HPI Racing - 2003 HPI Challenge World Finals

Open/Controlled Practice

Endurance Challenge

Friday, October 10th

Today is when we expected all of the racers to be at the track. Some of them we had already met at the hotel or around town, and a few had been at the track on Thursday expecting to compete in the Endurance Challenge.

With practice officially opening at 7 AM, we needed to be at the track early to get ready for the racers needing handout motors and tires, racer's cars needed to be pre-teched and everything had to get rolling right in order to set a good precedent for the actual racing which would start on Saturday.

Meeting in the hotel lobby at 6:30AM was not a prospect that was greeted with any joy by the HPI crew, but it was necessary to get a jump on things and make sure that everyone got the track okay. Less traffic on the surface streets also meant that it would be easier to follow the small caravan of vehicles heading to the track!

Hitoshi-san gathered up the Japanese racers in the Ford Clubwagon (probably the largest vehicle Hitoshi will ever drive in his life) and made the best use of his international driving license by getting used to driving on the right side of the road. Greg Hill from HPI Europe rode with Frank McKinney, and Thad Garner took our loaner Lotus Elise 2000 with fellow R&D team member Greg Santos. Our race announcer Scotty Ernst from S&N's Trackside Hobbies in Wisconsin drove his own rental car and this merry band of cars made its way across town to the end of Tropicana Boulevard, arriving at the track around 7 AM.


	The HPI tech tent	Team Japan bought canopies from a local store

After the frequency board was set up and the PA system was operating, we announced open practice until 11:30. This would allow racers as much time as they needed to get their cars set up.

The Silverbowl track that the 4 Aces Racing Association uses is a 1/8 scale track with removeable boards to scale down the track for 1/10 scale nitro and electric cars. While there is no major straightaway on the 1/10 scale version of the track, it is plenty challenging enough to make racing exciting for the drivers and spectators. While the club normally uses VHT traction additive on the track surface for their usual big events, we decided to use sugar water, a less grippy additive that we felt would be more suited to the rubber tires that most of the racers would be using.


		Watching the competition

With pre-tech underway and racers collecting their handout motors and tires, everyone at the track had plenty of time to test their cars on the track.

The handout tires we chose were our Advan 33R belted tires for the 1/10 scale classes, and the 33R Racing Slick belted tires for the Super Nitro cars. During the weekend we saw very little wear on these tires, which seemed to be a result of the oil put down by the nitro cars, the smooth surface of the asphalt and the sugar water on the track. Racers were free to purchase as many extra sets as they wished, however the unopened bag had to be brought to the tech inspectors so the tires could be marked with a special paint. Ideally, a preassembled tire would probably have been best but that may have to wait for a future World Finals.


The Austrians!	The HPI tech tent had to be secured against sun and wind

For the handout motors we chose to use the Saturn 20 turn motors provided in our Sprint RTR electric car. This weekend would prove to be the big trial for these motors, because even though the motor was tested at HPI's USA headquarters using various types of batteries during long test runs, we could not simulate all the possible conditions that the motors would be subjected to by racers trying their best to squeeze every ounce of power out of the motor! With a completely sealed and marked endbell, non-adjustable brush springs and brushes and the random "chance" factor, these motors definitely proved their worth over the weekend. Racers were allowed to do anything to the motor that didn't involve taking it apart or altering the outside of the can in any way. Racers were allowed to do water dipping and change the wires or adding capacitors, etc. Overall, we had very few complaints about the speed of the motor and saw only one or two attempts at tampering with the motor.

At 11:30 the track was closed to all 1/10 and Super size cars and only the Micro cars were allowed to practise. At noon the track was closed to all cars and a quick driver meeting was held.

Although we were prepared to do a radio impound, with the number of drivers that were present it was decided that there wouldn't be a need for an impound unless there were problems with radios being used in the pit area. All the drivers agreed that it wouldn't be a problem and the remaining points of the driver meeting were reviewed.

With all the drivers understanding the need for a quick turnaround of turn marshals and knowing all the rules for the racing classes, we plunged right into controlled practice.


Balint from Hungary and his father	The control fuel for the Nitro classes

Because we were trying to beat the sunset and allow the Endurance Challenge to run after practice, only 2 minutes of downtime would be between each practice heat. Other than the time between each heat, the controlled practice heats would be run exactly the same as the qualifying heats on Saturday. This would give drivers the chance to learn the driving styles of the racers in their heat so they would know who to let by, who they could safely pass, etc. Although we could have sorted the qualifying heats by the results of practice, we elected not to do so, so that racers wouldn't be further pressured by the practice runs (in addition to the pressure of the 2-minute breaks between runs) and so that there would be less confusion in the morning than if we had re-sorted the qualifiers based on the practice runs.


		Greg Hill runs his R40

We rolled right into the second round of practice immediately after the first round, and once practice was over we gave the Endurance Challenge teams some time to practice on the reconfigured track. For the Endurance race we opened up the track to the full 1/8 scale size track so the whole 280' straight was used. This was done partly because we didn't want to give the teams much of an extra advantage to running their car, but mainly because we had hoped to get up to 15 or 20 teams running one car each.

The teams involved in the Endurance Challenge were:

TC Racing: This team was composed of Swiss racers Dan Trnka, Pascal Christin and Pascal's girlfriend Virginie. Pascal's R40 car was used for the race and looked pretty fast!

