David Spashett wins at the inaugural ICC HPI Vintage Challenge

 

4-time IFMAR World Champion David Spashett took the overall win in the HPI Vintage Challenge class at the inaugural International Carpet Challenge this past weekend!

The HPI Vintage Challenge class was introduced by the organizers of the ICC to inject even more scale realism and extra racing excitement into proceedings, a plan which worked to perfection because the Vintage cars looked fabulous on the track with their muscle car bodies, retro livery and chrome Vintage 'mag' wheels! The slower speed of the 17.5 'blinky' Vintage class allowed racers to drive bumper-to-bumper for whole races, making for really exciting racing that all the drivers and spectators could rally behind!

David agreed with the sentiments of all the HPI Vintage Challenge racers: "The VTA class is an ideal opportunity to encourage scale representation in RC racing. Limited power and traction but unlimited looks and style makes for a great class of racing!"

The rules for the HPI Vintage Challenge were simple: touring cars had to be fitted with a vintage HPI musclecar-style body, and the racers were given HPI Vintage Slick Racing Tyres (#4791 and #4792) plus HPI Vintage Wheels (#3817 and #3822).

The racers were allowed to use a 17.5 brushless motors with a 'blinky' non-boosted speed controller, and the extra-wide musclecar bodies with their characteristic lack of downforce and the Vintage wheels and tires combined for extra rotating weight and less grip than the racers were used to. This made the racing a bit slower than the 13.5 boosted touring cars on the track, but the Vintage racing provided plenty of excitement for the spectators and especially the drivers, with several extremely close battles developing over the triple-leg final races.
 
In the end, it was 4-time IFMAR World Champion David Spashett who took home the victory, with Chris O'Donoghue and Jason Butterfield occupying 2nd and 3rd place on the podium. All the Vintage class drivers had plenty of fun on the track, with the cars easy to drive and just enough grip with the Vintage slick tires, and we look forward to seeing more Vintage racing action!  

 

 

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