Thursday's running of the quadrennial race first held in 1941 by the New Jersey Pest Management Association pit two giant Madagascar Hissing Roaches -- one representing McCain and the other Democrat Barack Obama -- against one another in a six-foot-long Plexiglas track.

The roach representing the Arizona senator broke from the gate first, covering the distance in less than five seconds, while the Obama insect dawdled.

"It was over so fast," Len Douglen, executive director of the pest group said in a release.

The GOP roach also won the race for stand-ins for the as yet-unannounced vice presidential candidates.

Hissing cockroaches grow two to three times the size of American or German cockroaches.