Ryan Maifield Top Qualifies at ROAR 1/8th Fuel Nationals, debuts new JConcepts Stacker tire.
Race: 2012 ROAR Fuel Nationals
Track: LCRC Raceway – Oakland Mills, PA
Date: June 22-24, 2012
Race Reporter: Jason Ruona
During one of the most competitive events of the year on the U.S. tour, Ryan Maifield took 3 of 4 rounds of qualifying to secure the 1/8th buggy Top Qualifying 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.
JConcepts Stacker from NeoBuggy.net on Vimeo.
During one of the final rounds of practice, Ryan revealed the latest tire from JConcepts, the Stacker. During a blistering 3-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 2 official qualifiers earning at least a 1st or 2nd 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 4 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 ¼ 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 3rd 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 tire. Only 4 Stacker 1/8th truck tires existed and Ryan took full advantage by mounting them up and being ready with fresh tread for the extended main. Right off the start it was Tessman 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 Tessman for 1st 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 Tessman. Near the end of the main event Maifield found himself battling for 3rd and 4th after an extra, safety pit stop dropped him out of his comfy 2nd place position. A successful tire debut for the Stacker tire with post race inspection showed very good wear characteristics and incredible lap-times throughout. Congratulations to the top 3 drivers, Ty Tessman, Dakotah Phend and Josh Wheeler.
Ryan Cavalieri started on the Pole Position in the 1/8th buggy A-final but after only several laps it was Ty Tessman leading and Ryan Maifield 2nd. The 2 drivers exchanged the lead on a few occasions and allowed Dakotah Phend to catch and move himself into the top 3. Jared Tebo ran in the 4th position with many others running in 5th at different times including ¼ final bump-up driver, Barry Pettit. Maifield encountered a small problem in the pits and a mistake on the track allowed the 2 leaders to gain roughly an 8 second lead. Maifield pushed and cut into the 8 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 5. 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 Tessman and Dakotah Phend had a race for the ages with the 60 minute main coming down to the last several laps. Dakotah led with 2 laps to go but needed to be turn-marshaled twice in the whoops section and Tessman 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 center double section and went tumbling but was quickly marshaled. 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 2nd win of the day. 1st place would go to Ty Tessman with Dakotah Phend 2nd and Jared Tebo 3rd.
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.
