The race was called The Roar Paved On-Road National Championships, held in Largo, Florida at Speedline Hobbies. I must say the race was a challenge. Not only is it hard to drive a little car by remote as fast as you can through the high speed turns but to try to do it as many times as you can in between the rain was the real test.
This out door race was scheduled many months in advance by ROAR âśRemotely Operated Auto Racersâť at this great facility with a track owner whom worked very hard to make sure this race was run as smoothly as possible. Well, as many people know if ever visited Florida every day like clockwork there is a recurring rain shower around 3-3:30. What usually doesnâ™t happen is raining two or more times a day like it did this week. After walking off the plane about an hour and half later it started to rain and stopping practice at the track for the day.
Practice days were the usual try to get as much practice in as possible because of the frequent rain showers throughout the days. The rain made for a lot of hard work for the track owner and crew. After it would rain the owner Joe and crew would dry the track as fast as humanly possible and re-applying the soda water to the surface. Shortly after the crew was done all the drivers were allowed to practice again until it rained again or seven at night when the track was closed.
Special thanks, goes out to team Xray driver Jilles Groskamp who flew over from Europe just to help team RC America test at the track.
Qualifying days came up a little too fast due to a lot of waiting for the rain to stop in practice days. On an average it seems like everyone put in somewhere around five batteries or less a day. Friday was the first day of qualifying with barely getting two rounds of qualifying in due to the rain delays. The drivers seemed to deal with the little practice very well making very little mistakes throughout qualifying. The competition was as close as it has been in a while.
Tom's car (click to enlarge)
The track layout had some technical spots but some very fast sections making a mistake free run might put you in the top mains. All the cars were looking good but the cars that seemed to stand out the most from handling standpoint was the Xray FK 05. All the drivers from RC America who attended the race were very competitive from the first round of qualifying.
Drew's car (click to enlarge)
Drivers on the team who stood out rising to the top of the heap of drivers were Ralph Burch, Jarrod Scott and Greg Hodapp in modified sedan. Bobby Flack and my self âśMike Dumasâť were struggling a little bit, but starting to adapt to the rubber tire on pavement. Peter Robinson and Drew Ellis were very fast in stock sedan. Peter clinched the TQ in Stock sedan on the first two rounds of qualifying on Friday. Tom Esposito showed to be the driver to beat in masterâ™s sedan.
Tom Esposito (click to enlarge)
Saturday started off with a drenching downpour of that moisture in the sky. This made for a long delay until around one in the afternoon for the third round of qualifying to take off with no practice in the a.m. About half way through the round was a surprise of a rain delay for a few hours. Once again after all the hard work from the track crew the rest of the round was able to be finished. The only problem now is since it was so late and it started to sprinkle again the race director decided to put the last round of qualifying off until Sunday morning. If it were to rain on Sunday morning there would be no fourth round and right to the mains from the best two out of three runs instead of two out of four rounds.
Drew Ellis (click to enlarge)
Sunday came and with some luck it actually didnâ™t rain. The fourth round was run and the mains were soon to follow. There were triple a-mains for all classes making it a stress fulfilled day for the drivers in the a-mains and the track crew. Since there were handout tires, weight minimums, body minimums, wing height rules and motor specs tech had there hands full making sure there were no fraudulent activities.
I would like to give the track owner Joe and the crew a big hand for the hardest working people I have ever seen at a race. All I have to say is congrats on making the best of the situation.
As a team RC America, Xray and Hudy worked together well making for a good showing at this paved on-road nationals. We learned some new things to help advance the handling of the cars performance for future development.
Congratulations to all the winners of the separate classes including Andrew Ellis âśstock sedanâť, Tom Esposito âśmasters sedanâť and other RC America drivers and hard work.
XRAY has won US ROAR Championship 2005.
XRAY - 2x US Champion 2005 + 3x US Vice-Champion 2005
Final results:
Modified Touring
1. Atsushi Hara 2. Ralph Burch - XRAY T1FK'05
3. Barry Baker
4. Matt Francis 5. Jared Scott - XRAY T1FK'05
6. Billy Easton
7. Chris Tosolini 8. Mike Dumas - XRAY T1FK'05
9. Rick Hohwart 10. Greg Hodapp - XRAY T1FK'05
- - -
19T Touring
1. Matt Francis 2. Mike Dumas - XRAY T1FK'05
3. Ralph Burch - XRAY T1FK'05
4. Jared Scott - XRAY T1FK'05
5. Paul Wynn
6. Barry Baker
7. Chris Tosolini
8. Ray Darroch
9. Josh Numan
10. Kyle Skidmore
- - -
Masters Touring
1. Tom Esposito - XRAY T1FK'05
2. Allen Hall - XRAY T1FK'05
3. AJ Dipirro - XRAY T1FK'05
4. John Piant
5. Ron Harrison
6. Gregory Hunsinger S
7. Earl Grace
8. Victor Minutole
9. John Grant
10.Izzy Santiago
- - -
Stock Touring A
1. Drew Ellis - XRAY T1FK'05
2. TJ Bradley
3. Mike Dobbs
4. Jason Ertrachter
5. Shad Galante 6. Peter Robinson - XRAY T1FK'05
7. Brandon Melton
8. Craig Xavier
9.Charlie Albrecht
10. Joel Bandera
