my car since qualifying started, but we’re going to discuss some things and decide what to do.”

Defending World Champion Jared Tebo had an unfortunate incident in the first round, when a car crashed right ahead of him with two laps to go, but he took responsibility for a mistake toward the finish of round two that cost him. “One stupid crash cost me at the end,” he said, heading into Friday night’s break with two third-place finishes. Happy with the performance of his Kyosho RB6 but still looking for more speed, Jared said, “It was pretty good. It’s just interesting that someone could all of a sudden go so much faster.”

4WD BUGGY

Dakotah Phend had a near-perfect run to start off the weekend with his TLR 22-4, as the second seed finished a full second ahead of the field in round one to secure the first TQ run of the weekend. He took the lead for good at the halfway point and maintained the advantage, while Jared Tebo and Jörn Neumann swapped positions behind him. The second round wasn’t quite so lucky, though, crashing just after the one-minute mark and again halfway through leaving him fourth in the round over five seconds behind the fastest time. Still, his total of four points was best on Friday night.

Three-time 4WD World Champion Ryan Cavalieri struggled in round one, never running higher than fifth in his heat and eventually finishing with eight points - nearly ten seconds slower than Phend. He had by far the cleanest run of anyone in the second round, though, finishing over five seconds ahead of teammate Carson Wernimont and the rest of the field. With a total of eight points, he went into Friday night’s break second overall by virtue of the fastest time tiebreaker over Jörn Neumann.

Last year’s overall TQ Jörn Neumann, competing this year with the Serpent SRX-4 prototype buggy, sat third overnight in 4WD after a consistent start to the weekend. He ran up toward the front all race long in round one, eventually settling into the third position just four seconds behind the top time. The second round, though, was a roller coaster - he  led the ‘A’ heat after lap one, and ran as low as seventh, before settling in for a top five finish. With a total of eight points Neumann was third overall on Friday night.

Four-time defending champion Ryan Maifield got off to a great start in the first round, but a crash after the halfway mark dropped him to the sixth spot by the time the run was complete. In the second round, though, he crashed into a pipe in the infield and broke a front arm - after asking the race director for a grace period, team manager Kevin Gahan and teammate Dustin Evans rushed his TLR 22-4 back to the pit area and swapped the piece quickly, getting him back on track in time in time for the start. He finished third in last night’s second round, moving up to fourth overall.

All of the heats were resorted using each driver's fastest heat, so the lineup for rounds three and four will be different on Saturday. CLICK HERE for the new heat sheet.