Castle Hobbies of San Jose, California!
Thanks!
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We have to give our appreciation to all the people that helped out and showed up during the racing weekend! More pictures from this page are courtesy of Dennis Racine from www.rcracing.com, see the site for tons of action shots!
Over
one hundred racers came out to race and have fun with us, and we want
to thank each and every one of the racers that attended! During our body
and shirt giveaways, we had several racers express their gratitude for
holding an event that let them race and get experience with the other
racers that compete regularly.
From
front to rear: Ted Pierson, John Chin,
Gavin Salmon, and Gary Liu!
We
also had about 50 cars make an appearance in our Concours Challenge. This
was truly the hardest-to-judge concours competition we've ever had! Judges
and racers agreed that the level of detail present in Steve Phemister's
TRD Altezza was just overwhelming! Scale vented brake rotors that rotated
inside stationary red calipers, lighting enclosures and reflectors, scale
antennas, inner body with driver, roll bars and window net, plus to top
it all off, the working windshield wiper that snapped back into place
when it was lifted off the car!
The
race operation of Castle Hobbies was a model of perfection, from the portable
race track system with curved wooden barriers for corners, timing bridge,
AMD lap counting system, large tech area, inkjet printer for race results,
strong and stable driver's stand. Eric Vasutin and a crew of volunteers
were out late on Friday night setting up the track for Saturday's practice,
which really surprised Frank and Thad with their dedication to the track
and store. We also had great race announcing from Cameron Wagner, Eric
Vasutin with help from Charlie Barnes. The double-team announcing was
a nice change from a single announcer, and allowed play-by-play AND a
color commentary!
Finally,
we want to thank the racers who helped take apart the track during our
trophy presentation. It helped make sure the guys from Castle Hobbies
could go home early on Sunday! Although some of the racers who won plaques
weren't present to receive them, we made sure that the local racers who
come by Castle Hobbies would get theirs the next time they dropped by
the shop, and we'll also be mailing out plaques to the racers who were
there for the first time.
Be sure to stay tuned to the site to find out where our next HPI Challenge races will be! Our next race will be in Florida during April 29-30, 2000. Thanks to everyone that raced and helped with our race with Castle Hobbies, we'll have a wonderful and lively HPI Challenge race series!