Qualifying race reports!

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Saturday - two rounds of qualifying

After the first day of racing, you had to have a pretty good run just to be in the top 10 of the electric class! The pole position changed between Tony Phalen and Bill Martinez at least three times during the day, so Sunday morning's practice and 3rd qualifying round will be pretty important! Trying to give Bill and Tony a run for the top spot are racers Wayne Beebe, Frank Killam, Mike Mayberry (representing Hitec RCD with fellow racer Ken Prue), Micheal Parker and Xtreme R/C's Steve Wang!

In Nitro, Wayne Beebe (who was also running electric) has the TQ spot and held on to it through the 2nd round of qualifying. Mario Caba (running one of his three classes), Mike Mayberry, Thad Garner, Ian Bonnardel, Ron Horrocks and many other racers are trying to give Wayne a run for his money, though!

The Super Nitro racing is heated, also, with Mario Caba of TPR (Team Pinoy Racing) setting the early TQ in a race all by himself (no one else was able to make it to the track!) and hanging on to it through the second round, even though Tony Phalen won the first heat with Akira Kogawa hot on his tail. That's right, HPI's head engineer is racing Super Nitro! Graphics guy Manny Hidalgo is taking part in his first organized racing event ever, and is holding his own with a pretty much box-stock Super Nitro RS4.

Dan Moynahan and JR Sitman did a great job of announcing and running the races, as well as explaining what the cars are and how to get into the R/C hobby to interested spectators. Pegasus Hobbies, a Southern California hobby shop with locations in Montclair and Whittier, arrived with a pegboard full of HPI parts that helped out a few racers who needed some quick repairs. Even a local news station, Orange County Network, was on hand to tape a few of the races and even interviewed some of the racers in the pits!

Oh, and let's not forget the full-size car racing that was goin on! Vintage NASCAR, Indy car and Can-Am racing was going on all day, at times drowning out the nitro car racing on our track! Shelby America had a much larger display than last year's event, bringing a 1965 Mustang GT350, new and old Cobra cars and even the exclusive new Shelby Series 1 car! Yokohama Tire Corporation had a display of tires next to the HPI show booth, with the new AVS sport radial tires and full-size versions of the A032R Road Race tires - our X-Patterns in 315 width (about 18 inches)!

Sunday's qualifying - one round

Qualifying for the main events continued early Sunday morning, and Wayne Beebe quickly amazed the other fast Electric racers, blowing away the TQ time by over a full lap! It was finally determined that all the faster racers were able to run times in the morning that enabled them to get around a full extra lap! Apparently the softer tires that most racers ran (Pro Compound X-Pattern and V-Groove tires) worked better in the morning. Saturday qualifiers were all in the afternoon, when the track surface was hot, and the Pro compound tires didn't stick to the asphalt as much.

When the Electric qualfiers were over, Tony Phalen was able to regain the TQ spot, with SoCal driver Kevin Smith right behind him. Wayne Beebe was qualified third, and the rest of the A-Main field sorted out like this: Frank Killam, Thad Garner, Mike Mayberry, Steve Wang, Michael Parker and Bill Martinez.

The Electric RS4 qualfiying was over, and the racers fell into one of four final main events, from A (the fastest drivers) to the D-Main.

The Super Nitro RS4 class was run before the Nitro RS4 cars, and easily the best driver on the track was Dan Discenza of Pegasus Hobbies, running a stock Super Nitro RS4! Akira Kogawa tried to give him a run in each heat but couldn't quite keep up with Dan. Manny Hidalgo also ran a box-stock Super Nitro car, and was able to finish each qualifier he started. Mario Caba's TQ time was eventually beaten by Dan, but he kept running. Craig Wood, Frank McKinney and Tony Phalen also were able to make the A-Main, which is good, because there were only seven Super Nitro RS4 racers!

In the Nitro RS4 qualifying, the field was already set, except for racer Charlie Suangka, representing Ultimate Hobbies, who showed up to race only on Sunday. Charlie had to borrow a couple of parts (you're welcome, Charlie!) and rebuilt his car in time to make his qualifying race, and ended up in 8th position in the Nitro A-Main! Wayne Beebe held onto a strong TQ position easily, with many racers trying to chase him down. Thad Garner drove a blindingly orange car to a good qualifying spot, and Mike Mayberry and Ken Prue of Hitec RCD both qualified well for the A-Main race. Mario Caba, running all three classes, also qualified for the A! Other drivers in the top 10 were Ron Horrocks, Sam So, Pat, Hugh Woods and Pat Mundell.

The rest of the Nitro RS4 races were sorted into four heats, with 10 drivers in every heat but the D-Main, which had 8 racers.

After the last qualifying round was over, there was a one and a half hour lunch break so racers could walk around and see the other attractions that were present, as well as get something to eat. During this time, HPI personnel Shawn Ireland, Kent Clausen, David Potter, Matsuda, Akira Kogawa and Steve Baker ran RTR Nitro RS4 demonstration cars, and Dan Moynihan invited spectators from the crowd watching the races to try running the cars around the oval portion of the track.

Now, you want to see how everybody finished, right?