Ryan Cavalieri crowned 2013 Reedy Offroad Champion

Ryan Cavalieri held on to victory as he finally won the event held at his hometrack, West Coast – the final result came down to the wire, with Cavalieri tieing on points with former Champion Dustin Evans as he secured a win in the last round whilst defending Champion Jorn Neumann claimed 3rd after a strong finish which saw him take two wins and a 2nd, however 2WD proved to be his undoing as he scored the best results in 4WD. The weekend belongs to Cavalieri who surged out of the starting blocks winning all four of his opening heats of 2WD on Friday, the real ‘decider’ looked to be round 5 in the 2nd heat as Dustin Evans was ahead of Cavalieri on the track but hooked a pipe and allowed Cavalieri to steal a 3rd place and thus a vital point less. Jared Tebo would claim 4th overall whilst Ryan Maifield took 5th and Travis Amezcua 6th, Lee Martin 7th, Steven Hartson 8th, Kody Numedahl 9th and Atsushi Hara 10th.

[Updated: Cavalieri's Speed Control & Hartson's Motor]

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Links: 4WD Invite Results | Reedy Race coverage
Media: Rd one 4WD videos | Rd two 4wd videos | All Reedy Race Videos | Photo Gallery

The penultimate round of 4WD at the 2013 Reedy Race saw Rene Trauner start at the front of the grid in heat 1 with Bradders along side, Maifield got off to a good start in 2nd but soon fell back after a crash on the small double infront of the drivers stand, lap 3 saw Numedahl blast past Bradders into 2nd with Neumann staying in 4th, Trauner would go onto crash after the sweeper and table top losing 4 positions after a bit rough and tumble Lee Martin moved into 3rd behind Neumann and Numedahl who was in the lead. Neumann after the tabletop landed on the inside which gave him track position, Numedahl overkeen to fend off the attack tapped Neumann and he crashed, he waited but the incident saw Martin move into the lead followed by Maifield then Neumann, Numedahl. Maifield sensing a result might be on drove super aggressive trying to force Martin into a mistake, a small coming-together saw the chasing pack close up Maifield paused for a second but had the inside line on the woops and sent Martin wide into the marbles, as he returned Numedahl tagged him ruining any chances of a good finish. Up front it was Maifield followed very closely by Jorn who wasn’t going to let a win escape him it seemed, intense pressure led to Maifield turning in too early and losing the lead.  Neumman would take the win follwed by Numedahl and then Due with Maifield 3rd (timing missed a lap)

Brian Kinwald would lead away heat 2 a star studded affair complete with title rivals Evans and Cavalieri, Kinwald led the first lap until it all got very racy with Denney snatching the lead in a great pass with Kinwald, Tebo and Hartson going three a breast in a corner. On the straight Tebo attempted the avoid a swerve and clipped the pipe sending his Kyosho cartwheeling dropping him back, at this point Evans and Cav were cautiously racing – both trying to outwit the other and slice their way through the pack. Upfront Hartson was chasing Denney and it wasn’t long before Hartson amde it past and had a small gap to Evans and Cavalieri now fighting at the front. A mistake from Evans saw Cav and Tebo move ahead each driver desperate to challenge Hartson in P1. Towards the closing stages, Cav pushing hard to catch Hartson rolled it off the washboard, Tebo slipped by and Evans just missed out, Cav actually tagged him, it would finish Hartson, Tebo, Cav.

Heat 3 and Rick Hohwart led the pack away followed by Phend and Truhe, early on Hohwart had a bit of a lead as Phend and Truhe batled, the lead didn’t last long as the chasing TLR drivers caught him up. Phend managed somehow to sneak alongside Hohwart over the tabletop but Hohwart responded a bit too robustly sending Phend spinning, he waited and the race was on again. Behind them, Cragg had moved into 3rd he pulled off a sweet move around the outside of Hohwart and knuckled down to catch Phend in front. A bad landing off the straight double saw Cragg accelerate past but Phend was able to get the power down to maintain 2nd at least, Hohwart pushing too hard flew into the pipe off a double and dropped way down, it would finish Cragg, Hupo Honigl and Travis Amezcua as crashes from Phend dropped him back

Round 4 of 4WD saw Ryan Cavalieri open up a tiny but equally crucial one point lead over Dustin Evans and Jorn Neumann moving into 3rd.

