FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Lemieux and Losi launch into on-road spotlight

Everybody knows that Friday is meant for reminiscing old times. Each week we take you back in time as we flashback to some of R/C racing's greatest moments, products, drivers, and more!

 

If you read this week’s Talk It Up Tuesday with top U.S. touring car racer Paul Lemieux, you noticed that his first ROAR National Championship came in 2001. The win not only launched Paul Lemieux into the touring car spotlight, where he has remained now for over a decade, but ushered in a new era on the asphalt.

 

The XXX-S platform was all new for the 2001 season. It was Team Losi’s first ground-up touring car, as the previous chassis, the Street Weapon, was derived from the off-road XX-4 buggy (and it won the first-ever IFMAR ISTC championship).

 

PHOTO: OverRC

 

The driver who put the Street Weapon atop the podium at the 1998 ISTC Worlds, David Spashett, scored the first major win with the XXX-S by taking the European Championship at the beginning of July, just a few weeks before the start of the ROAR Nationals at Speedworld in Roseville, CA.

 

When the fastest on-road racers in the U.S. got to Speed World, it was clear that the Losi team had done their homework with the new chassis - it didn’t hurt that Paul Lemieux had spent quite a bit of time at the track leading up to the race. A 15-year-old off road racer named Ryan Cavalieri earned the overall TQ in the Stock class with his XXX-S. And although Yokomo’s Chris Tosolini set the fastest overall time in the Modified class, 17-year-old Paul Lemieux won the other three qualifying rounds to start from the front of the grid.

 

Unlike qualifying, the triple A-Mains for the stock class didn’t quite as well for Cavalieri. Second qualifier Joey Orlanes dove past Ryan on the first lap of A1 and checked out for the win, followed by third qualifier Jay Neill and Brett Sisley, from eighth on the grid, Meanwhile, Cavalieri dropped out of the race just past the three-minute mark and finished tenth. Ryan led throughout A2 and beat Neill by one second, with Brian Jucha third. Orlanes struggled to a tenth place finish, setting up a three-way battle for the title in A3. The title deciding A-Main was highlighted by a four-way battle between Cavalieri, Jucha, Neill, and Alex Lopez while Orlanes took off Cavalieri was called for a stop-and-go late in the race after an incident involving Alex Lopez, and that was the break that Jay Neil needed. Orlanes won A3 by 2.4 seconds over Neill, who finished second for the third straight race. Less than a half second behind Neill came Lopez, who held off Cavalieri by just nine-hundredths.

 

By virtue of three second place finishes, San Diego local Jay Neill earned the National Championship. A3 winner Brian Jucha, who finished fourth in both A1 and A2, beat Cavalieri on the tiebreaker to finish second overall.

 

 

 

Stock Touring Car 

The triple-A Mains for the Modified class (which were still just four minutes long in 2001) got off to a dramatic start as Lemieux’s closest competitor, Chris Tosolini, suffered from radio issues prior to the start of A1 that couldn’t be remedied by the end of the one-minute grace period. Team Associated’s Billy Easton, from fifth on the grid, raced past the rest of the pack and tried to catch Paul, who won A1 by over six seconds. Tosolini made the start of A2, but retired after 2:30 and left Lemieux all by himself - he finished over six seconds ahead of Losi teammate Matt Francis to win the title with ease. Francis won A3 over Easton and Barry Baker to finish second overall.

 

 

 

Modified Touring Car

 

Position Qualified Driver  Car ESC Motor Battery 1 1 Paul Lemieux Team Losi LRP Trinity Trinity 2 3 Matt Francis Team Losi LRP Trinity Trinity 3 5 Billy Easton Associated LRP Reedy Reedy 4 8 Brian Kinwald Team Losi Novak Trinity Trinity 5 4 Barry Baker Yokomo LRP Reedy Reedy 6 7 David Jun Tamiya Novak Reedy Reedy 7 10 Jon Orr Associated LRP Reedy Reedy 8 6 Todd Hodge Team Losi Novak Trinity Trinity 9 9 Mark Pavidis Associated LRP Reedy Reedy 10 2 Chris Tosolini Yokomo LRP Reedy Reedy