USA Race Number One: San Antonio, Texas!

Hosted by
RCRC of San Antonio and Hobbytown USA of San Antonio!

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During the weekend of June 9-10, the RCRC club of San Antonia and Hobbytown USA played gracious hosts to the first race of the 2001 HPI Challenge USA series! Home to the Alamo, Riverwalk, the Alamodome, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World and basically the largest tourist destination in Texas, the event was not just a challenge on the track, but also a challenge to get in as much sightseeing as possible in a vacation weekend!

Race organizer Ron Meloni and race director Kevin Mayse teamed up with Hobbytown USA owner Clark Baisdon to put on a great event - all HPI representatives Frank McKinney and Thad Garner had to do was show up, spread out catalogs and decals, and hand out prizes! Well, it wasn't really that easy, but with the streamlined process the RCRC club had, the weekend really did seem to go very smoothly.

Friday, June 8

The club started setting up the huge temporary track in the huge parking lot of a Super K-Mart in the morning, providing racers with electricity, driver stand and track by 2 PM. This benefited both local racers and racers who had traveled from out of town, allowing them to practice until late that night. With the powerful parking lot light towers, running during the dark wouldn't be a problem!

Frank and Thad arrived at 6 PM, ready to check out the shop and track. First, however, they had to sample some of the local barbecue cuisine because the airplane food during the trip just didn't cut it. Bob's Pit BBQ was the chosen place to go, and it didn't disappoint. After filling up on iced tea, homemade sausages, chicken and brisket it was time to hit the shop. Sorting out the boxes in the back of the Hobbytown USA store didn't take long, and then it was off to the track to see how many people had arrived and what the race organizers were up to.

We were surprised to see about 50 people at the track already, tuning Nitro cars, charging batteries, running laps and setting up canopies. Ron and Kevin were there, as was Clark, introductions were made all around, and we got down to discussing the particulars of the rules, how the race would be run and other details of the weekend ahead. Morning practice procedures had to be decided, as well as how the qualifiers would be run, where transponders would be placed in the cars, etc. These are the kinds of things you have to worry about when you run a big race!

The weather was one thing that Frank was concerned about, since forecasts on www.weather.com showed thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday. A large rainshower had hit the north area of San Antonio early in the afternoon, and the clouds looked ominous. Plans were made for a possible rain delay and what to do in case the race had to be postponed until Sunday, a day that promised clear weather.

Luckily everything was taken care of, mostly because the RCRC group has been doing races on their own for years now. The only things they needed to know were small details that were dependent on the now-standard HPI Challenge schedule: when the Driver's Meeting and Concours would be held, how many minutes the races would run, when to pass out the free hats and free bodies, etc.

So it was off to the hotel and air conditioning for the night, and while the Lakers played the 76ers in their second NBA Finals game, Frank updated Thad on the particulars of the rules for 2001 and illuminated many of the locales around San Antonio, hopefully some of which they would be able to visit during the weekend!

Saturday, June 9

The morning dawned at about 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) when the sun broke through the low-lying clouds. It was already humid! The nighttime dew hung heavy in the air, definitely something to get used to.

By the time Frank and Thad arrived at the track after a stop at a nearby McDonald's for breakfast, the race track had been nearly surrounded by canopies, sport utility vehicles and trucks. We discovered later that there were still more people coming! The early count showed 110 entries, already 20 more than at any of our previous races in Texas. It wasn't even 9 AM yet, so we were really happy with the turnout!

Kevin Mayse, the race director, had told us that he would have volunteers handy to help police the frequency clips and driver stand. No more than 10 drivers were allowed on the stand, with a maximum of 12 cars on the track at once. Problems we've seen at other tracks with 20 drivers on the stand and even more cars on the track were basically nonexistant, and there were no complaints about too many cars on the track or the usual Nitro vs. Electric squabbles.

Ronnie Meloni, one of the local racers and active member in the RCRC club, had taken on the task of organizing the race. He's the one who coordinated with Frank and Clark and arranged for the rental of a large tent for visiting racers, as well as pit tables and chairs, plus security for both Friday and Saturday nights so nothing would get tampered with.

We quickly set up the HPI table with a banner, display kits (prizes for Sunday's ceremony), plaques and trophies. The prizes were meant to entice the racers present to do a really good job, and we think they worked! Catalogs and decals were placed on the table as well, and we had to work hard to keep them stocked.

As the time wore on to noon, we found out just how diehard HPI racers can be - we knew racers would visit from Austin, Houston and Dallas (Dallas is 6 hours away by car), but racers came from as far away as Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and even California! Three racers who attended our 2000 HPI Challenge World Finals made the trip in 25 hours, driving straight through to San Antonio from Southern California.

By the time the sun was highest in the sky, every racer had had a chance to experience the huge parking lot track for themselves. About 10% larger than their normal club tracks, the racing line was almost 1/8 of a mile long, and the track surface itself was about 120 feet by 100 feet! A large track by any standards, this track promised to be interesting, with two large sweepers, a long back straight, a parallel inside straight, and chicanes that wouldn't move if hit by a car.

The track was closed to practice and the driver's meeting called to order at 12 PM, where Frank went over the basics of the HPI Challenge rules. Some Electric Stock racers didn't have the right springs on their cars, so other racers volunteered to lend them what they needed. Texan hospitality at its best! For the most part, every car that had been inspected to that point had looked just fine and well within the rules, so we didn't really expect any problems during the technical inspections. After Frank was done, Kevin took the microphone and went over the racing procedures, plus safety measures. While most of the local RCRC club was participating in the weekend of racing, roughly half of the racers were from out of town, so it was a good idea to go over details like flag starts, how RCRC uses its frequency clips, and other items.

After all the talking was finished, we prepared to judge the Concours Challenge competitors! Everyone was encouraged to bring out their cars to the track, were they were arranged around the "pinwheel" (in California we'd call it a keyhole, a term from skateboard parks). The round corner provided a great way to display the cars and let everyone take pictures. Kevin, Thad and Frank acted as the judges for the event, and in the end had to make the tough decisions and hard announcements on who would win and who would be runner-up.

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