The 2015 ROAR Nitro On road Nationals was held at Full Throttle Raceway in Kissimmee Florida on April 30th til May 3rd. The ROAR classes were 1/10 touring car and 1/8 open. With two exhibition classes, 1/8 Masters and 1/8 GT.
The XRAY/ RCAmerica team at the race was Ralph Burch, Mike Swauger, Paul Lemieux, Scotty Grey, Craig Xavier, Billy Bowerman, Mike Strack, Toni Rice and many support drivers. Drew Ellis was there for team support.
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Ralph, Paul, Mike and Craig all built their new NT1â™15 for the race. With only receiving the car a week prior to the event, and with the carâ™s great showing at the first ENS of the year, the drivers were excited to hit the track.
First day of practice all drivers were on pace with Mike showing his setup was suiting him best. Paul was knocking the dust off of his nitro mind and getting used to running it again, but was quickly on pace. Scotty Grey was also right there.
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The team worked on setups and was quickly learning things about the new car.
First day of qualifying. Mike Swauger, Scotty Grey and Paul Lemieux would show pace in TC. Ralph was fast but having some issues. All new NT1â™15â™s were working well.
At the end of qualifying the top four would be:
1/8 open:
1. Paolo Morganti
2. DJ Apolaro 3. Mike Swauger - XRAY RX8
4. Vincent Jackson
1/10 touring car:
1. DJ Apolaro 2. Mike Swauger - XRAY NT1
3. Paolo Morganti 4. Paul Lemieux - XRAY NT1
Everyone else would have to run a tree like finals. After the Semiâ™s this is how it would line up for the one hour event.
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1/8 Open:
1. Paolo Morganti
2. DJ Apolaro 3. Mike Swauger - XRAY RX8
4. Vincent Jackson
5. Chris Tosolini 6. Paul Lemieux - XRAY RX8
7. Felix Law
8. Timothy Harrington
9. Michael Palazzola
10. Brian Thomas 11. Tony Rice - XRAY RX8
1/10 Touring Car:
1. DJ Apolaro 2. Mike Swauger - XRAY NT1
3. Paolo Morganti 4. Paul Lemieux - XRAY NT1
5. Scotty Grey - XRAY NT1
6. Chris Tosolini
7. Eduardo Cabal
8. Walter Diaz
9. KJ Jones
10. Uriah Murnan 11. Craig Xavier - XRAY NT1
12. Joseph Wright
The 1/10 TC main was up first. From tone to tone the race was exciting. Lead changeâ™s happened often. With some racers having problems and all racers doing tire changes. In the end it was Paul Lemieux with his Max Powered NT1â™15 to take the ROAR National championship. Scotty Grey would take second and Paolo Morganti taking third.
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1/10 final results:
1. Paul Lemieux - XRAY NT1
2. Scotty Grey - XRAY NT1
3. Paolo Morganti 4. Mike Swauger - XRAY NT1
5. Chris Tosolini
6. Walter Diaz
7. Eduardo Cabal 8. Craig Xavier - XRAY NT1
9. KJ Jones
10. Joseph Wright
11. Uriah Murnan
12. DJ Apolaro
1/8 open A main would close the day and the event. This one also was some great racing from tone too tone. Leaders were Paolo, DJ, Mike, Paul, and Vincent. With a hard charge at the end Mike Swauger with his Picco Powered RX8 was able to secure his ROAR National Championship.
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1/8 final results:
1. Mike Swauger - XRAY RX8
2. Vincent Jackson
3. Felix Law
4. Brain Thomas 5. Paul Lemiuex - XRAY RX8
6. Tony Roce - XRAY RX8
7. Timothy Harrington
8. DJ Apolaro
9. Michael Palazzola
10. Chris Tosolini
11. Paolo Mornganti
1/8 Master Final finish order:
1. Don Jones
2. Matt Reddick
3. Greg Esser 4. Jim Rice - XRAY RX8
5. Ashton Brinson
6. Robbie Collins
7. Peter Breton 8. Dan Louis - XRAY RX8
9. Joaquin Desoto 10. Reynold Kam - XRAY RX8
11. Dana Smeltzer
Thanks to the ROAR RMT crew and the Full Throttle race crew for running and hosting the event. Thanks to all the sponsors that made the event possible.
