Isaacs & Sydor win at ROAR Carpet Nationals
The 2017 ROAR Carpet Nationals were held at 360V2 RC Raceway in New Rochelle, New York over the weekend. Modified Touring Car was the most exciting class of the weekend, with several National Champions in the building locked and loaded for some close racing. After four rounds of Rocket Round qualifying, it was the Xray of Paul Lemieux with a perfect drive to take the pole, followed closely by the Team Associated ride of Keven Hebert and the Awesomatix of Sam Isaacs rounding out the top 3 starting spots.
Modified Touring top 10 qualifying results:
1. Paul Lemieux
2. Keven Hebert
3. Sam Isaacs
4. Ralph Burch
5. Chris Tosolini
6. Chris Adams
7. Andrew Ellis
8. Mike Gee
9. Kyle Klingforth
10.Donny Lia
The set of triple A-mains for Modified Touring was sure to be interesting, with the best two of three races to count in typical ROAR Racing format. A1 would start in grid order, with a perfect start for Paul, Keven, and Sam pulling away from the rest of the field. The trio would remain in grid order until a mistake by leader Paul Lemieux flipping his car. Keven would assume the lead, which he would hold until the finish line to claim A1 in a close battle with Sam only 3/10th of a second behind at the buzzer.
Leg two began in a similar fashion, with a perfect start for nearly the entire field, with the top three having some room to do battle. Paul would tap the carousel onto the straight away allowing Keven to assume the lead, followed closely by Paul and Sam. Paul and Sam began to close on the leader, and an incident between Keven and Paul on the left side of the track gave Sam plenty of space to go through and cruise to an A2 victory. The overall title would come down to A-main number 3, with both Keven and Sam having one victory apiece.
After an intense leg 2, A3 proved to be just as entertaining and action packed. As in the previous two mains, the top three quickly broke away from the rest of the field to race for the title. After two races, Sam led in points with a first and a second place finish, with Keven the only one who could challenge Sam for the overall title, having a first place result already to his credit. As the race ensued, Keven was able to make a nice pass on the inside of Lemieux at the early stages of the race. Sam continued to apply serious pressure to the back of Lemieux for the second position. Slightly over halfway through the race, Paul and Sam put on a charge to catch the leader, Keven, and began to close on him. With less than two minutes to go, Keven would put his car on two wheels through the carousel, throwing his car off the racing line, allowing Paul to take the inside line. Keven, attempting to regain his first position, would run into the back of Paul, causing his car to flip and Paul’’s body to tuck. Sam, just half a turn back, was able to drive through the commotion and cruise for the last minute and a half to take A3 and the Modified National Championship title.
Modified Touring final results:
1. Sam Isaacs – opts
2. Keven Hebert – 4pts
3. Ralph Burch – 6pts
4. Chris Tosolini – 7pts
5. Paul Lemieux – 8pts
6. Andrew Ellis – 9pts
7. Chris Adams – 9pts
8. Mike Gee – 11pts
9. Donny Lia – 15pts
10.Kyle Klingforth – 20pts
The 17.5 Touring Car division once again proved to be the largest class with over 50 participants. After four rounds of close and intense qualifying, Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix) was able to take top TQ honors with Awesomatix teammate Mike Gee keeping him honest, only about a second behind. Kyle Klingforth (Awesomatix) would put his name out there to qualify 4th on the grid, running behind Xray’s Eric Anderson.
17.5T Touring top 10 qualifying results:
1. Sam Isaacs
2. Mike Gee
3. Eric Anderson
4. Kyle Klingforth
5. Mike Haynes
6. Martin Crisp
7. Billy Sydor
8. Andrew Ellis
9. John Themelis
10.Sal Amato
The triple A-mains in 17.5 Touring played out as they started. Sam was able to take tone-to-tone victories in A1 and A2 to take the overall National Champion title. Mike Gee proved victorious in A3, taking a tone-to-tone win to finish in the second spot overall. Kyle Klingforth, racing closely with Eric Anderson, was able to take third on the podium after some excellent drives.
17.5T Touring final results:
1. Sam Isaacs – opts
2. Mike Gee – 3pts
3. Kyle Klingforth – 5pts
4. Eric Anderson – 7pts
5. Mike Haynes – 7pts
6. Billy Sydor – 11pts
7. Sal Amato – 12pts
8. Martin Crisp – 13pts
9. John Themelis – 17pts
10.Andrew Ellis – 17pts
In USGT Billy Sydor took the TQ honors by a few second over Jared Mowery and Brandon Hughes and the TQ holder would lead tone to tone in A1 to take a commanding victory. An early mistake in A2 by Sydor would put Brandon Hughes to the top spot, which he would hold for the majority of the race until an incident in the chicane with traffic, causing him to drop down the order. This allowed Sydor to again take over that top spot and claim the USGT National Championship with an A2 win. A great A3 win earned Brandon Hughes 2nd overall, a great result for the young up and coming racer.
USGT final results:
1. Bill Sydor – opts
2. Brandon Hughes – 3pts
3. Joachim Bruneau – 5pts
4. Scott Jakes – 5pts
5. Clayton Young – 8pts
6. Ralph Morella – 11pts
7. Jose Almonte – 12pts
8. Courtney Townend – 12pts
9. Jared Mowery – 15pts
10.Walo Walker – 16pts
Source: Awesomatix [awesomatixusa.com]
