Foreword | Thursday | Aquarium/Shopping Trip | Main Events and Awards | VIP Tour | Extras

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The bus, with Tomoko-san on board, was right on time at 7 AM, ready to pick up the racers and all their gear. Getting to the track location at the Pal Pal theme park on the coast would take about 30 minutes each way, taking us through parts of the city, elevated toll highways, surface streets and hilly suburban areas.

Nagoya skyline, 5:30 AM local time	The park next to the hotel	The bus ride to the amusement park
Tomoko explains the day's schedule	Japanese suburbs - mortages are 50 years and more in some places	First view of the Pal Pal Ferris wheel

With the gates closed at the park until 8 AM, the racers waited outside with the rest of the Japanese racers and hit the nearby 7-11 for food and drinks to stock up for the day.

Our view of the Pal Pal amusement park	The driver stand (with canopy attached)	The handout equipment line
HPI Team Drivers setting up shop	The entrance to Pal Pal	Traditional style stairs (made of concrete but very nice)

7-11 in Japan? Yes, that's right! Other American staples like Circle-K, Starbucks (of course), Baskin-Robbins and as previously mentioned McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken were also frequently spotted. Other popular brands noted during the weekend were Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Quicksilver (also popular in Europe), Kappa and a couple of others.

The gates were closed to all racers, who would get their first glimpse of it at 8 AM. As the bus crept up a short driveway with the overseas racers and their gear on board, we were all greeted with a large U-shaped collection of tables, chairs and canopy frames surrounding a large temporary track.

The track was made up of long plywood boards hinged together by metal pipes, with corner dots marking the radius of most of the turns. The main straight was about 100 feet long, a shorter straight in front of the driver stand was about 70 feet long, and the track was about 55 feet deep. With a chicane at the end of the short straight, sweeper at the end of the main straight and a pair of large-radius turns in the center, it was a good setup that concentrated on corner speed, rewarded quick reflexes and didn't concentrate so much on all-out top speed. The pit area was arranged on the short straight in front of the driver stand, with clearly marked pit stalls for mechanics and pit crew to sit behind. The surface of the track was fairly new asphalt, however the paint used to mark the parking lot lines was built up thickly on the asphalt. This didn't present a problem for most of the 1/10 and Super-size cars, however on the main straight the Micro Beetle Cup Racers could be seen bouncing up and down as they hit the lines! A tighter driving line as the Micro cars came onto the straight was rewarded with a section of track that was free of parking lot lines, however.

The team drivers finished setting up!	Tomoko translates the rules for the overseas racers

The US racers had the chance to meet American racer Matt Hall as soon as they exited the bus to walk to the 7-11, and as everyone was setting up their pit area another round of introductions was made. Matt had emailed me asking to pit with the US racers and offered to help the guys as much as he could. His help and extra manpower during the whole weekend proved to be invaluable as the US guys went through qualifying, wrenching on the cars and acted as main event pit crew for many of the Nitro racers!

Being on the western coast of Japan, as well as on an exposed hilltop, the track and pit area was subjected to unexpectedly strong winds as the racers set up their pits and tried to cope with the biting, salty wind. Although I'd warned racers to bring gloves, windbreakers and a hat of some kind, some of the US guys had to get gloves at the 7-11 - apparently this is a common thing to contend with in the area, as the store had a good selection of gloves available!

Meeting Atsushi Hara, I said hello to him and seeing him bundled in his HPI jacket, asked him if he was warm enough. No, he answered, and explained that the lack of canopy covers on some of the canopy frames was because the wind was so strong that it had toppled the very canopies that the US, Greek and Austrian drives were pitted under! That explained the removal of the canopy vinyl tops, anyway. After only an hour or so, the large yellow canopy that was covering the driver stand was itself blown over, bending the supports and ultimately necessitating the removal of the controlled practice round. Luckily no one was underneath, although a couple of drivers near the track were surprised at the groaning metal and flapping vinyl sounds as the canopy came down.

Driver stand, sans canopy	The Scottish flag has plenty of wind today!	Team Yellow Corn!

The collapse of the canopy would unfortunately mean that no driver would have practice on the track before the first round of qualifying, a fact that didn't sit well with the drivers but meant that the playing field was still level. With no driver having practiced on it or even seen the track before that morning, it would make the first two qualifying rounds on Saturday pretty interesting, not to mention pressure-filled as racers tried different setups each day.

As the Saturday qualifying sessions went on, the power situation in the pit area was such that the racers were having problems with their chargers using so much power that the generators would often "brown out", or run low on amperage power to the chargers, tire warmers and soldering irons that were running in the pits. Luckily a 2-man crew of electricians remained on hand, and they rewired some areas of the pits, even building a field power transfer box during the day, in just about an hour.