Links: 4WD Invite Results | Reedy Race coverage
Media: Rd one 4WD videos | Rd two 4wd videos | All Reedy Race Videos | Photo Gallery

The opening heat of round 4 had Jared Tebo starting out front followed closely by Chad Due and Phend, they ran in that order for two laps until Due tagged Tebo at the start which saw mayhem ensue as there were multiple car pile ups on the straight not to mention awesome quickstep acrobatics from Dustin Evans unfortunately this major event saw the demise of Dakotah Phend and Kohta Akimoto – both retiring with broken buggys. With the mayhem over, Due had managed to reclaim the lead with Castellano 2nd and Numedahl 3rd. A crash from Castellano put Numedahl into 2nd followed by Amezcua with 3 mins to go, poleman Tebo failed to regain any momentum battling with Martin and not making much progress in the midpack. After a lap Lee Martin made up some places and was challenging Amezcua for 2nd – both catching Due outfront, in the in field Amezcua caught Due and followed him round waiting for any sign of a mistake, behind them Tebo was hurrying Martin – it wasn’t long before Amezcua sniffed out an oppurtunity, going up the inside on corner exit this was the start of Due’s demise as he dropped back to 5th after driving well. It would finish Amezcua, Martin and Tebo.

Heat two and Bradders had poleman’s privelage but suffered wheelspin on the start putting Peter Pinisch into the lead albeit only for a moment as Bradders tagged Pinisch on the sweeper and spun him causing a sizeable pile up on lap 1 corner 1, Pfeihofer got through unscathed along with Truhe however a few corners later Truhe had the lead followed by Ty Tessmann with Tanner Denney a little further back. Lap after lap Tessmann tailgated Truhe until he hooked a pipe turning in a slight bit too early he lost a place to Tanner Denney. The  leading trio of Truhe, Denney and Tessmann were running a second apart jostling for pace, Truhe looking comfortable until he made a big mistake on the double infront of the drivers stand promoting Denney, a further wheelie moment from Truhe allowed Tessmann to close onto his wing and the pair couldn’t keep it apart as Tessmann took a corner tighter and tagged Truhe, Tessmann sportingly waited and allowed Truhe back past. At this point Denney had a pretty commanding lead, the young Associated driver’s nerves under pressure but coping well. Truhe would finish 2nd and Tessmann 4th after a bad landing after the tabletop, a great result for Tanner Denney.

Heat 3 also known as the heavyweight heat as the likes of Evans, Cavalieri, Maifield & Neumann all present. Rick Hohwart would start first alongside Steven Hartson however they would end up swapping the front of the grid for the back in the end, for the first two laps the running order stayed the same despite Hartson’s efforts to get past and a patient Neumann in 3rd waiting for the action to unfold it wasn’t until a lap later when Hartson took a different line around the woops that he was able to challenge, however Hohwart turned in as Hartson was landing bouncing him into 3rd allowing Neumann to pick his way through into 2nd. Evans was running 4th with Maifield right behind then Martin and Cavalieri – Evans attempted a pass around the drop down sweeper which didn’t come off, his TLR flying off the track in spectacular fashion this dropped him behind 2013 title rival Cavalieri. After that Neumann stepped his chase of Hartson, pressuring the 3rd placed driver to try and pass him however behind him a massive crash on the straight with Cragg, Evans and Cavalieri saw them lose touch at the same time Hartson perhaps distracted by the commotion lost his lead to Neumann and Maifield moved into 2nd and Hohwart into 3rd. Neumann would go onto victory despite a late charge from Maifield who took 2nd infront of Cavalieri who had to push hard to get past Evans who bobbled on a pipe allowing Cav through to 3rd.