Storm Victory Road review by staffer Billy Trudell

Storms newest thunder line release is the Victory Road. The intent of the victory road was to offer bowlers and versatile bowling ball that has a strong move down lane. With the continued success of the Hyroad ball which had the FE-2 weight block which offered an RG of 2.57 and a differential of 0.046, they decided to use that weight block as the base for what weight block they were going to put in the victory road. After inverting the FE-2, they created the FE-3 core which lowered the RG of the ball to 2.56 allowing the ball to rev up slightly earlier than the Hyroad but have a much higher differential of 0.052 which helps create a strong continuous down lane motion off the spot. The weight block was wrapped in the highly successful R2S pearl coverstock found on popular balls such as the Fast, 2Fast, and T road pearl. The surface was then finished with a 1500 grit polished preparation.

With all of these components bowlers are supposed to expect a high performance ball that is clean through the front without too much skid because the ball will read and rev up strong in the mid lane and give a strong back end reaction without sacrificing any control of the pocket or burning up due to energy conservation through the front part of the lane. A traditional pearl bowling ball tends to have the skid flip reaction that on fresher patterns can be hard to control. The victory road is a very controllable reacting pearl bowling ball.
My victory road came with a 3.5 inch pin to CG. My intent for this ball was to go with a reliable bowling ball that can get down the lane and around the corner when I have to play a very deep inside line. I usually find that I have to move extremely deep and play over the gutter in some cases on longer oil patterns or flatter oil patterns when they break down. Patterns such as Deadmans curve, and the pba shark get a lot of play in the middle part of the lane. Usually on the fresh I can use pretty strong bowling balls and carry fairly well. Now as the pattern breaks down I tend to have trouble creating angle in the back and carrying ten pins due to my low axis tilt. The victory road was answer to my problems. This year the US open was a 42 foot flat oil pattern. I had my problems on the fresh but the burn was a whole other animal. Deep inside angles were best with a ball the got around the corner. My victory road gave me my best block by playing over the gutter cap out to about 13 at the break point and the ball got back around the corner strong and usually carried great with very little corner pins when it hit the pocket.

The lay out that I used was a 4inch pin with the cg swung until I had about ¾ ounce of side weight. My intent was to have the ball flare up strong in the mid lane and then have a strong motion off the break point. I then threw a ¾ inch hole 2 inches below my PAP on my VAL. The pins location is right next to my ring finger as well. I was able to throw it on lanes that were already broken down because they were left over from the previous night and had not been oiled yet. The lane surface is AMF hpl. First few shots I threw the ball read pretty early and hooked a lot down lane and I missed the pocket left. So after moving in to 30 with my feet tarting 18 at the arrows out to 8 at the break point I saw the reaction I was hoping for. The ball found the head oil it wanted reved up strong just past the arrows got to the break point and had a hard arcing turn in the back that crushed the rack every time. I left a few solid nines due to playing such an open angle. I decided to move a few boards in more with both feet and target to kind of tighten up the angle and found that I still had the pocket with exceptional carry and entry angle. No matter how deep I went even over the gutter the ball still created great angle and carried well. A little while later the mechanic came by and oiled the lane with the fresh 41 foot house shot. Here with the out of box finish the ball reacted really great still how ever I figured right now would be a good time to try hand scuffing the ball with a used 2000 pad. The results I got were that the ball was able to pick up a little sooner than it was before and it seemed to bite a little harder at the break point as well with no signs of roll out. Seems to me that this ball is going to be very friendly to surface adjustments which is always a plus for me.

My Specs
Hand-right

Rev rate-300
Speed- 16mph

PAP- 5 ¼ inch right by ½ inch up.