One of the concession stands	Hot Man Dog! This stand also had Calpis and Pocari Sweat...but no Qoo	The Greeks bundle up

The concession stand was up for business early on both Saturday and Sunday, serving unadon dishes all day. "Unadon" is gohan and unagi (pronounced "go-han" with a hard "g", and "oo-nah-gee"). Gohan means rice, and unagi means eel. That's right, eel! It actually wasn't bad. The only thing about eating it there was the heat was taken away quickly by the wind, but the traditional way to prepare eel is to use a strong sauce to counter the strong flavor of the eel meat.

While the driver stand canopy was getting ready to blow down, the HPI Japan crew gave the racers their handout equipment, including handout ESCs for the Electric Touring Sport racers, two sets of HPI tires, Hot Bodies wheels and HPI inserts for all classes except Micro Beetle Cup Racer and also two pairs of batteries to the Electric Touring Sport class drivers. The tires chosen were the Advan 33R tires with red 24mm HPI inserts. On a normal day during this time of year, this combination would be fine, however the racers would have to find out how they would work on a cold, slightly dusty track. Whether they were ideal or not, every racer was starting on the same level of grip, so like at any other control tire race, it was the same conditions for everyone.

About the handouts
For most club or sportsman racers, a handout tire race is a new and interesting thing. It basically eliminates the guesswork of trying different sets of tires, inserts, wheel diameters, wheel widths and wheel densities and gives every driver the same exact starting point for what is usually the most important handling tool available - the tires. Pro r/c racing teams have been known to have an entire hotel room just for tires at some races, to have a wide variety of compounds and tread types to chase the track conditions. By removing those variables and giving the same tires to all competitors, race organizers can make it cheaper for any competitor to attend and even out the field by concentrating on driving and tuning skill instead of money and luck.

Gathering up the radios	Radio impound

The HPI Challenge Europe series has also been using the handout battery and ESC formula as well. By removing the "battery of the month" war from the Electric Sport class, it is possible to further concentrate on skill, rather than wallet size, for racing. Future HPI Challenge World Finals will not utilize the handout ESC for logistical reasons, however it is one more step in equalizing the skill of the drivers on the track, rather than concentrating on the level of technology a driver has.

Concours Challenge
After all the handout equipment was given to the racers, the group picture was next. With all the racers' cars lined up in front of the driver stand and the racers grouped with their cars, photographers gathered around to start snapping away!

Low angle attack

After a few minutes of picture taking, HPI Concours Challenge judges took a while to narrow down the Concours competitors. Eventually Werner Puchas of Austria was chosen to take home the top honors, earning himself the first trophy of the weekend for his detailed Toyota Celica body! Timm Wooley of Florida was also a finalist, winning an HPI pit towel for his efforts.

Concours Challenge finalist	Concours Challenge finalist	Concours Challenge finalist, great flames
Concours Challenge finalist, Timm Wooley's Super	Concours Challenge finalist, An Pan Man!
The winner!	Werner Puchas, Concours Challenge Champion	The winning Celica body
	Detail of Werner's car

Qualifying Begins!
Now the racers were ready for qualifying. With no practice time allowed on the track, the drivers were anxious to see what the grip levels and surface would be like. However, first up was the Micro Beetle Cup Racer class!

Micro Beetle Cup qualifying getting ready to go

Two heats of 15 cars each were to make up the Micro Beetle Cup Racer class. Each driver was required to have one of the new personal AMBrc transponders to allow more than 10 cars to run at a time. The track was shortened a bit and with 15 cars on the track at a time it was a perfect fit for the width of the 1/10 scale size track. At the end of the first day of qualifying it was American Michael Collins from Dayton, Ohio in the TQ spot!

The US guys shared a table	Todd's on the stand

The Nitro classes were next, and with a limited turnout of Japanese Nitro racers there were just two heats of ten racers each in Nitro and Super Nitro. With most of the overseas Nitro racers running Nitro and Super Nitro, it was time to see how they would do in each class!

Setting up the grid
Timesheets	Team drivers on duty!

Todd Marshall was solidly in the A Main in both classes at the end of qualifying on Saturday, showing a really a solid effort on his part! Attila Svajda of Hungary was also in the A Main of Nitro Touring after two rounds of qualifying. Americans Timm Wooley and Dereck Butterfield were both qualified in the B Main but were confident they would do well in the final round. They weren't the only ones looking to get out of the B, however - Kris Ritchie, 3-time World Final contender for the championship in 3 different classes, was hoping to take home a win for Scotland!

