June 13, 2014

DJ Apolaro wins at ROAR Region 4 championship

DJ Apolaro wins at ROAR Region 4 championship

The ROAR Region 4 championship was run last weekend at the Valkaria Track in Palm Bay Florida. In the Modified Touring car class Capricorn’s DJ Apolaro had one of his few electric outings as otherwise being pretty much a nitro racers. Despite struggling with steering and rear traction he was able to TQ the first round of qualifiers. Round 2 and the raising temperature led to no time improvements but come the 3rd round Scotty Gray was able to score the only 23 laps run putting him in front while DJ sat in 2nd place. Overnight rain washed away the grip and the final qualifiers on Sunday morning allowed for no improvements. DJ took the win but with a slower time compared to the previous rounds meaning Scotty Gray (Xray) would take the TQ from DJ Apolaro (Capricorn) and Mark Burt (Awesomatix) in 3rd.


At the start of the A-main the front runners got a good take off but near the end of the first lap Scotty got a little loose going into the quick S section on the left side of the track. DJ made a move and got through the first half of this section, Scotty tried to cut him off but DJ had the line so it made for a wreck, which he got the worse of as Apolaro was in the better position. This allowed Mark through for the lead and DJ in second with Scotty dropping way back. Apolaro then started to try and chase down Mark which was not easy with the heat. He could not push the tires too hard or his car would slide all over the place. DJ just kept tight lines and finally got a chance to make a move and got past Mark but shortly after that he made a move on the Capricorn driver. We went back and forth a little, till DJ was able to have a very small cushion, enough to start driving his lines and keep it safe and error free. With all the back and forth with Mark, this allowed Scotty to catch on the two. He got pass Mark, as Mark made a small mistake and with 1 lap to go DJ just made sure to keep tight lines and he knew he would be okay. On the last lap the 2nd to 4th placed car where all together and DJ was able to have no challenge from Scotty at the end and he actually finished 4th. The end order was DJ Apolaro 1st, Felix Law 2nd and Mark Burt in 3rd.

Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]



Usage

If you republish any elements from this page on another website, including text, original pictures or results please be sure to add a link back to this page as the source: