Inside Look – Ryan Maifield’s National Winning Truggy
It was undoubtedly one of Ryan’s best main performances of his racing career, Ryan Maifield delivered a near picture-perfect run and made up a pitstop to take another National title win after 45 intense minutes. To win at the highest level, everything has to be right and it’s always nice to have luck on your side too. Even one slight incident with lap traffic, a small bobble or roll over, the outcome would have been different. That’s how close the margin is from winning and coming in 2nd or lower.
The body of choice for Ryan is the very successful #0335 Finnisher truggy body made specifically for the Mugen MBX8T. Used by the entire JConcepts team, the results have been great over the years and with this win, Ryan gives the Finnisher body another National title to its legacy. Spencer Rivkin also used the Finnisher truggy body, but of course, he used the dedicated Team Associated RC8T3.1 specifically made bodyshell.
Having the opportunity to snap a few photos of the race winning ride just after winning is a real pleasure as it gives us insight into what a prime example of a race winning capable ride looks like. Gazing your eyes upon the front end of Ryan’s Mugen MBX8T, it looks pretty standard and very tidy up front. Besides the addition of the Lunsford titanium screws used in specific places, it looks very stock. Ryan uses a pair of full aluminum, Protek 170SBL servos for his throttle and steering feel.
With his switch to Maxima this year, Ryan is running the Maxima B2 engine paired with the Flashpoint FP2500 pipe (EFRA 2146) to dial in the power band.
The rear of the truck is pretty standard as well. Carbon inserts are added to stiffen the front and rear arms for the higher grip surface that weekend at Thornhill.
It may be hard to tell, but the tire of choice this weekend was the gold compound Ellipse truggy tires. These provided Ryan with the fastest corner speed and tons of grip while in the groove. There was a lot of speculation about whether or not the tires would last 45 minutes. Of course, they were going to be slicks, but no one was sure about how good the lap times would be on slick tires or how hard it would be to drive while fighting for position in a race. As you can see, the tires did the job and carried Ryan across the line for the win! Thanks to Ryan and Spencer, the JConcepts Ellipse tires for buggy and truggy has claimed their first National title.
The other part of Ryan’s setup that’s overlooked are the parts you can’t see, like the Dirt Tech truggy foams. For certain races, Ryan likes to have stiff foam depending on the how rough the track is and how much grip the surface has. Luckily for us, the JConcepts 1/8th Dirt Tech’s are among the best out there in terms of stiffness and longevity, which was the perfect match for Thornhill’s grooved surface.
Moving to the rear of the truck, there isn’t anything that stands out or looks super special about hit truggy, which is actually quite nice. The only part that isn’t Mugen is the rear AE wing that Maifield prefers because of the way it jumps and flies in the air.
The last piece of the tire game puzzle is the JConcepts Bullet truggy wheels. These are engineered to be stiffer than most wheels out there while still being light and durable. Ryan likes the stiffness of the wheel as it allows great power transfer and consistency. If the track gets bumpy or super loose, Ryan usually softens the foam by adding V-cuts to soften the foam for more grip.
Equipment is only a part of the puzzle. You have to have the skills and driving that’s capable of winning and on this day, everything worked and worked exceptionally well. Congrats once again to The Fastest Man on the Planet as he grabs another National title win.
++ Pro Nitro Truggy National Champion – Ryan Maifield ++