20 replies to this topic

[Ron Hershman]

The HOPRA HO Nats is taking place in Noblesville, IN, this weekend and I went over for awhile and took a few random pics. Four tracks, lots of classes of cars, and lots of racers.

[Mike Patterson]

Neat!

Ron, is that a full-time raceway, or did several people bring the different tracks just for this event?

[John Miller]

It's been at a rented facility for the last two years. The previous two were at Lucky Bob's in Wisc.

Most of the guys in those pics are from Michigan. I seen a few from Jersey and Tony P. from FL.

It looks like a low turnout this year.

I use to run a lot of HO. . .

[John Streisguth]

The big difference I see from the NAts I attended in the 90's to this one is that the tracks are all routed tracks, whereas back then most were still the sectional track.

Hmmm...I can feel the itch for restricted open again....

[John Streisguth]

So Ron, did you try your hand at any of them?

[Ron Hershman]

Neat!

Ron, is that a full-time raceway, or did several people bring the different tracks just for this event?

No rented hall from the fairgrounds. Nice building icy cold A/C

It's been at a rented facility for the last two years. The previous two were at Lucky Bob's in Wisc.

Most of the guys in those pics are from Michigan. I seen a few from Jersey and Tony P. from FL.

It looks like a low turnout this year.

I use to run a lot of HO. . .

Most thought the turn out was very good... I was there while they were racing Vintage T-Jet and Am Super stock classes. many guys were still at their hotel or out for lunch. There were many more pit boxes and set-ups than there were racers in the building when I was there.

The big difference I see from the NAts I attended in the 90's to this one is that the tracks are all routed tracks, whereas back then most were still the sectional track.

Hmmm...I can feel the itch for restricted open again....

There is/was a plastic track for the RO's.... I didn't take a pic of that track.... I may go back over tomorrow and will take more pics

So Ron, did you try your hand at any of them?

No not yesterday.... I have in the past many years ago. I had thought of trying to race a couple of classes as I had some offers to run some other guys stuff, but had no time to practice the previous month so I didn't.

Cool stuff for sure.

[sidejobjon]

JOHN S,

TEAM 1/64 ?? Lou has a great track in Livingston NJ, & about 8 racers he never stopped. He paints like Bob Turner Now. He sent pictures of his Friends track also routed i think Roxbury. Lou track is about 6 X 20 6 lanes Max or wiz don`t remember.
I was at show last month & Nick came back from florida He had a table, Moved back to NJ. JRs friend from Newark. Think it was QUICK NICK line parts.

John If your ever in Mommouth county you can give me a tune night. On the tub track . Lou & guys said you were the best with HO see you getting HO bug.

Thanks John

[John Streisguth]

John:
There is a group of guys I had raced with the past couple of years. One guys in Mine Hill builds routed tracks by hand. Two things they do that make me not interested in racing with them: they race hardbodies but with FOAM tires....what a pain in the rear, why use foam when there are so many good slip-on silicone tires available? And secondly they race crash and burn, 5 laps per heat, and you have to count the laps yourself to know when you finish. A couple of the guys have computer systems, why they can't just set those up and use they, I don't know. It was interesting for a while, but since it's now 45 minutes to go race it's not worth it.

[akahollywood]

Ron, I didn't know you stopped by, would have liked to introduce myself to you. Did you see Merrell? As for the comments about a low turnout, it was actually pretty good. While I haven't had a chance to do an actual head count, I'd estimate 60+ racers over the course of the entire 4 days. We had four tracks: a TKO for the Tjets, two Brystals for AM & Pro S/S, CM Poly Mod and various support races and one AFX sectional track for Neo Mod, Unlimited and the L25 Poly Mod support race. The largest field was in the new CM Poly Mod class with 36 racers! AM S/S had 32 racers and Pro S/S has 24 racers. Tjets had 26 racers. The Life-Like Challenge had 50 racers and the AFX Mega G Showdown had 53 racers! We had racers from all over the country, including FL, AZ, MA, MN, MI, OH, IL, NJ, PA, KY, IN, NY and WV. Steve Russell, head of AFX Racemasters, flew in to check out the event and watch the AFX Mega G Showdown. He donated all the new Mega G Audi and Peugeot cars and everyone got to keep the cars they raced. Same goes for the Life-Like Challenge. Matter of fact, we had at least 25 different sponsors donate several thousands of dollars worth of race prizes and free raffle items. Plus, the top 4 finishers in five of the National Championship classes took home a combined $2,375 in cash along with great looking awards plaques! [The six National Championship class, Amateur Super Stock, received award plaques, but no cash for obvious reasons.]

I'll post a quick rundown of the top 5 in all the classes and categories in the 2011 HOPRA National Championships thread. The complete results, along with pictures, will be posted soon on the HOPRA website.

[Steve Deiters]

It looks like these tracks are on wheels. Are they owned by racers and then brought to the events?

[Ron Hershman]

Ron, I didn't know you stopped by, would have liked to introduce myself to you. Did you see Merrell?

Yes came and watched Merrell race along with the other Indy racers running in that class. I seen you and you were quite busy running races and I left ya alone..... been there done that before LOL.

I will get down to some of the weekly races in the future.

It looks like these tracks are on wheels. Are they owned by racers and then brought to the events?

Yes... two of them were on wheels/carts that I could see.

[John Miller]

The attended a couple of Nationals at Lucky Bob's and the turnouts were much bigger but 60 + is good.

Nice job Dave. I hope that you are well.

ThChrMn

[John Miller]

It looks like these tracks are on wheels. Are they owned by racers and then brought to the events?

Yep.

[akahollywood]

My estimate was a bit off on the number of racers that raced. Turns out we had a total of 86 racers!

[chaparrAL]

The Retro event at the Nats was a huge sucess with 18 racers. Tim Miller edged out Len Sabato and Norm Gardner by sections with Tony Mickles one lap back. Top four cars separated by a lap and a half.
Rick Derosa was 5th Duane Norris 6th.

[chaparrAL]

Joel Pennington finished 7th with his fancy scratchbuilt.Bill Macy borrowed a Landshark the last minute and drove to a steady 8th.
Travis Joop had the best totals on three lanes but a blown fuse took him out, he still made 9th His car ran nicely with Tom Shepards "Lawbreaker" tires.

[chaparrAL]

Landshark cars swept the top six positions.
The entire race I marshaled and took pictures. I had solder iron and spare parts right there. Had I not then it would have been trouble for sure. All the cars ran flawlesly all day.


A BIG thanks to Dave Lehr and Tom Shepard !

[sidejobjon]

Al,
Any close ups? Al i had a land Shark ready for the NJ Brass war race , but they did not run the Scratch build race but they will have it at a later date.

[chaparrAL]

John
I failed to get pics of John Reimels inline cars . Very neat well crafted. He is obviously someone who will in the future be building scratchbuilt cars with enthusiasm.
I will see about posting Pics of Joel's Scractbuilt with the Pat Dennis Motor. It is something you gotta see. Gotta do that on the other computer in the office. Crap! I will do that soon.

[John Reimels]

Al,

Thanks for the kind words about my chassis design, I just finished building 4 more to use for IROC racing - I'm trying to generate interest in BRASCAR here in New England. There's been a lot of dialog but not much action - hopefully the ability for folks to try out the class will be the nudge we need for folks to scrape the corrosion off their soldering iron and start building! I'll take some pictures tonight and post tomorrow.

BTW - You have an email from me concerning the purchase of some more motor brackets and motors...

John Reimels

[chaparrAL]

John, Msg sent.
Since I got back from Vacation my helper is on vacation. Im still trying to catch up!

Thanks!