This year the Region 4 R.O.A.R. Regional On-Road Championships were held at Valkaria RC in Malabar Florida. Region 4 is a very competitive region and this race brought out Florida’s fastest. As you roam the pits at a region 4 race you will come across past and current national champions all competing for this home turf title.
On Friday June 6th was a full day of open practice for drivers to shake down car set ups and get familiar with the track. The layout was fast and flowing and the racing was sure to be tight.
Saturday morning came and qualifying was set to begin. The race format was rocket round and the cooler morning track conditions made round 1 very important. The first round was underway and after several heats of 17.5 qualifying Tekin’s Cory Parsons would find himself 2nd overall missing TQ by 3 tenths due to a small mistake. In modified TC Cory would go 3rd fastest in the first round followed by teammate TJ Bradley posting the 4th fastest time. As expected the times in round 2 were slower due to the hot track conditions and no one challenged the round 1 fast times. After the second round there was a reshuffle putting both Cory and TJ in the A groups going into round 3 qualification. As the afternoon was transitioning to evening the third round had a lot of potential for drivers to put in fast runs. In the 17.5 A Group Michael Bruce would run clean and edge out Cory Parsons and Mark Burt to reset TQ in 17.5 touring car. In Modified TC Scotty Gray would make his presents known choosing to run a set of new tires and putting down a blistering 23 lap TQ over nitro ace DJ Aplolaro shaking up the A-Main. In the fourth and final round of qualifying the 17.5 TQ spot was safe and Cory would hold his number 2 spot on the 17.5 grid going into the final. In Modified TC DJ Apolaro would not quite be able to match Grays 3rd round pace going 22 laps followed by Mark Burt, Scotty Gray, And TJ Bradley all with 22 lap runs.
After a exciting couple days of qualifying everyone was ready for the mains. Single A-Mains would decide would decide the Region 4 Champions.
In 17.5 the group would get a clean start with Parsons pressuring Bruce in from the tone. Cory and Bruce got together letting 3rd qualifier Austin Harrison take the race lead. Cory would recover from the mix up with Bruce and stalk Austin for a few laps before making his move to the point. After Cory made his charge to the front he didn’t look back and continued to spread the gap from the rest of the field becoming the R.O.A.R Region 4 Champion! Cory Chose the Tekin RSX and Hotwire 2.0 to take his Region 4 title.
Cory Chose the Tekin RSX and Hotwire 2.0 to take his Region 4 title.
In the Mod A-Main DJ Apolaro and Scotty Gray would get together in the first corner with DJ fairing the best from the incident. DJ would continue to run in the lead holding off a hard charging Scotty Gray and after some intense dicing on the final lap take the win. The Modified class would be DJ, followed by Felix Law, Mark Burt, Scotty Gray, and TJ Bradley rounding out the top 5. Congratulation to all the winners and thanks to the awesome group of racers and the Valkaria crew for putting on a great race.
TJ Bradley showing off his Tekin RSX and Gen2 Redline powered Mod TC ride.