TSRCAR*
of Hamilton, Ohio!
*Tri-State R/C Auto Racers
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The
fifth HPI Challenge USA race of 2000 was held over the weekend of August
26-27, 2000, at the track maintained and prepared by the Tri-State
R/C Auto Racers at Joyce Park in Hamilton, Ohio. TSRCAR (the abbreviation
of the club's full name) provided several club members to help run, announce
and organize the races for HPI throughout the weekend. Being in such close
proximity to Indiana and Kentucky in the southwest corner of Ohio gave
the club its name, and the location at a large local park where several
youth soccer and baseball fields are helped give the club enough land
to provide a very impressive track for locals and visitors!
Next
to the car track is an airfield where several R/C plane and helicopter
flyers were practicing all weekend long. Because of the organization and
separation of surface and flight radio channels, no one at either the
track or the airstrip had to experience any interference at all. It made
for some interesting contrasts as, while attention would be focused on
a tight car race, a huge biplane or pylon racer would take off from the
airstrip!
Running
the races for the weekend was Dennis Young, helped by Bob Ciolino and
many other people who weren't racing, but just wanted to help. Dennis'
wife helped run the concession stand, which sold coffee and donuts in
the morning, then hot dogs, hamburgers and soda for lunch.
First Impressions
Because of the convenient map on the TSRCAR website, Erik Shauver and Frank McKinney were able to find the track and the host hotel easily and quickly on Friday afternoon. As usual, we visited the track before the hotel just to see how big the track is ourselves. We found over 30 racers already practicing, and club members spraying the track with sugar water to enhance the traction for the racers.
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| Pit area at the start of the straight | This is prepared... | ...but this is CRAZY! | Several of the Proceed racers exchanging setup tips. |
We really admired how the track has its schedule set up - each member of the club pays for membership at the beginning of the year, so the club treasurer knows exactly how much money will be available for track repairs and improvements, as well as fliers for upcoming races and any equipment that may be needed. Each member also takes turns acting as race director, solidifying the responsibility of being a club member and sharing the (usually) thankless job of organizing races and making rules decisions.
As you can see below, the track has a great driver's stand with two entrances. We placed the transponder table at one set of stairs, and the tech/inspection table at the other set of stairs. This made the tech process go very smooth and made sure that most racers went straight out to turn marshal after each race. You can also check out the pit situation - AC power was provided to each racer that needed power, and although many racers brought canopies or tents, the racers that had pit space in the trees didn't need it. There was plenty of shade for everyone that wanted some!
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Open
practice for all the racers was available until around 10 AM on Saturday,
then we went to a controlled format that allowed 30 minutes for the Nitro
Open cars, 15 minutes for the Electric RS4 cars, and 15 minutes for the
Proceed and Super Nitro Open cars. This allowed every racer plenty of
time to tune their car, correct any radio problems and practice with cars
that were going about the same speed. We've used this controlled format
in the past at other HPI Challenge races, and it has proven successful.
There's nothing worse than breaking in practice and missing out on runtime
because of repairs!
At
around noon Dennis Young made an announcement for all the racers to come
up to the timing tower for the driver's meeting. Frank answered a couple
of questions and made a few rules clarifications for the Box Stock racers,
and then we asked all the racers to bring all the cars they were racing
to the back straight for the start of the HPI Challenge Concours event!
We had tons of cars make a very long line, and were very impressed by
what we saw. Be sure to check out the Concours page to see all the impressive
cars!