In the Electric Touring classes, Michael Collins was again doing well in Electric Touring Expert, qualifying in 4th after two rounds! Kristopher Ritchie was also qualified in the A Main, helping to break up the domination of the Japanese drivers.

HPI Exhibitions
After the second and third rounds of racing, HPI Japan drivers organized some interesting exhibitions, featuring Atsushi Hara's MR-S Pro 3 and Masayuki Murai's Escudo Pro 3 zipping around the track, chasing each other and delighting the crowd. Hara's mechanic Yokoyama-san also jumped on the track for some fun, as well as Swedish driving sensation Andreas Myrberg, who was working in Japan as well as driving for HPI.

Hara chasing Murai
	Murai's Escudo

One of the more interesting exhibitions was the running of the new HPI Savage 21 monster truck, and while there was some racing of the truck on the track, the best part was a trial competition at the end of the day Saturday that timed how long different drivers could balance the truck on a seesaw platform, and how quickly drivers could negotiate various obstacles. Jumps, narrow platforms and wallride ramps were the obstacles used, and drivers were competing for various prizes from HPI, including planes, pit towels and more!

	Easy does it...	Balance!
	The tabletop platform	HPI Japan's Imaizumi-san gives out first prize

Japanese R/C Drivers
While I had been warned that Japanese racers are very serious about their racing, the US racers found out for themselves just how courteous they were also. Every US racer I asked told me that during qualifying, the Japanese racers would move over when a faster car was coming up on them, they apologized if they accidentally tapped you and didn't take any on-track revenge if you accidentally tapped them. That said, they were also very fast, especially the guys using the Suzuki Escudo body! While at first the overseas racers questioned why racers would bother to use such a wildly shaped body, at the end of the weekend it was a certainty that all the US racers would be trying that same body on their home track! With tremendous downforce front and rear, plus an open rear end to air flow through the body, the Escudo turned out to be quite a force to be reckoned with.

Banquet
After the Savage 21 trials competition Saturday, there was supposed to be a banquet dinner at the track to allow the racers to get friendly and relax, however the unrelenting cold winds forced HPI Japan organizers to postpone the banquet until the bus arrived. Once all the overseas racers were picked up, it was off to HPI Japan once again for a pizza and beer party, courtesy of HPI! With all the HPI Japan racers on hand, a tape of the past year's big races was put into the VCR in the breakroom and we got to all watch just how close Hara came to winning the All-Japan Touring Car Nationals, plus his win at the 1/12 scale Japanese Nationals. With pizza at $40 each in Japan for deluxe, it was quite a treat for the HPI Japan employees as well!

After getting back to the hotel, all the racers who hadn't gone back to the hotel by other means sat down to work on their cars...but most didn't. It was just a little late in the day to take apart a car and put it back together, and besides, the mains were the next day and every minute of sleep was necessary to perform their best. So it was a trade-off - sleep or work, and most racers chose sleep.

Qualifying Ends!
The only overseas racer in Micro Beetle Cup was Michael Collins, who was in the TQ spot at the end of two rounds of qualifying. The other racers must have really done their homework, as Michael was bumped down to 8th spot in the third round, but he was still in the A Main and had a good shot at a podium finish!

	Looks like a scene from Suzuka race track!
	An Pan Man makes an appearance

Todd Marshall ended up qualified in 10th spot in Nitro and 6th spot in Super Nitro, both in the A Main, instantly becoming one of the favorites among the American drivers to take a podium finish. Along with Michael, Todd was one of the two overseas racers that made it into two different A Mains! Attila from Hungary was also still in the A Main in Nitro, just one spot ahead of Todd. Each Nitro A Main was a 10-minute race, requiring a pit stop by each driver, so the pit crew had to be ready and in communication with their driver.

The only board that broke all weekend

Michael Collins did great in Electric Touring Pro, qualifying second overall in a tough class! Michael and Kris Ritchie were the only overseas racers to make it into an electric class A Main, and Michael one of the two overseas racers to make it into TWO A Mains! However, with just one race to decide the winner, it could all come down to luck and tenacity to decide the win. In the B Main, crazy Werner Spannbruckner of Austria qualified first, Vaggelis Papachristo of Greece qualified second and Kim Ki Heung of Korea qualified third! It would be an interesting race for position! Werner Puchas of Austria settled well in the A Main in Electric Touring Sport, while Alistair Penn of Scotland represented well and qualified in the B Main.

How would the main events unwind?

Foreword | Thursday | Aquarium/Shopping Trip | Main Events and Awards | VIP Tour | Extras