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| Race report by Drew Ellis |
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| Photos by Stephen Sohl |
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| This yearâ™s ROAR Paved Nationals was held in Frederick Maryland at the HobbyTown USA, also known as the Coliseum. RC America XRAY factory drivers Paul Lemiuex, Drew Ellis and Robbie Dodge attended, along with many more from the RCA support team. |
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Paul and I arrived on Tuesday and set up our pit spots, but the track was close to any practice. The Coliseumâ™s track is an indoor, asphalt track and looked like black carpet.
The first day of practice started at 10:00am. Paul and I arrived and got on the track just to learn the layout. It was a fast layout with a lot of bite. We spent the rest of the day testing and tuning setup changes for this unique surface. |
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| The 2nd day of practice started early at 8:00am. We arrived with a few more ideas of what we wanted to test. By this time our whole team had arrived and they were on the track practicing too. Paulâ™s car was working well, and so were Robbie's and mine. We all were setting quick lap times as we finished our setup changes and got comfortable with the layout. Paul and I also spent some time helping XRAY customers and our support team drivers dial in their cars to the track. This really helped everyone get up to speed quickly. The track closed at 9:00pm so it was off to the hotel to get some sleep to get ready for the first day of qualifying. |
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| The first day of qualifying started at 11:00am. There were 3 hours of open practice starting at 8:00am for those last minute setup changes. We felt our cars were good and we were ready for qualifying. Paul and I were up first in mod sedan. Paul TQ'ed the round with a 36/6:02, with me finishing 5th. Paulâ™s car was working really good. In Super Stock I ended up 2nd for the round with a 35/6:08, and Robbie was close behind in 3rd with a 35 lap run too. We continued to help everyone with their setups throughout the day hoping for some great results for all the XRAYs at the track! |
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Paul had another good run in the 2nd round and took the top spot for the round again; this time by almost a full lap with a 37/6:06. This was the only 37 lap run in qualifying. In Super Stock, Robbie finished TQ for the 2nd round, improving his first round time by over 4 seconds. His car was working very good and he put in a clean run. I had few driver errors but was able to still get 4th for the round with a 35/6:05. 2nd through 4th were separated by less than a half second. In the Stock class Team XRAY was looking real good. Mike Herald Jr and Dave Bowser each grabbed a round TQ and Mark Burt close behind; chances were high for an XRAY TQ in this class too.
Finally, the last day of qualifying. Paul was up first and grabbed his third round TQ. With three round TQs, the overall TQ was clinched for Paul; his XRAY would start first in the mod A main. In Super Stock Robbie came out blazing and set TQ for the 3rd round and a new overall fast time with a 36/6:09. I finished 3rd for the round with a good drive.
In the last round Paul and I were up in mod. I ended up with the TQ for this round with my best time of the week 36/6:06. Paul was on a good run to get me but made a mistake and pulled it off the track. He did not want to waste his tires as he knew that he was TQ for the class. In Super Stock the last round was crazy with a lot of beating and banging going own. Mike Herald, Jr had the highest finish for an XRAY in the round with a 35/6:04, beating his time in Stock of 35/6:10 which was TQ for the round. |
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So after qualifying, Team XRAY ended up with 3 class TQ's. The finishing order is below.
Mod
1. Paul Lemiuex (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Rick Hohwart
3. Josh Cyrul
4. Mike Haynes
5. Drew Ellis XRAY T2'009
6. Keven Hebert
7. Mike Blackstock
8. Karl Hoffmeister XRAY T2'009
9. Artur Curyllo XRAY T2'009
Super Stock
1. Robbie Dodge (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Keven Hebert
3. Drew Ellis XRAY T2'009
4. Mike Herald Jr. XRAY T2'009
5. Rick Hohwart
6. Mike Haynes
7. Josh Cryul
8. Austin Harrison
9. Dave Bowser XRAY T2'009
10. Mark Burt XRAY T2'009
Stock
1. Mike Herald Jr. (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Dave Bowser XRAY T2'009
3. Mark Burt XRAY T2'009
4. Casey Castleman
5. Brandon Hess
6. Austin Vacek
7. Mark Unrath XRAY T2'009
8. Sam Isaacs XRAY T2'009
9. Danny Jenkins
10. Steve Sohl XRAY T2'009 |
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Oh yeah main day!! What we were all here for. The first main up would be Mod A1. At the tone Paul was gone. I got a good start and was in third but wasnâ™t able to stay up there and fell back to 6th. Paul finished 1st with a 37/6:05. In Super Stock, Robbie stayed in front from begin to the end, beating out some strong competition from many factory mod racers! In Stock, Mike took the first with Dave Bowser finishing a couple seconds back. So after the first round of A Mains, Team XRAY was looking strong.
In the second round of Aâ™s, Paul did what he does and checked out againâ¦. "Lightâ™s Out"... With his second 1st place finish he secured his National Championship. Robbie had a real battle in the second Super Stock A Main, Josh Cyrul and he raced real close for about half the race, but Robbie was able to hold on and win by two tenths. With his second victory Robbie claimed the Super Stock National Champ also. Mike Herald Jr followed up his first round win with a 34/5:07, almost a lap up on the field, to bring home his Stock Sedan National Championship.
Here is the finishing order for the Triple Aâ™s. Team XRAY 3 TQ'S AND 3 WINS. |
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Modified
1. Paul Lemiuex (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Josh Cyrul
3. Keven Hebert
4. Rick Hohwart
5. Mike Haynes
6. Mike Blackstock
7. Drew Ellis XRAY T2'009
8. Karl Hoffmeister XRAY T2'009
9. Artur Curyllo XRAY T2'009 |
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Super Stock
1. Robbie Dodge (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Josh Cyrul
3. Keven Hebert
4. Rick Hohwart
5. Mike Herald Jr. XRAY T2'009
6. Mike Haynes
7. Dave Bowser XRAY T2'009
8. Drew Ellis XRAY T2'009
9. Mark Burt XRAY T2'009
10. Austin Harrison |
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Stock
1. Mike Herald Jr (TQ) XRAY T2'009
2. Austin Vacek
3. Dave Bowser XRAY T2'009
4. Brandon Hess
5. Casey Castleman
6. Sam Isaacs XRAY T2'009
7. Mark Burt XRAY T2'009
8. Danny Jenkins
9. Steve Sohl XRAY T2'009
10. Mark Unrath XRAY T2'009 |
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| I would like to thank all of our teamâ™s sponsors for their support. XRAY, HUDY, RC America, JACO, SMC, TRINITY, EPIC, KOPROPO, FUTABA, and PROTOFORM. Thanks to ROAR for a great race and HobbyTown for the track and a great host. Congratulations to the whole team for making this a great race for XRAY/RC America and all your hard work. See you at the next one. |
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