CODY KING’S QUEST TO REPEAT
What a di;erence two years makes – when Cody King
jumped on the airplane for ;ailand two years ago, he was
one of about 150 drivers hoping to compete for a World
Championship. When he boarded his flight for Argentina,
however, he had a completely di;erent goal: to make
history. Italy’s Maurizio Monesi is the only driver ever to
win this race more than once, and his two victories (1986,
1994) were eight years apart. Atsushi Hara came close two
years ago, having captured the 2008 championship and
coming up just short of the 2010 victory when King beat
him to the line by less than two seconds. Armed with a new
tire sponsor than when he earned the crown, King’s week
got o; to a slow start; he was among the racers struggling
in the opening practice rounds as drivers tried to cope with
track conditions that varied wildly from the warm-up race
just months prior. An eighth place finish in the second
round of qualifying showed he had the speed to run up
front, but a poor tire choice in the third round, bad tra;c in
the fourth, and a lack of pace in the fifth relegated him to
38th overall, meaning that while he would not have to run
in the lower finals on Friday, he would start from the 1/8
final of the even side of the ladder.
;e beauty of nitro racing is the ability to bump up,
however, and it only makes sense that the reigning World
Champion would be comfortable racing his way toward
the top. Cody overcame a poor start in his first heads-up
race of the week, moving from the back of the pack to
take the win and move to the 1/4 final. Starting toward the
back of the grid against tougher competition, King moved
up quickly, eventually locking into a battle for the fourth
spot for the final transfer position into the semi. A mistake
on the last lap for Serpent’s Billy Easton, a former World
Champion in his own right (2WD Modified, 2003), gave
King the breathing room he needed to lock up his ticket
to the semifinal. Battling for both transfer positions as
well as a fast time to secure a higher starting position in
the final (the grid is set by combining finishing times from
the semifinals), King sprinted forward from his 12th place
starting spot to pass as many cars in the opening laps as
possible. Reaching as high as third, he settled into a battle
for fourth with Mugen’s Lee Martin that lasted nearly the
second half of the race– 18 laps. By finishing just over 20
seconds behind the winner of his semi, Batlle, Cody earned
the privilege of racing to defend his title when he solidified
the sixth starting position on the grid.
After nearly three hours of racing his way up the ladder on
Saturday, King finished the final in the seventh spot. He’ll
head into the 2014 IFMAR Worlds without the stigma of
trying to be the first to repeat, but he joins Hara, Pavidis,
and the others with whom he shares RC’s greatest
distinction in his pursuit to do what has only been done
once before – to win again.
who was fastest in practice, su;ered
getting through slower tra;c and
finished the round fourth behind the
Czech Republic’s Martin Bayer, with
ROAR National Champion Ty Tessman
rounding out the top five.
Tessman staked his claim as the North
American favorite in round two, piloting
his prototype Hot Bodies to the fastest
time on day one (beating Batlle’s previous
best by 1.3 seconds), ahead of Jared
Tebo, with Batlle third ahead of Mugen
teammate Lee Martin; clearly, the Mugen
Seiki team had done their homework
with the new MBX7. Yannick Aigoin had
Team Associated’s best result, fourth,
with American teammate Ryan Maifield
the pillar of consistency with two tenth-place finishes on day one.
DAY TWO
Day two got o; to an earlier start
than previously planned in order to
accommodate three rounds of qualifying
on day two after the organizers
rescheduled the fifth round ahead of day
three’s projected rain (and for once, the
weather forecasters were correct). ;e
early morning was a blessing in disguise
for Kyosho’s Boots, who returned to his
form in practice with the TQ in the third
round, beating previous round toppers
Batlle and Tessman, respectively. ;e top
three were the only drivers to complete
a 14-lap run on the increasingly rough
surface, as even the top competitors
struggled with costly mistakes; the
fastest 13-lap run went to Maifield,
bettering his previous round scores with
his modified RC8.2 buggy.
Round four netted the biggest
surprise of the week up to that point,
with the XRAY 809 of Missouri native
Josh Wheeler taking the fastest
time ahead of A Main Hobbies’ Dylan
Rodriguez. Wheeler’s strong showing
came at the perfect moment, as the
track deteriorated through the rest of
the round and no one was able to match
his time throughout the remaining
heats, and he benefitted from setup
help o;ered by his Czech teammate,
Bayer, who missed the top ten. Among
the title favorites, it was Jared Tebo who
had the best run, finishing third ahead
of Team Associated teammates Yannick
Aigoin and Ryan Maifield, with Boots
seventh. ;e changing track conditions
gave racers in slower heats a chance to
shine; the most notable of which was
Venezuela’s Renato Tradardi Jr.; the top-
placing South American finished the
round in tenth.
DAY THREE
Substantial flooding on day three of
competition cancelled the sixth round
of qualifying and put the entire race in
jeopardy. ;e track crew used tarps,
wood chips, shovels, and good ol’
fashioned elbow grease to get the track
in racing shape for the following day’s
lower main events.
