Hobby Center
of Houston, Texas!
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The fourth HPI Challenge USA race for 2000 was held during the weekend of August 4-5 at Hobby Center in Houston, Texas. Even though we expected racers from Dallas, San Antonio and around Houston, we found out about several racers who flew or drove from many different states, including Louisiana, Florida and even New Jersey and New York! About 100 racers showed up to greet HPI guys David Kouche and Frank McKinney and share the experiences of a fun weekend of racing action!
Issac Ben-Ezra, the owner of Hobby Center, was a very gracious host and told us about the free catered food he planned to bring out for Saturday, and happily showed off the many improvements he had made to the facilities since 1999's HPI Challenge Houston race, roughly a year ago.
First Impressions
Since we had visited the Hobby Center shop and track last year, we knew pretty much what to expect. However, we weren't prepared for the number of improvements that Issac had made since our last time here! The Hobby Center track is a 1/8th scale-size track, with plenty of room for 1/10 scale touring cars to maneuver without getting in each other's way. Improvements included extra speakers behind the drivers on the stand, as well as a sun shade, which made the racers more aware of what was happening during the race, and comfortable, too! A radio impound wall at the top of the driver stand let racers grab their radios right before their races, and the pit lane still had plenty of room for pit men to work on their driver's cars, with a carpeted surface and raised work areas. Issac still had the air compressor for racers to clean off their cars, as well as the covered pit spots with plenty of hooks for racers to hang their bodies or radio bags from.
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Spending Friday night at a local eatery with Issac was a great insight into his business and the local racing/hobby scene. Saturday morning started early with practice, and we could tell immediately that the Nitro racers outnumbered electric by a much larger margin that at previous HPI Challenge races! In fact, we only had about 20 Electric RS4 racers, when other races we've had this year have had 30 to 40 electric class racers with a similar total number of racers. It was easy to tell that these Texan racers really like their Nitro cars!
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One of the great things about the HPI Challenge events is that they bring out so many racers of varying skill level and determination. We get several racers at each race that tell us that their first race ever is an HPI Challenge event, and we also get many racers who tell us they travel to all local ROAR or NORRCA races that they can get to. We love to hear from the racers who are just starting, but we like to help them out as well. At this race, David Kouche helped out a local Proceed owner and Frank helped out the Proceed owner's son with a Super Nitro car.
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At around noon the announcement was made for everyone to bring their cars up to the front straight of the track to take group pictures and start the HPI Challenge Concours event! We got tons of great-looking bodies and a huge group shot that everyone at the track jumped into.