Awards and Raffle Prize Presentations!
Main HPI Challenge USA Page | Qualifying | Main Events | Special Thanks | More Pictures!
The HPI Challenge Concours Cup!
The
first award that we gave out was for our Concours competitors. At around
noon on Saturday, Dan Moynahan called for all the racers to set up their
cars on the back straight, so the spectators could look at the cars close
up and the racers could compare their paint jobs to all the other entries.
A double line of cars stretched for at least 60 feet as the racers talked
about the cars amongst themselves. HPI's Graphics Manager Kent Clausen
was the head judge, and with Sales Manager David Kouche, he selected five
cars as the finalists for the competition. Each one of the finalists won
an additional HPI T-shirt, and the judges looked closely to decide on
the winner of the large Trophy Cup and RS4 Mini kit!
After
a couple of hard minutes discussing the merits of the five finalists,
Kent and David chose an HPI Dodge Stratus that was detailed like the full-size
PPG Dodge Stratus Supertouring car. It even had wheels that were similar
to the Supertouring cars, and even functional mirrors that were taken
from another sedan kit! Many cheers went up as the racer who owned the
car stepped forward to accept his prizes. Nestor Rinonos of Chula Vista,
CA was our winner for the big Trophy Cup! Congratulations, Nestor!
Check out the detail that Nestor put into his car body. He made custom graphics to put on the body and told Dan Moynahan that he spent all day working on the paint job. For his efforts and time, Nestor is this year's HPI Challenge Concours Cup Winner!
Our A-Main Winners!
Although we described their racers on our Main Events Page, the winners of each A Main deserve to be mentioned again here. The top three racers in each Main Event won cool plaques that announced the Main that they qualified in, and what position they finished. The whole A Main of each class (Electric RS4, Super Nitro RS4 and Nitro RS4) received plaques, and the winner of the A Mains won a kit and a big Trophy Cup!
Electric RS4 A Main Top Three
At the end of qualifying, the top ten racers in the Electric RS4 class had to work pretty hard on the race track to get in the A Main and stay there! Tony Phalen, our Electric RS4 A Main winner, won the Trophy Cup and our cool RS4 Rally with the Toyota Corolla WRC body! Kevin Smith and Wayne Beebe could have given Tony a run for the win, if only they weren't battling each other for the entire race!
Kevin Smith (2nd),
Tony Phalen (1st), Wayne Beebe (3rd)
Super Nitro RS4 A Main Top Three
While we were hoping to get more Super Nitro RS4 racers, the racing was still fun to watch and follow around the track! The A Main racing was close for first place (Akira Kogawa and Dan Discenza) and third place (Tony Phalen and Yoichi Matsuda), and in the end, Akira Kogawa won the race. The Super Nitro RS4 racing was very beneficial to Akira's testing program, and we should be seeing more option parts come out that use the knowledge that he gained over the weekend! Even though the Super Nitro RS4 A Main winner was supposed to win a Nitro RS4 with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V body, Akira left it as a bonus raffle prize to one of the racers.
Yoichi Matsuda (2nd),
Akira Kogawa (1st), Frank McKinney (3rd)
Nitro RS4 A Main Top Three
The Nitro RS4 A Main was a very good race for Wayne Beebe of San Marcos, CA. While Thad Garner was trying to run a clean race and catch up to Wayne, a mix-up in the pits forced him out of the race and bumped everyone up a spot. Ron Horrocks finished in second place and Charlie Suangka ended up in third after making only one of his qualifying heats! Wayne received the Trophy Cup and a Super Nitro RS4 kit with the hot Alfa Romeo 156 body!
Ron Horrocks (2nd),
Wayne Beebe (1st), Charlie Suangka (3rd)
Bonus Raffle Prizes!
Because Akira didn't want to take the Nitro RS4 kit for winning the Super Nitro RS4 A Main, we decided to raffle it off to one of the racers who was present. This was simply a bonus raffle prize before we drew a name to win the Yokohama Tire set!
Racer Javier Anaya from Santa Fe Springs, CA stepped forward when his name was called to accept the Nitro RS4 with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V body, and told us afterwards that he would be racing in the Nitro RS4 class at the next HPI Challenge race! Congratulations, Javier!
Yokohama Tire Corporation Raffle Prizes!
Mark Richter, the Performance Marketing Manager for Yokohama Tire Corporation, arrived to pull the names for more bonus raffle prizes. Yokohama Tire gave us a few caps to pass out and also gift certificate for custom fitted Yokohama Tire jackets! Racers who stuck around were in for a surprise as four names were called: Tim Price, Michael Parker, Pat Mundell and Wayne Vo each won a Yokohama Tire baseball cap and jacket! Congratulations, guys!
Finally, the time came for Mr. Richter to pull the name for the winner of our biggest raffle prize: a full set of Yokohama Tires! Mr. Richter pulled one name from a shuffled bunch of papers held by HPI General Manager Shawn Ireland, looked at it, and passed it to our announcer Dan Moynahan. Dan read the name off into his PA system once, then twice, and was then told that the person whose name was called had already gone home! Unfortunately, the rules for the raffle prizes required that the winner be present to win...so Mr. Richter pulled another name, and the TPR pits went wild as one of their own stepped forward to claim his prize!
Romeo Domingo came out off of his chair to take a cap from Mr. Richter and a gift certificate for his set of Yokohama Tires!
Romeo Domingo, the winner of a set of free Yokohama Tires with Mark Richter, the Performance Marketing Manager for Yokohama Tire Corporation, and HPI General Manager Shawn Ireland
Once again, HPI Racing would like to congratulate all of our winners and thank all the racers for an enjoyable weeked!
