Special Thanks!

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First of all, we would like to thank all the racers that showed up (about 70!) to race and have fun. Without them, the race days would have been very short indeed! The beginners and people who had never raced before got valuable racing experience, and then enjoyed the close racing that the A-Main races provided. An especially big 'thank you' goes to Richard and Brenda Sims, who drove all the way from Stockton (about 5 hours!) to make the weekend's races. Also, we had several racers drive up from San Diego, the Northridge and San Fernando Valley areas, so we have to say thanks to everyone who drove a long distance just to race!

During a special portion of the demonstrations, DaimlerChrysler Assistant Zone Service Manager Gary Disney and his son Eugene ran RTR Nitro RS4 cars with Mark Richter, the Performance Marketing Manager for Yokohama Tire Corporation. We have to give a big "Thanks!" to both Mr. Disney and Mr. Richter for their help the entire weekend. The New Dodge provided the entire weekend's festivities, such as the space to run the full-size car races, car show, vendor booth and R/C track. Yokohama featured many of their performance tires at the HPI hospitality booth and even had our new Mitsubishi Eclipse body in their own booth, on an HPI electric racing chassis!

The New Dodge and Yokohama Tire Corporation both deserve a big thanks from HPI Racing for providing the venue and publicity for us to put on the weekend's races. The races during the weekend exposed literally thousands of people who otherwise would never see an R/C race to the fun and excitement that radio control racing can provide. Many of the people who came to the HPI hospitality booth even told us that they have HPI cars!

Also great news for The New Dodge was their LeMans win in the GTS category! The 1999 24 Heures Du Mans was running at the same time that we were running our HPI Challenge races, and this race 1-2 finish is a great way to cap off the weekend for The New Dodge. The Chrysler Team ORECA cars dominated the entire race and finished near the top in the overall standings as well! All six Dodge Vipers finished, demonstrating that these cars and their V-10 powerplants are super tough!

HPI Racing would also like to thank all of our voluteer corner marshalls, especially BOLT Technologies team member Jim Bonnardel, who always ran out to help a Nitro car in trouble and Michael and Cheri Parker who gave their time during the crowd demonstration races.

The honors for organizer of the event go to Dan Moynihan, who did a wonderful job of keeping the spectators up to date with the types of cars that were running, and what sort of equipment you would need if you wanted to get started in racing electric or Nitro RS4 cars. JR Sitman was the race director for the weekend and ran a smooth set of races, which is often hard work to do with 15 heat races and 94 entries! Thanks to JR and his helpers, we had a fairly smooth weekend of racing! It's hard work and often a thankless job, so we really do appreciate it.

Pegasus Hobbies (located in Whittier and Montclair, CA) arrived with plenty of spare parts for the Nitro and electric racers and helped racers get their cars started when Steve Baker (of HPI Customer Service) was too busy to get to them. They actually ran out of stock on some items and had to get to the store Saturday night to get parts for racers on Sunday! Thanks to Dan Discenza and Woody Woods, many racers were able to get help and parts.

Also, R/C Car and Xtreme R/C Cars magazines let us run advertisements in their issues, which helped get the word out! Geno from Xtreme and Frank and Doog from R/C Car showed up to get pictures of the Main Events and interview racers, organizers and HPI personnel.

A belated thanks must go out to the members Viper Club of America Southern California Region, who showed up with dozens of full-size Dodge Vipers to let racers and spectators check them out!

Finally, we would like to say thanks to all the hobby shops in the Southern California area (and some in Northern California!) that carried our HPI Challenge fliers on their countertops. Without these shops and magazines helping us, there was no way we would have been able to TRIPLE our attendance from last year (31 racers in '98, 94 racers in '99)! Listed below, in alphetical order, are the shops that we sent our fliers to. If you visit these shops, be sure to tell them you saw their name on the HPI Racing Official Web Site!

Blue Max Hobbies, Camarillo and Oxnard
California R/C, Anaheim
Captain Lou's Hobby and Fun Shop, Huntington Beach
Covina Hobby Shop, Covina
Discount Hobby Warehouse, San Diego
Glendale Hobby Center, Glendale
Gyro Hobbies, Lake Forest and Fountain Valley
Hobby Central, Dana Point and Poway
Hobby Masters shop and track, Rowland Heights
The Hobby Place, Los Angeles
Hobby Shack, all the locations: Mission Viejo, Fountain Valley, Encino, Riverside, Pasadena, Lawndale, Rancho Cucamonga, Lakewood, La Habra, San Diego and El Cajon
HobbyTown USA, Brea
HobbyTown USA, San Diego
Hobby Warehouse, Inc., Lakewood
Hobby Zone, Glendale
Hot Rod Hobbies, Saugus
Jay's Hobby House
Krazy Kevin's, Chula Vista
Law's Hobby Center, San Luis Obispo
Marty's Hobbies, Thousand Oaks
M-n-M Hobbies, Corona
Outlaw Hobbies, San Bernardino
Palmdale Hobies, Palmdale
Pegasus Hobbies, Montclair and Whittier
Race Prep, Chatsworth
Ultimate Hobbies, Orange
Sheldon's Hobbies, San Jose
Smith Brothers Hobby Center, Northridge
Swing Brother, West Hollywood

Remember, if you visit any of these shops, be sure to mention to them that you saw them listed on the HPI Racing Official Web Site!