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| Race report by Paul Lemiuex |
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The Capitol classic is held 20 miles outside the nation's capitol in Maryland at the fabulous 301 Raceway. The track was large and semi-technical with a lot of turns.
The week started out on Tuesday with the team arriving. XRAY had a great team in attendance at this race, with newcomers to the 10th scale nitro team Josh Cyrul and Mike Blackstock adding to the great team and Ralph Burch heading it up. |
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On Tuesday and Wednesday the practice got cut short by heavy rain, but by Thursday everybody was on pace. Ralph, Mike, Josh and I were looking good.
In qualifying there were no surprises with Ralph jumping out front in the first round, looking to continue his dominance from last year. After 2 rounds it was still Ralph up front looking like TQ was to be his, and when qualifying was over. it was. Later in qualifying Josh was looking really
fast, too. When the dust settled the top 5 lineup for the final was:
1. Ralph Burch XRAY NT1
2. Josh Cyrul XRAY NT1
3. Vincent Jackson
4. DJ Apolaro
5. Mike Blackstock |
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| All in all XRAY had the most cars in the main, filling half of the main with 6 of the 12 spots. Other than Ralph, Josh, Mike and I (9th) we saw Hess Daddy Brandon Hess and Chris Lefebvre both getting the bump spots from the B final. |
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XRAY driver Brandon Hess
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In the final their were no surprises as Ralph jumped out front. Both Mike and Josh had early problems along with my having a continuation of my problems from qualifying. DJ Apolaro was running well along with Chris Tosolini until he also ran into some issues. From there on in it was Ralph and Chris pulling away from the field. Mike Blackstock, after his problems, was putting down some of the fastest laps of the entire week. Jimmy Deprez and bump driver Chris Lefebvre had a great final and were both very steady. As the race went on Ralph grew stronger and in the end had a very comfortable lead to take home the win for RC America/XRAY/MaxPower. Pitman Drew Ellis did a great job of getting Ralph in and out of the pits quickly and smoothly.
Final Top 5:
1. Ralph Burch XRAY NT1
2. Chris Tosolini
3. Jimmy Deprez
4. Chris Lefebvre
5. Josh Cyrul |
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| Thanks to Chris Whitney and the whole 301 crew for the great track and to XRAY/RC America for all the support. |
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