World Final

Qualifying

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This year's HPI Challenge World Finals featured more drivers from around the world, an extra couple of classes, and great competition throughout the weekend!

Racers from Australia, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Switzerland arrived, winners of their respective classes at the HPI Challenge European Finals, HPI Challenge Japan Finals or paying their own way from Europe to visit. Most of the racers that came from other countries had won their classes, so we knew they would be really good during the weekend.

This year we did away with the Nitro RS4 Mini class because we knew there would be a low turnout for this class, but we added a modified motor electric class (Electric Pro), changed the stock motor electric class to a 17-turn minimum motor (Electric Pro) and added a Rally class for fans of our Rally series of cars (Electric Rally). Turnout for the Electric Pro class was much lighter than anticipated, but because of the Japanese and European racers, the excitement level was very high as the races were run! In Electric Sport, the racing was a little closer but still quite exciting as the main events got closer.

The handout tires were passed out early Saturday morning; our belted Racing Slick B15-40 tires were given to all the sedan racers, while belted X-Pattern tires were given to the Mini racers and the "C" compound tires were given to the Super Nitro racers. We didn't anticipate any racers needing any extra sets of tires unless they wanted to experiment with different insert combinations, but just in case, we had invited racers Dan Discenza and Mark Thiel from Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair, CA to bring their portable hobby shop setup with them to provide racers with spares.

Because of the generator problems, we had to delay the start of the races for several hours. Normally this wouldn't happen but since we were in a parking lot with no power available, we had to allow racers to charge their batteries, especially the out-of-town racers, who were using the large tent we had erected next to the track. To make things easier for the electric class racers, we ran the Nitro classes first so the electric racer would have time to charge their batteries.

Nitro Stock
With several good racers in the Nitro Stock class (formerly known as Box Stock Nitro), the racing was very close. The format of the racing and the strict spec nature of the class insured that the racing would stay close, all the way to the very end!

The Nitro Stock class is closely watched to make sure the cars that race in the class remain literally "box stock". The original Nitro RS4 is allowed (with 12E engine, non-countersunk chassis, etc.), but the bulk of the class was made up of RTR Nitro RS4 and Nitro RS4 2 cars.

We checked every car for universal dogbones (which were illegal), tires, HPI body with the legal cutouts for air ventilation, clutchbell and spur sizes and much more. Any questionable cars had their bodies removed for a closer look, and we also made sure every RTR Nitro RS4 and Nitro RS4 2 used the muffler insert (which previously had been legal to remove). In some cases, the carb opening was measured with digital calipers, and all racers had to use the stock heat sink head and air cleaner.

The racers to watch in the Nitro Stock class included Cameron Wagner from San Jose, California, who had driven a stock 12E-powered Nitro RS4 to 2nd place at our San Jose race, plus TJ Wilcheck from Ohio, Attila Svajda from Hungary, Rodney Angelito, and Daniel Trnka (who had placed in the top three of both Nitro Stock and Nitro Modified classes with one car at last year's World Finals). The remaining A Main qualifiers were Chris Bussert, Joven Madriaga, Joel Williams, Richard McCloskey (winner of this class in San Jose) and Timm Wooley.

At the end of qualifying on Sunday morning, Cameron Wagner sat on top of the heap with a 16-lap qualifying time in 5 minutes, while the other drivers in the A Main had 15 laps. This was with a stock RTR Nitro RS4 that he had recently purchased just for this race!

Nitro Modified
This class was easily our largest class, with 60 racers packed in, 10 per heat. We actually had to have extra plaques made for this class!

The Nitro Modified class features any HPI Nitro sedan chassis, with any manufacturer's option parts allowed, so this is one reason for the large turnout. Many racers wanted to run in the Nitro Stock class but because of a two-speed or different engine they couldn't enter that class.

Johnathan Dobney from England, the winner of this class at the HPI Challenge European Finals and Toshiaki Koketsu, the HPI Challenge Japan Finals winner, almost ended up dominating this class, but Americans Simon Kau and Tracy Grieger made a strong push during qualifying to qualify 2nd and 3rd, splitting up Johnathan, who had snagged TQ spot, and Toshiaki, who was in fourth at the end of qualifying. Dan Discenza of Pegasus Hobbies and Mike Mayberry and Ken Prue, both from Hitec, rounded out the top 7 in the Nitro Modified class, with Henry Pun, Shayne Barr and Mario Caba completing the A Main.

