HPI Racing - 2001 HPI Challenge World Finals

2001 HPI Challenge


Sunny skies!	Can you believe this is a two-way street?

Thursday dawned too soon, while the HPI staff found the track location for the first time and arrived to see what they could do to help. The local club and Patrick of Avio & Tiger (the HPI distributor for France) had already set up the track, rostrum or driver stand, pit areas with flags for each country, and much more, including a catered lunch area with refreshments! So with nothing for the visitors to do, official black longsleeve shirts were passed out to the race officials.

After everyone was introduced a series of group pictures were taken, then a brunch of hors d'ourves with wine and other drink was served. It wasn't noon yet and a French petit dejeuner (continental breakfast to Americans) wasn't enough to settle the stomach for the wine and other drink, however...when in France...


The custom banner for the race	The track crew in their longsleeve polo shirts

Because Thursday was a bank holidy throughout France, R/C drivers had been invited to come to the race track to take part in a Micro race series that was put on by the club that would be running the races for the weekend. Luckily for the HPI staff there were several Micro RS4 cars ready to go, some suitable chargers just had to be found! A helpful Austrian lent an LRP and Robitronics charger, and Patrick of Avio & Tiger lent another LRP Quadra for charging duties, so the HPI guys were ready to go for the Micro races.


The onsite shop had many parts available	Bleachers at the beginning of the straight	The pits are waiting for the French racers...	The area reserved for the Russian, US and Hungary racers

Jamie Booth of HPI Europe customer service showed off just a couple of option parts on his car, taking the eventual top time, while Greg Hill of HPI Europe and Tatsuro Watanabe, the owner of HPI took second and third overall. With all the HPI staff racing in one race it was a tough job to keep track of who owed who a hit in the bumper! The real joy of the day was having fun just running the Micro on a track with nine other cars.


Micro racing at its best!	The full Micro track	The Micro track was laid out in the pit area of the large track

Thursday ended with a sumptuous dinner at a small French restaurant which served many dishes in the Provencal style of cooking, which features a bit of garlic taste with tomato flavoring. Kangaroo and beef steaks were the order of the night, all served with pomme fritte (french fries) on the side. Helpful tip when at a restaurant in a foreign country: sit with someone who can speak the native language! Dries from HPI Europe and Peter Winton from the UK were the popular folks this night, translating the menu and trying to decipher exactly what the various dishes were.