Dale Earnhardt, Jr visits HPI!

Check out more celebrities who run HPI cars!

In Southern California for the NAPA Auto Parts 500 race at California Motor Speedway, NASCAR Winston Cup Series race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr took time from his busy schedule to stop by the HPI USA headquarters for a tour of our facility.

Dale Jr's road crew, including engine techs, pit crew members and truck drivers also came for the tour. Most of them have at least one HPI car, and all of them enjoy playing with their R/C cars and trucks at the NASCAR events around the country.

Once we found out about the visit, HPI "graphics guys" Matt Kearney and Scott Roberts prepared a special replica of the #8 Budweiser Monte Carlo (#7430) body for Dale Jr. We used Pactra Racing Red spray paint and cut custom logos from our computerized vinyl cutting machine. Some of the sponsor logos (fender decals, etc.) were from Slixx Graphics decals. Dale Jr was nice enough to give us a huge signature on the trunk of the body, and we also made up another Bud #8 display body for him to keep. Junior's crew also dropped off some killer hats for our staff, and we provided them with HPI hats. 

After Buy HPI's Troy Lyman showed Dale Jr and his crew around the HPI USA building, our staff was invited to a barbecue put on by the official oil cooler of NASCAR, Fluidyne. With a huge production facility in Ontario, CA, they had enough room to host a small car show and a free barbecue dinner for NASCAR crews and other guests. Once we arrived, we checked out the cars on display and took a tour of the Fluidyne and Thermal Dynamics production facility.

About 300 people made it to the barbecue - the "official drinks" of NASCAR were plentiful!	Fluidyne is the official oil cooler of NASCAR - their Wall of Fame shows the cars they sponsor directly.	Cool robotic welders! FYI: Looking at the arc light with unprotected eyes can blind you.	A pallet of radiators ready to ship. About 60,000 radiators and coolers are made each week!

Apparently, the robots in the facility are man-eating!
(actually, it's just an OSHA warning, and the netting keeps the robots from getting you, but it's a funny logo)

HPI's newest R&D member, Chad Geissler, marvels at the factory restrooms.  

After the tour, we were invited to run our spec-RTR Nitro RS4 Stock Car Series in a special area of the parking lot. Once the first cars were fired up, a crowd immediately formed up at the end of our short oval track. This shows that 2 corner dots or traffic cones with a few cars making laps can easily become a traffic-stopper! 

After about 40 minutes on the short oval, the HPI van was packed up and accompanied by the Bud #8 crew we headed to a new, huge warehouse that Fluidyne will move into. While it's empty we were offered the chance to run as long as we wanted indoors! As we pulled out our spec Stock Car Series car with 4mm carbs, rear can mufflers and spec tires, the Bud #8 guys were starting up their totally modified Nitro RS4 cars and turning laps! 

One of the Bud #8 crewmen running his Nitro RS4 2 car on the polished concrete floor	Thad Garner (in blue) and Erik Shauver (in orange) play on the slick oval track
Note the haze in the above pictures - this is what you get when you run Nitro cars indoors! It should be noted that we took frequent fresh-air breaks and opened up huge rolling doors to get cross-ventilation and let the fumes out.

Running the cars on a long oval around two support poles on the dusty, super-slick track (polished concrete) took some practice, but most of the guys on the track took advantage to learn the midget spring car mode of driving (or, for rally fans, the 4-wheel drift!). Seeing a stock car go completely around a turn with the nose pointed at the pole took some getting used to!

While most of the HPI crew were racing, others took some time to help a couple of the Bud #8 crewmen break in brand-new engines. We made sure to remind them that going from a 15FE (our easy-to-tune, beginner-friendly engine) to a race-modified 1hp .15 engine with tuned pipe was a big jump! Luckily these guys know how to work on 800 hp 350 cubic inch V-8's so they understood that they have to take their time with the engine and go easy on the throttle.

Troy Lyman helps out motor technician Jeff "Gorilla" Clark (the crew's name for him, not ours!) with his car.	Frank McKinney helps out Sheldon with the break-in of his new (non-HPI!) engine. See, every option part is purple in our eyes!

After the Fluidyne barbecue was wrapped up, the owner of the company brought the remaining drinks to the new warehouse and took in the Nitro craziness. While he doesn't have a car of his own yet, we could tell he wanted one! 

Soon it was time to go, and most of the HPI crew that arrived had to head back to Orange County and drive home. The HPI van was packed up again and Kent Clausen took the wheel. Saying goodbye to the Bud #8 jack men, engine techs, vehicle drivers and Fluidyne employees, we wished them the best of luck for Sunday's race and tried to blink the Nitro fumes out of our eyes. 

We told the entire Bud #8 and Fluidyne crew, as well as Dale Jr himself, that we appreciated their visit and barbecue invitation, and thanked them again and let them know we'll be rooting for them in the future! The entire crew was very friendly, and really into R/C cars, they thanked us several times for giving them the tour of the HPI facility. We also gave them directions to the local hobby shops, which they have since visited to stock up on a huge supply of R/C car parts and accessories. 

Thanks again to Dale Jr. and the Bud #8 crew for stopping by!

Note: Dale Jr. had trouble in qualifying, starting in 38th place but finished a well-deserved third at the NAPA Auto Parts 500 on April 29, 2001!

Go to NASCAR.com, the official web site of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing

Go to FOXSports.com, the official broadcaster of NASCAR

Go to Budweiser.com (only if you're over 21!), Dale Jr's sponsor and team site

Go to DEJr8.com, Dale Jr's team site

Related news: HPI racers take part in stock racing fun!
Slixx decals helped us make authentic stock car racing paint jobs with their excellent decals, then we have fun scraping them off of each other's bodies in our first-ever "home-grown" stock car oval series! What do you get when you get similar RTR Nitro RS4 cars with stock car bodies? Read all about it here!