2002 ROAR Carpet On-Road Nationals

     STRC Hobbies & Raceway in Stockton, California hosted the 2002 ROAR Carpet On-Road Nationals.  The drama about this race had started even before the race had been awarded to STRC.  Some racers felt that carpet racing is an exclusive only to the east coast.  ROAR also held a vote for the use of foam tires on touring cars for carpet racing.  Then to only complicate matters more the race was awarded to STRC with less than three months to organize.  Would the race prove to be successful? 
     This race chose to use a control tire for the touring car classes.  It was the first time at a National event that pre-mounted and glued tires were used.  STRC chose the Take-Off CS-27 tires.  The tires proved to be a good choice because they eliminated the costly insert/rim battle normally associated with control tire racing.  It was definitely a choice that equalized the field.

     Another first at this National was the use of AMB personal transponders.  For the racers who chose to buy their own, it proved to be a benefit.  During practice the race organizers allowed the racers to get printouts of their practice laps.  This allowed the racers to try different set-ups and compare every lap time they put on the track.  It also eliminates the hassle of putting in and taking out a transponder.

     ROAR also put a spin on the Qual-Points program.  This is the first year that ROAR wanted none of the time and lap combinations to be used as tiebreaks.  This made all four of the qualifiers count for a few racers.  The biggest complaint about this format other than it being confusing is that there is no longer any “throw-out” races.  I’m sure that there will be modifications made to the Qual-Points format in the near future.

     The track size was 125’x48’.  All of the visiting racers thought the track was enormous.  They also felt it was like racing on a freeway.  The track layout was one with a lot of flowing corners.  It appeared to be easy.  However going fast took more effort than most thought.  All of the corners had red & white striping for apex indicators.  There was also green carpet for the infield sections.  The best part of the track was the round island on the left side.  After one circled it he had to then pass through the “Key-hole” to get on the back straight.  This proved to be eventful throughout the entire race.  A lot of hard work was put into the track and it showed.

     Qualifying was held over Friday and Saturday.  All of the racers were polite with one another and allowed faster cars to move to the top.  On Saturday there was a re-sort for the last day of qualifying.  This allowed the fast guys to conclude qualifying with one another.  In Stock Touring Car Travis Schreven took TQ.  He drove effortlessly and made no mistakes.  In 1/12^th stock TJ Bradley drove his way to the top position.  David Lee took TQ in the Masters 1/12^th division.  Chris Tossolini proved to be too much for the rest of the Touring Modified field.  In 1/12^th Modified none other than Josh Cyrul crushed the field for TQ.  This set the table for some incredible main events.

     On Sunday everyone in attendance was treated to some great racing.  Bruce Carbone of SpeedMerchant held his Speed-Spec Celebrity Challenge.  He provided eight equally prepared pan-sedan cars with the help of some generous sponsors.  He assembled some of the most known names in the hobby to race.  The list included Jim Dieter (Trinity), Sean Cochran (Reedy), Mike Reedy (Himself), Rex Baldwin (ROAR President), Geno You (RC World), Derek Buono (Extreme Mag), Darrell Choate (STRC Hobbies) and Scott Tomasello (STRC & Race Director).  The race proved to be one of survival more than anything else.  The winner was going to walk away with a brand new X-Box game console.  Mike Reedy’s objective was to take out as many cars as he could.  He did.  Barry “Fabulous” Baker did an amazing job of calling all of the horrific action.  He had every person in the building on the edge of his or her seats.  Eric, Bruce, and Scott of Speed Merchant lifted the boards off of the floor in the front part of the track to allow Mike Reedy to make an oval out of the road course.   This gave the race an additional shot of humor.  After it was all over Scott Tomasello survived to win the race and the X-Box.  A lot of thanks have to go to Bruce Carbone for putting this race on and the pure enjoyment of R/C car racing into the Nationals.

     For the main events everyone hoped for some clean racing.  With five National Titles up for grabs, things were going to get heated.

     In Stock Touring Car Travis Schreven won the first A-main over TJ Bradley and Alex Lopez.  In the second A-main Travis made some costly mistakes and Ron Michalski took the win with Brett Sisley in second.  Travis now had a first and third going into the third main.  Brett Sisley narrowly won the third A-main by less than a second over Travis.  This gave the National Title to Travis Schreven.

     Modified touring car was even closer than stock.  Chris Tossolini took the first main.  Paul Lemieux was able to win the second main.  There was a lot of contact between all of the competitors.  It was almost impossible for the referees to make any calls due to the closeness of the racing.  In the final main Mike Dumas took the victory giving each of the top three a win.  In the end Chris Tossolini was crowned the National Champion.

     1/12^th Stock Championship went down to the last race.  TJ Bradley won the first main easily.  Ron Michalski then countered with a win of his own.  In the third A-main Dana Bailes had the field covered.  But the attention was on TJ and Ron battling for second place.  On the last lap Ron tried to force an inside move on the straight.  TJ was there to block it and end any chance for Ron.  In the end TJ Bradley won the National Championship.

     1/12^th Masters saw David Lee win his first National Championship.  He drove from the front of the pack the entire time.  Tom Esposito followed him and put pressure on David.  But in the end David Lee was too much for the field.

     1/12^th Modified was the fastest class on the carpet.  Josh Cyrul barely beat Barry Baker in the first A-main.  Barry had control of it until he started to experience radio problems.  In the second main Barry had the same radio problems as it dropped him to the back of the field.  Josh then checked out and won the second main.  This gave him another National Title.