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Eli Ezrow dominated the 2009 ROAR Nationals in the Masters division TQing nearly every round of qualifying and winning the final in convincing fashion. The V10 had an impressive showing coming home 2nd in it's ROAR Nationals debut.
The 2009 ROAR Nationals was defiantly a roller coaster ride for myself and some of the Shepherd/CEFX racers. For myself, a short break after returning from the WC in Lostallo and then straight into the Nats but thoughts of the IIC starting immediately after the Nats were in the back of my mind.
For the rest of the drivers, they arrived to get some new goodies that I managed to bring home from Lostallo in the form of the new harder plastics, aluminum universals and limited pulleys/belts for a few drivers. Also, this would be the first major test with about a 60% production complete V10 as Shepherd decided to send V10 engineer Alex Scholl to the race to help us get the cars up and running, offer support and help me out as my mechanic for the event.
Tuesday, practice began and I managed to run a little but the main focus was to get everyone sorted with the new parts and make sure everyone had what they needed. In the afternoon, I packed up and headed up to the airport to get Alex - that's where the fun began.... After driving around for a bit outside the airport, I called my wife to make sure I had the right airline/terminal. I ended up parking the car and going inside. After checking that the flight arrived and walking around for a bit I finally ran into Alex. One problem... No luggage... Of course it would be this way that the V10 cars and parts for drivers Brian Thomas, Ron Gustin and Rick Vessel were all still stuck in Charlotte where Alex transferred. Not good.....
Wednesday, we worked with my V10 to get Alex used to the US style tracks and what adjustments did/didn't work. Also, we really needed to get a set-up close so when the other cars arrived we could get a set-up that everyone could start with. Overall, everything was going pretty well through the day and more and more racers turned up at the event. When we returned to the hotel that evening we were very pleased to see that Alex's luggage finally arrived and it was time to get to work. Alex, Rick and I tried to be productive but Alex's jet lag, my already tired state and Rick fresh off his 6+ hour drive up were pretty much useless..lol... At just past midnight, we called it a night and gave up till the next morning.
Thursday we got to work on the other V10's and the day was so crazy I honestly don't remember much about it. I know we ran some practice and a round of qualifying but otherwise that's about it.
Friday and Saturday was more qualifying and Eli continued to lead the way in Masters. Alex and I had spent a lot of time working with the V10 in practice and were really starting to get the set-up of the car dialed in as we were already quicker than I was at the GLC and with each run we inched towards the Xray group of Lemieux, Burch and Flack. In 1/8, I had brough home my engines from Lostallo and while they ran awesome over there at the WC I was struggling to get the bottom end and fuel milage I needed for the Toledo track. Each run, I could get to a good pace but had to back off or risk running out of fuel right at the end. I was also missing something with my set-up as the car just wouldn't turn as hard and carry corner speed as it did at the GLC. With so much focus on the V10 though I really couldn't put my finger on what I was doing wrong.
Overall though, we had a great showing in qualifying with myself ending up 6th in 1/8th and 4th in 1/10. Eli TQ'd I think all but one or two rounds of 1/8 Masters and many people commented to me that they thought Eli's car was one of the best on the track in all the classes that week/weekend. I know BT didn't have the showing he would have liked but with the late arrival of the V10 and thrashing to get everything together he did the best job he could all things considered. Rick Vessel ran the other V10 and improved on his personal best laps and time ever in Toledo. He managed the Semi-final and was improving with each run on the track with the car.
Sunday it was time for the finals. After a little practice in the morning, the cars were prepared and everything was set to go. Unfortunetly, everyone had some form of troubles in the finals which left it down to Eli and I to race in the A Mains.
In Masters, Eli continued his dominance of the weekend and took home the win. It was great to see as he had so much bad luck at the major events all year but to finish up on such a strong note at the last major event of the year definatly shows the work and effort was worth it and the rest will have to look out for him in 2010!!
In 1/10, I knew it was going to be a long 60 minutes with a lot of the race outcome depending on who had tires for that last 15 minutes (as it always is). My strategy was to try and stay on the lead lap for the first 30 minutes while driving as easy as possible to save the tires. Off the start, Paulo's car was extremely good so I let him go and continued to cruise around. After a tangle up front and a few traction rolls by the others I found myself in 2nd place driving extremely easy behind Paul Lemieux. Paul had extended his lead to about 12 seconds when we reached the 30 minute mark but the pace I was driving and the gap to the leader was well within the range I wanted to be to have a shot at the win. With that, it was time to go. Over the next 5 minutes I closed the gap down to 9 seconds and at that pace I would be on Paul's bumper by the 45 minute mark but it wasn't to be. I blamed myself for pushing too hard, Rick blamed himself for not getting the tank full and Alex blamed himself for running me a lap too long...lol.. Either way, I was out of fuel only a few feet before the finish line which meant by the time I was re-fired I was still in second but nearly 3 laps behind. From there, I continued to push hard and made up over 1 1/2 laps on Lemieux when I lost 2nd gear with 8 minutes to go. I cruised around to take my 2nd place but I was definatly disapointed. For me, it was my third ROAR 200mm Nationals in a row to finish 2nd and I definatly had the car and the strategy to win the race. I think reguardless though, it showed the potential speed of the V10 and knowing how the V10 drives I am very confident in it's ability to win races on high or low bite tracks all over the world.
In 1/8 Open, I was extremely happy with the car in warm-up as finally it was doing what I needed it to with some minor changes from qualifying. Unfortunetly though, 2 major crashes in the first 3 laps of the final bent up the front bumper, body mount, bent the chassis, damaged the rear body mount and body really badly not to mention taking some major chunks out of the rims/tires. From there, it was a major struggle and I managed to work my way all the way back to 4th only a few corners back from 3rd when my reciever pack gave up on me (probably from the aggressive braking I had to do because of all the damage). I know we had at least a good enough car to run runner up but to beat Swauger would have been a tough one as Mikey was very strong in the final.
In the end, it was a great event put on by the ROAR RMT (with a few interesting rule changes and change backs..lol) but I think overall it was a great week of racing with great weather. A big thanks goes out to Angel and the rest of the CEFX family for all the help and putting together the food stand for everyone to enjoy. Also to Alex and Rick for the pit work and mechanicing help once again. Thanks to Shepherd drivers for a fun and sucessful event and first year of racing with myself and the Shepherd/CEFX team. Last, congrats to Eli, Mike and Paul on their 2009 ROAR National Championships!!
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