August 16, 2011

DJ Apolaro claims victory at Xray Challenge

DJ Apolaro claims victory at Xray Challenge

DJ Apolaro was in touch to tell us about the first annual Xray Challenge held at the Control Freakz track in Chaplin CT. Kenny Ives has a great track that will be host to the 2011 Nationals later this year in September. He in conjunction with RC America held a great event. With Practice on Friday, Quals on Saturday and mains on Sunday. Come Saturday we would get 5 chances to try for the top spot and with rain possible for Sunday we did not know what to except. I decided to run both classes to test my package with the other competition and see where I stand and what I need to work on for the Nationals to come. Saturday started and my 1/8 scale was good. I was able to set a strong TQ run in the 2nd round. Having issues with my sedan not counting I decided to sit out the next round on 1/8.

In sedan my chassis was not great, but even worse I was having nothing but electronic issues and this was not allowing me to test anything. What I though was a transponder took 4 round to solve and it ended up being a battery. My 1/8 scale time was still holding so I decided to take a chance and sit out the last round for 1/8. I had no runs in sedan and was banking on the last run for sedan to have everything come together and just run a safe run and get into the final. This way I could see how my car was and work towards making it better for the final without having to bump up. Once the last race started Ralph and I where the 2 fastest cars and we were both on a fast TQ run. He was already TQ and was going faster. I too was on a TQ run and it would come down to who crossed the line first. We were very close and both pushing very hard. My original plan went out the window as I tried to keep pace and take it to the wire. There is a section of the track that has a bump (in an on power spot) and Ralph got it and flipped his car. This let me relax for the rest of the run and take the race and the overall TQ. So what was first a rough race for the sedan class turned into the best performance I could have asked for. Getting the TQ in both classes was not what I expected going into the race.

With Qualifying over it was not looking good for the mains on Sunday. Sure enough we woke up to rain and it never cleared up. With the rain, the race ended with the qualifying results which gave me the TQ and Win in both classes. I must say I would have rather tested for the Nationals and raced to try some set-up ideas for the finals, but this is a part of racing and my team and I worked hard all weekend.

Source: Kosmic RC Fuel [kosmicrcfuel.com]



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