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Apolaro wins Capitol Classic race (13/06/2007)

By:: Laurant

Over the weekend Team Serpent USA racer DJ Apolaro took victory in the Capital Classic Race and here is his report from the prestigous event -

This weekend we saw the 1st annual Capital Classic Race at the world class 301 race track in Maryland. All the main manufactures send their best to claim the title for this prestigious event. I arrived to the track on Thursday at around 3pm. The rest of the team arrived 1 day earlier to get started on the testing and setups. I started with our normal set up at the beginning and the car felt pretty good. I made some roll center changes to get more rotation and that made the car really good. I felt good going into Friday's qualifiers.

Friday started and from the beginning I had motor problems. I fought the motor the entire day and did not finish a single qualifier for the day. I tried 2 different motors and had the same problem the entire time. After qualifying stopped for the day, I tested some other motors and tested head clearance. I finally got the motor problem fixed and felt good for Saturday. The only thing was they did a resort and it put me in the lower rounds, which would make it hard to go fast.

On Saturday I ran my first qualifier and made it a safe run, just good enough to get in the main. By this time the track had gotten slower, so trying to TQ would be hard. I opted to instead start preparing for the main event. In my last 2 rounds I tested tires, ride height, etc. By the end of the day I had the car ready for the main and felt good for our chances. The Serpent 720 was really working well with my Maxy's fuel and Mega MF motor.

Sunday was here and I finished doing my rebuilt for the main. Got a bite to eat and relaxed with the team while we waited for our races. My pit men and I talked strategy and felt ready to go. The main started and we were off. I got a good jump and moved form 7th to 5th and a couple of turn later tried to make a pass on 4th, but got bumped and flipper over. This moved me to last place. My car was OK and I started pushing the car and catching the field. Slowly I started getting one position at a time till I made it up to second. Once I got to this point I started to reserved tires, but stay fast enough not to loose any positions. The first place car was still driving normal and was wearing a lot of tires so I felt good to make a push at the end of the race. With about 10 minutes to go in this 45 minute race things started to fall in place. I got into 1st and was able to bring home the victory.

Special thanks to all the Serepnt-USA team for their help. Ronnie, Paolo and Rafael (whom pitted for me all weekend). He had to leave 15 minutes into the main to get his plane, so Sam and Nigel took over from Team Tamakaze.

Thanks to my sponsors Serpent-USA, Maxy's Fuel and Skyline for provided me with the best products on the market. Also thanks to the C-Whit crew for the
awesome track facility. This is the best track I have been to yet.

DJ Apolaro

DJ Apolaro with the winning silverware

DJ's winning Mega powered Serpent 720

DJ and his 720