Drew and I arrived in Fort Myers at about 1:00 PM. As soon as we got there, we went to our favorite barbecue restaurant: "Rib City". It was great! This would be one of four times that we ate there. The rest of the evening Drew was getting my car prepared for the first day of practice.
2-8-09 Sunday
We showed up at the track at 7:00 AM. It was a nice day, sun out and not too warm. The track looked great! We spent most of the day testing engines and getting them right. The setup Drew had on my car was good from the get go. I knew we would only make minor changes to the car and test tires. So the first day of practice went well we were on pace from the first run on the track.
2-9-09 Monday
This would be the last day of practice so we were wanting to try some different changes to the car. We played with toe in the rear and camber gain. The camber gain was not a change we liked so we went back to where we started. The toe helped out a bunch. We went to running less toe in and the car seemed to have good forward bite but had more steering. The last change we made was a great one. We picked up two tenths with raising the roll center in the rear. That change gave us the steering we had been looking for. With that we were able to take some camber out of the front. So the last day of practice ended well. We both felt like the car was performing great. So it was off to "Rib City" and to the hotel to get a good night of rest.
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2-10-09 Tuesday
Today is the first day of qualifying. We showed up early to run the open practice just to make sure everything was good from the maintenance Drew had done the night before. Everything was good. The first round we set TQ with a clean run and conserving fuel so I knew we had something more. The second round we had some problems with keeping the car on the track. But it felt good because it is rocket rounds. The rest of the team was on pace. Scott Rister was very fast but had not put in a clean run yet. Chris Lefebvre was fast also but the same for him. James Burrows was running good as well as Espo. It looked like all of us would be in the main.
2-11-09 Wednesday
The second day of qualifying was a hard day for us. The first run I was on a fast TQ pace but had a traction roll and put the car on the roof and it flamed out. The next round the same thing happened. Super fast pace but had driver errors. The rest of the team seemed to be doing well. Every one improved their time so as a team we were looking good.
2-12-09 Thursday
This was the last day of qualifying. We needed a good run. As of now we were sitting fourth but knew we could run better. The first round we had some problems as in the second one. So we would be starting fourth on the grid but had set fastest lap of the week with a 12.4. So we knew we were fast just needed to pull it all together. The rest of the team did well. The last day everyone went faster. The main is taking 8 drivers with two bumping up. The top eight are:
Qualification results
1. Paolo Morganti
2. DJ Apolaro
3. Vincent Jackson 4. Ralph Burch XRAY NT1
5. Scott Rister XRAY NT1
6. Chris Lefebvre XRAY NT1
7. Michael Salven
8. Gianni Giogio
2-13-09 Friday
Today the track is running the lower mains so it was an off day for us. We went though the car to prepare for the tire test. That day we were able to run the car for 30 minutes to check tire wear for the main.
2-14-09 Saturday
Oh, yeah... the main day what we have been waiting for. Today they would run the C's to the A's. The first race we watched was the touring B-main to see who would bump up. At the end it was Uriah Murnan and XRAY team driver James Burrows. Congrats James! Great drive! So now we had four cars in the top ten. The main started and it was a clean start. We soon realized that the shift point was not set right. So we had to come in for that. We also chucked a tire so we changed that. I was at the back of the pack ready to work towards the front. A lot of racers were having problems that let DJ get a good lead. Scott was running second on a great run and Chris was behind him in third. James was in fifth and I was in sixth. The finishing order was:
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Final results
1. DJ Apolaro 2. Scott Rister XRAY NT1
3. Chris Lefebvre XRAY NT1
4. Ralph Burch XRAY NT1
5. Michael Salven 6. James Burrows XRAY NT1
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I would like to thank the HUDYs, XRAY, RCAmerica, Jaco, Max Power, Kopropo and the Winter nats group for putting on a great race. I can't wait for next year! Thanks to all the team for their hard work.
Great job to all the guys! I would like to thank my mechanic and pit guy for the great job he did all week: Drew Ellis. Congrats to all the winners!
