Phend, Maifield & Cavalieri take 2016 ROAR titles

The 2016 ROAR Electric Off-road Nationals were held this past weekend at The HobbyPlex in Omaha, Nebraska. In the premier 2WD Modified Buggy class the race for the overall TQ was on between Ryan Maifield (TLR), Dakotah Phend (TLR) and Ty Tessmann (HB Racing) who scored individual round TQs in the opening three qualifiers until Dakotah came out fastest in Q4 to take the overall TQ. Ty Tessmann would place his buggy on the 2 spot for the A-main while Ryan Maifield had to settle for third.

In 4WD Modified Buggy it was Dakotah Phend (TLR) who took the opening qualifier and he would cement his ambitions to take a second overall TQ this weekend by also coming out fastest in Q2. With another fastest time in Q3 the TLR driver would lock the overall top qualifying position with one round to spare and it was Dakotah’s teammate Ryan Maifield who secured himself the 2 spot on the grid with a round TQ in Q4. HB Racing’s Ty Tessmann came in third after the qualifiers.

In the Modified Truck qualifiers it looked like the Phend Show would continue as Dakotah took the opening qualifier with his TLR truck and he would also come out fastest in Q2 and Q3 and he would sweep the qualifying by also taking the final qualifier, underlining his dominant performance.

Finally in 2WD Modified Short Course it was Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri who swept the qualifying by taking four round TQs to start from pole position into the triple A-mains.

The opening 2WD Modified Buggy A-main saw a commanding win by the TQ holder. Dakotah would end the 6-minute encounter some seven seconds in front of Ty Tessmann while Ryan Maifield suffered from a DNF. A2 then again saw Dakotah coming out in front and with the win he also secured the overall title. Ryan Maifield came out good in A2 with a second pace from Ty Tessmann, with the two swapping their qualifying positions. Sitting out A3, Dakotah made way for Ty Tessmann who was able to leave Ryan Maifield behind in second after an exciting A-main event that saw Ryan Maifield in front until a very late move from Ty Tessmann. The win allowed the HB Racing pilot to take the runner-up spot from TLR’s Ryan Maifield in third.

The opening 4WD A-main had Dakotah Phend making that extra lap to take a dominant win from Ryan Maifield in second and Ty Tessmann in third – the latter two separated by only 0.7 seconds. A2 was a pretty intense affair that saw Ryan Maifield out in front for most of the A-main and he would take the win some 2.4 seconds from Ty Tessmann with Dakotah Phend 0.4 seconds behind Ty. This meant the decision for the overall title would be made in A3 and the leg would again see a fairly dominant Ryan Maifield who made the extra lap in front of Dakotah Phend to take the win in A3 and with it the overall victory and 2016 4WD Modified ROAR title. Ty Tessmann would round out the leg’s top 3 and the result would also reflect the overall standings with Ryan in first, Dakotah second and Ty third.

Modified Truck and the opening A-main had Dakotah checking out to take the win from the photo-finishing pair of Spencer Rivkin (Team Associated) and Jared Tebo (Kyosho) in second and third. A2 and it was again Dakotah who laid down a dominating run to grab the overall title while TLR teammate Dustin Evans took a second place from Jared Tebo. With a win in A3 Dustin would secure himself the overall runner-up spot in the Mod Truck class while Tebo, with a second place in the leg, completed the podium result in third.

2WD Modified Short Course had Ryan Cavalieri edging out Ryan Maifield in the opening A-main to take the win with a 1.6 seconds margin. Alex Vanderbeek came in third so far. With a tone-to-tone win in A2 it was then Ryan Cavalieri who locked up the overall title with one leg to spare. Ryan Maifield took the runner-up spot both in the leg and overall while the race for the third place overall was still on. With Cav sitting out the final race, Ryan Maifield secured the win in A3 from Alex Vanderbeek who in turn rounded out the overall podium with a third place.

Images: Team Orion [teamorion.com]