Last weekend the US Open Fuel Championships were held at Adobe Mountain RC Speedway in Phoenix, AZ. There were 10 classes to compete in and this event brought in 130 entries.
This three day event kicked off on Friday with open practice starting at 11am PST and ran until 5pm that night. On Saturday three rounds of qualifying kicked off shortly after 8am. Each qualifier ran for seven minutes each, and only a driver’s two best runs would be used for determine the top qualifier in each class.
Leading the charge for the team was Tekno/JConcepts driver Ryan Maifield. He debuted his new chassis sponsor at this event, and he was able to lock in the TQ in the 1/8 Open Electric and Nitro Buggy classes as well as 1/8 Open Nitro Truggy!
Team Associated/JConcepts driver Spencer Rivkin was also in contention at this race as he qualified 2nd overall for the 1/8 Open Nitro Truggy and 1/8 Open Electric classes.
On Sunday the lower mains started just past 8am and the top three finishers were able to bump into the next highest main event. The first major A Main of the event was for the 1/8 Open Nitro Truggy class. This race ran for 45 minutes and Ryan got off to a great start and never looked back as he went on to take the tone to tone win! Spencer would join him on the podium in 3rd place!
Winning JConcepts products:
A few main events later it was time for the 1/8 Open Electric Buggy A Main. This race was a single 10 minute A Main and right from the start Ryan got out into the lead with Spencer right behind him. The two drivers would stay in this position for nearly the entire race until the final lap. Rivkin would get the inside line heading into the back section and would hold off Ryan to take the win! Ryan would finish 2nd overall and 0.734 behind him.
Winning JConcepts products:
The final event of the weekend was the one hour long 1/8 Open Nitro Buggy A Main. Once again Ryan would start out in the lead and put down consistent, fast laps as he was able to take his second win of this event by four laps over the entire field!
Winning JConcepts products:
With two wins and a second place finish Ryan was also named the overall Grand Champion of the race too!
Photo credits: Troy Hanson, Adobe Mountain RC Speedway