Super Nitro Modified
The competition in the Super Nitro class looked like it would be a runaway victory for Japanese driver Setsuya Kokayashi, but after qualifying Roy Flores was just 2 seconds behind him! This was the tightest margin in qualifying for the pole position so far.

Just watching these guys in qualifying, you knew it would be a close match. The Super Nitro Modified class featured the the same rules as the Nitro Modified class, except the cars had to be HPI Super Nitro RS4 chassis. Other than that, any option parts were allowed and nearly any modification.

Ohio racer T.J. Wilcheck was in third place after qualifying, with last year's winner Orlando Sherman behind him, then Richard McCloskey, Henry Pun (Super Nitro winner in San Jose), Rich Taylor, Dan Discenza, Craig Wood and Dean Baker making up the rest of the A Main. 

Electric Mini
The first electric class to compete was the Electric Mini class, which was almost relegated to a showcase for driving from Karlheinz Scherer, who lapped the field by two laps in nearly every qualifier. Because of the light turnout (just one heat of 10 cars), a range of skill levels competed in one heat, so Karlheinz had to dodge lapped traffic as well as try to get around the racers who were actually trying to race him. In one heat, Karlheinz broke early, jumped off the stand, fixed his car, got back on the stand and drove from one lap down to get his lap back and finish a full lap ahead of everyone! This wasn't surprising, considering that Karlheinz had won the Electric Mini class at the HPI Challenge European Finals.

Karlheinz Scherer of Germany easily scored TQ with 16 laps in 5 minutes, with Ian Aquino, Nestor Rinonos (both previous Concours Challenge winners), Joven Madriaga, Joe Bestor, Jasper David, Rick Hellman of San Francisco, Charlie Barnes, Josh Tran and Michael Soriano making up the rest of the Electric Mini A Main (and the rest of the class).

Electric Sport
Forty racers had signed up in the Electric Sport class, which featured any electric HPI touring car chassis, powered by motors that had to have at least 17 turns of wire. (Stock motors in the USA have 27 turns of wire, so a 17 turn motor is quite a bit faster. Europeans don't have a stock motor class, but the Japanese have a sport class which uses 23 turn motors.) With this exception, plus the addition of spec tires, the class was the same as the Electric class that had been run at all the other regional HPI Challenge USA races.

The early favorites were already the Europeans, even before the racing had started, because HPI Challenge European Finals winner Michael Gebel from Germany was present, as well as Kristophoer Ritchie of Scotland, and Bernd Kausemann of Germany. All three placed well into the A Main, but it was Kristophoer (only 13 years old!) had grabbed the pole, with Michael only 3 seconds behind him in qualifying. Mark Rebeck was in third spot, with John Chin, Bernd, Ian Aquino, Mark Dawson, Hugo Saavedra, Rod Balingit and Robert Haney rounding out the top ten in Electric Sport.

With just one 5-minute race to decide the World Finals winner, we knew it would be a close race between Kristophoer and Michael, who were the only two in this class with 16 laps!

Electric Pro
The fastest guys of the weekend were the Electric Pro racers (yes, the fastest guys were one lap ahead of the fastest Nitro Modified racers!). Once again, the ones to watch were the European and Japanese racers, specifically Kristophoer Ritchie of Scotland (again!), Markus Greter of Switzerland and Masaki Yamauchi from Japan. Although Masaki had the coolest-looking body (a sweet dragon dominating the hood and appearing on the hood and sides), Kristophoer and Markus put a full lap on everyone else who qualified in the A Main.

The German and Swiss racers resting up between rounds

The Electric Pro class featured the same rules as the Electric Sport class (spec tires, HPI body and chassis), the only difference was the motor, which was allowed to go to a minimum of 12 turns. The lower the number of turns on a motor, the faster it goes, so we limited the speed of the class by requiring at least 12 turns of wire on the motor.

Masaki was in third place at the end of qualifying, with Charlie Barnes (last year's Electric class winner), Fraser Low of Scotland, Michael Cometti (Electric class winner in San Jose), Mike Mayberry, Vincent Chu from Australia, Johnny Pun and Ryan Hanson also making the A Main.

With the qualifiers over, we had some time to let racers practice, but after that we did the

Concours Challenge!

Check back on Monday for the awesome line-up of cars and the finalists!