Wang scored ROAR Fuel On-Road Nationals double victory; de Soto father and son each won titles [VIDEO] [UPDATED]

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

The ROAR Fuel On-Road Nationals were held at Homestead RC Raceway last weekend, with over 140 entries competing across the premier 1/8-Scale Open and 200mm touring car divisions as well as GT (ROAR Spec) and the 1/8-Scale Masters (45 and over) classes. The drivers competed in five rounds of qualifying in which each driver’s single best time was used to seed typical alphabet mains for Masters and GT categories, with the two IFMAR Worlds classes using the dual ladder format.

CLICK HERE to view our gallery of photos from the event:
www.liverc.com/photos/albums/132-2016_ROAR_Nitro_On-Road_Nationals/

[UPDATED 10/26/16 2:36 PM CT] - The original version of this race report incorrectly identified the events of the 1/8-Scale Open final. Below is the revised write-up.

Mugen Seiki’s JJ Wang drove his MRX6 to the fastest qualifying times and, after winning his semifinal, started from the front of the grid. . After the Top Qualifier swapped the lead with DJ Apolaro and Mike Swauger in the opening stages, Wang regained the top spot by the 13-minute mark of the one-hour final and held on for the duration of the race. At the same time, both Swauger and Apolaro ran into trouble, promoting Christian Lopez - who had fought his way up from tenth on the grid and an early stop-and-go penalty - and Paolo Morganti into the second and third positions where the two traded positions several times while keeping Wang in sight. With just less than 15 minutes to go, Morganti flamed out and dropped to fourth, which gave Lopez a cushion over Joaquin De Soto Jr. in third. The clutch bell bearings on Lopez's car locked up with less than six minutes remaining, which moved De Soto Jr. to second and Morganti to third - and let Wang focus on clicking off the remaining laps before time expired. After 60 minutes, Wang won by nearly three laps, with a similar gap separating de Soto Jr. from Morganti by race end.

Earlier in the afternoon, Wang and Apolaro battled throughout the one-hour final for the 200mm category with after Scotty Gray led the opening laps. The two leaders swapped the lead nearly ten times throughout the final, with Wang taking the position for good around the 47-minute mark. The Chinese-American former Worlds finalist carried about a four-second gap over Apolaro as the clock expired and only narrowly got by for a victory lap, with Gray less than 2.6 seconds further behind in third.

After the event was finished, Wang posted the following to his Facebook page:

“We did it! Double US National Champion!! This one means a lot to me so I want to thank all my sponsors for giving me the best package possible and to the entire Mugen team for all the fun throughout the week. Also thanks to AI and my Dad for flying out here to support me. It was definitely a week to remember.”

Top qualifier Scotty Gray led the first 35 minutes of the GT final before a long pit stop handed the lead to Joaquin de Soto Jr., who had fallen as low as seventh earlier in the main event. From that point, de Soto Jr. held on for the win by 7.15 seconds over a hard-charging Gray, while Robbie Cerrato finished third

Four different drivers led over the course of the 45-minute Masters final, before Serpent America CEO Joaquin de Soto Sr. took the lead for good. He crossed the finish line for a victory lap with just four-tenths of a second to spare, with Dana Smeltzer only another 2.4 seconds back. Even though Greg Esser didn’t finish his final lap, he had a comfortable grip on third place as only four cars remained on track by the end of the race.