Hobbytown USA
of Mequon, Wisconsin!
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The sixth and final regional HPI Challenge USA race of 2000 took place during the weekend of September 30 and October 1, 2000, in the shopping area overlooked by the Hobbytown USA of Mequon, Wisconsin. The owner of this particular Hobbytown USA (a popular franchise hobby store in the United States) is Scott "Scotty" Earnst, also the owner of Trackside Hobbies, an indoor carpet track and hobby shop that caters to touring and pan car racing, as well as carpet off-road racing. Scotty had taken over the Hobbytown USA down the street from his first shop, and in just a couple of months had transformed part of the shop into a parts supply for his local racers. For other Hobbytown USA locations that are close to you, click here!
The area we were to race in was right next to the main street of Mequon, bordered by one of the major entrances to the shopping center. You couldn't ask for better exposure for the racers who had gathered from as far away as Ohio, Michigan and Iowa!
Scotty
ran the races for the whole weekend, while HPI representatives Troy Lyman
and Frank McKinney handled tech procedures, rules clarifications and other
miscellaneous duties.
First Impressions
The size of the Mequon Hobbytown USA seems to be about perfect for the area - just enough model kits, roleplaying gaming supplies, miniatures and other items to keep area residents busy through long winters and short summers. Slot car sets, science experiments and magic tricks, kites and the ever-present finger bikes, finger skateboards and collectible card games for the kids. When Scotty took over the store, there wasn't one R/C item available, but now two full glass showcases hold batteries, chargers and other electronics, plus a lot of wall space has been given over to boats, a couple of helicopters and the reason why we were there - cars! Lots of spares, tires, wheels, paints and kits were available to new hobbyists and old-time racers.
Saturday morning we started like every other HPI Challenge race - checking out each racer's traveling pit setup, seeing what what the hot ticket for each type of chassis and meeting all the racers as they came up to say hi. It's really a great feeling to be partly responsible for bringing such an event to a place that hasn't really know parking lot racing in the past, so it felt wonderful when so many of the racers came up to shake our hands, tell us where they came from and how long it took them to drive, and express to us how good they felt they were a part of the HPI Challenge experience.
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The track pieces, driver stands and lighting system were on loan from a local club called MARCCA (pronounced "marka), the Madison Area Radio Controlled Car Association. Racers Hot Rod, George, Myles and a helper named Dave did a ton of work all weekend to set up and tear down the track, set up lights and the driver stands, blow off and spray the track, and generally make sure that everyone had a nice track to run on. The MARCCA website can be found here. They are located near Madison, Wisconsin, if you're in the area and want to run off-road, on-road, indoors or out, check them out!
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After signups were closed we found we had just under 60 racers - a light turnout compared to earlier events, but because of our location in the shopping center we found that we were running out of catalogs faster than we had anticipated! All day long on each day we had spectators watching the race action, roaming the pits, asking questions, picking up catalogs and heading to the Hobbytown USA to check the pricing on HPI kits! What a way to get new life into the R/C hobby. Kids and their parents, parents and their kids, retired, middle-age and young folks all coming up to ask questions.
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As usual, we held a long open practice until around noon on Saturday. This let the traction come up with the rubber that was laid down on the track and promoted a general laid-back attitude that lasted the whole weekend. Before the driver's meeting Scotty made the announcement that everyone should bring up their cars for a quick photo session before the Concours Challenge. Come back tomorrow to see what the competition was like!
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