Team USA: HPI Challenge racing buddies Mike Collins, Timm Wooley, Roland Shao and Randy Kastl made up this team. All the racers were past or current US invitational racers, and Mike and Timm had both visited Japan last year for the 2002 World Finals. Team USA used a Super Nitro chassis for their racing, and had to do a last-minute car swap right before the race started.

Team Japan A: This team was made up of mostly electric-class specialists, who entered just for the fun of it. I think they borrowed a car for the Endurance Challenge, which is unfortunate because one of the drivers crashed hard late in the practice session, forcing them to make repairs in the pit area and start late! The car they used was an R40.

Team Japan B: These were the nitro specialists from among the Japanese invitational drivers, and one of the drivers was Setsuya Kobayashi, who had won the Super Nitro class at our 2000 World Finals and placed 6th in the Nitro Modified class at the 2002 World Finals. This team's R40 was definitely very fast!

Team Gotham City: Composed of Vegas locals, this team was a last-minute entry with their Super Nitro. Four team members would share the driving duties and hope to do their best!

This being Las Vegas, the drivers drew car numbers to determine the starting order. With a little more time we would have been able to get a deck of cards or some craps dice, but we'll have to remember that for next time! With Team Japan A starting from the pits, the order was Team USA, Team Gotham City, Team Japan B and TC Racing.


	Team Japan A wrenching on their car

The start of the Endurance Challenge	Can't hold it much higher to refuel it!

Zipping off to a fast start and driving for the first 30 minutes, Setsuya Kobayashi ripped off some very fast laps, in the 27-second range. Mike Collins drove the Team USA Super nitro for the first half hour (the maximum time allowed for one stint), pulling off 28- and 29-second laps. Pascal for TC Racing wasn't too far behind either. The Gotham City boys had trouble early on, we learned later that their clutch had gotten fried somewhere in the early laps and then their two speed stripped out! Talk about all the bad luck!

The fastest teams ran their fastest drivers for the full 30 minutes they were allowed to run. When the second round of drivers took over the laps times started to climb up and Team USA was able to make up a lap here and there, helping to prevent them from falling into a hole too deep to climb out of. Team Japan A finally got out on the track about 25 laps down, which is not a terrible thing considering that a breakage or a couple of flame-outs from another team could equalize their lap count easily.


Greg Santos times the racers	Onto the pit straight	One of many pit stops

At the halfway mark, 45 minutes, the sun was heading for the mountains surrounding Las Vegas and Team Japan B was well into the lead. TC Racing was just a few laps down and Team USA a few laps further back. If you've ever watched a full-size endurance race such as the 12 Hours of Sebring or the 24 Hours of Le Mans or Daytona, you know that a few laps can get eaten up quickly if a leader develops a problem! With the fastest drivers no longer on the stand at the same time, it was hard to compare the teams side by side, so total laps and overall pace were the only way to really see who was fastest at any moment.

Scotty did a great job maintaining his enthusiasm as the cars continued to go around and around the track. Although none of them were on the same lap and there were technically no door-to-door battles, every driver did their best to keep up their team's momentum and stay on pace just in case one of the leading teams should wreck or flame out.

Late in the race, with just about 15 or 20 minutes to go, Team Gotham City decided to pack up their pit area and call it a day. After having troubles with their clutch and 2 speed and several flameouts during pit stops they came to a decision that it just wasn't worth continuing the fight. With the car needing a rebuild before the weekend's racing it was a smart move and they couldn't be blamed for bowing out of the competition.

Not long after Gotham City pulled in for good, Team Japan A shut off their car and headed for the pits. The frantic wrenching on the car at the beginning of the race had taken its toll and a couple of problems during the race had made them fall farther and farther behind.


Team Gotham City wrenches on their Super		Pit lane was active!

That left the three leading teams on the track: Team Japan B, TC Racing and Team USA, which is how the race ended 90 minutes after the start tone. The AMBrc personal transponders had done their job perfectly, counting every lap done by all the teams, and the final result showed Team Japan B ahead by just 9 laps after an hour and a half! Team USA was even closer to TC Racing, about 6 laps behind.

For their efforts, every member of the top 3 teams received a cool black Yokohama Tire baseball cap. Second place TC Racing also received Yokohama AVS Spec T-shirts, and the first place Team Japan B members received the Yokohama T-shirts plus one RTR Nitro RS4 3 kit each! The prize presentation was done as the sun was already over the horizon and darkness was settling in.


The prizes for the top 3 teams

Team Japan B 5th place	Team Gotham City 4th place

Team USA 3rd place	TC Racing 2nd place

Team Japan B Overall Winning Team

Total laps and times:

Pos	Car	Laps	Time	Team
1	4	188	90:14.88	Team Japan B
2	5	179	90:24.71	TC Racing
3	1	165	90:30.46	Team USA
4	2	98	68:49.86	Team Gotham City
5	3	62	72:23.45	Team Japan A

Next time, we'll do our best to make everything work out properly and have the full-length event as we had originally planned. The original length of the Endurance Challenge was 2.4 hours, or 2 hours, 24 minutes.

After this race, it was time to pack up and head out - racers had cars to prep and the HPI staff had to get some food!