Maifield Victorious At Inaugural Alabama Manufacturers Shootout

Monday, Jun 7, 2010 at 12:00am UTC

Team Associated's Ryan Maifield was on a mission at the Inaugural Manufacturers Shootout in Cullman, Alabama. Traveling from the desert of Arizona, the reigning Car Action Driver of the Year took his Reedy-powered RC8B and RC8T to Alabama to put on a display of speed while lending a hand to local and visiting racers. With over 370 entries and a host of the nation's top drivers on hand, the competition was close throughout the 3 rounds of qualifying.

As the reigning ROAR Truggy National Champion, Ryan showed everyone he's ready to defend his title by placing his RC8T-CE truck in the Top Qualifying position in the Expert 1:8 truck class. Ryan utilized his JConcepts Punisher body, Illuzion wing, and Sevens truck tire to dominate qualifying. In the 1:8 Expert buggy class Ryan had to settle for the 3rd qualifying position, but entered the main confident with fast consistent runs each round. Joining Ryan in both Expert A mains were Team Associated/Reedy teammates JR Mitch and Chris Pace.

The 1:8 truck A Main got off to a great start with Ryan leading out. However a forced tire change put him almost two laps down to the new leader, but without a flinch Ryan put his RC8T truck into top gear, laying down the fastest 20 laps in the A Main. With only a handful of laps to go Ryan was within striking distance but just ran out of time and had to settle for 2nd overall. After the main a host of fans and fellow racers followed the fastest truck in the A Main back into the pits to see the details. With one of the most memorable and hardest drives in recent memory, Ryan's RC8T was one of the few trucks remaining in the A Main with tread left on the tires.

After coming up just short in the Truggy class, Maifield was out for redemption. On the opening lap, Maifield navigated past the top two qualifiers and crossed the line first to lead the first lap and subsequently every lap thereafter. With a fresh mindset, Ryan's Factory Team RC8B was completely dialed and proved to be up to the challenge. Punishing the rest of the drivers, the lead began to grow considerably as control and caution set in around 25 minutes into the race. Ryan settled into a great rhythm and eventually lapped the entire A-main while the Green JConcepts Subcultures tires went the complete distance.

Congratulations also goes out to Team Associated/Reedy's JR Mitch for his pair of 8th place finishes in 1:8 Expert Buggy and Truggy along with Chris Pace's 12th and 11th place finishes respectively.


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