Racing with HOPAC in Portland at Riverside Raceway

Dave Ferguson invited me to a HOPAC race to be held on Andre Perra's Riverside Raceway in northwest Portland. Dave offered to loan me a car and controller, so how could I say no? Upon arrival I found a large number of competitors in Andre's beautifully accentuated race room, all ready to go it! I arrived early enough to get in some practice laps and quickly realized the car Dave loaned me was just flat awesome! I really like the G-Jet platform developed by Gary Beedle of BSRT. The cars are extremely fast but unlike the heavy magnet downforce cars, they still require some finesse to get them through the corners quickly.

The racing was exciting to say the least, but what impressed me more was how friendly and helpful everyone was. In addition to Dave loaning me one of his cars another racer, whose name I totally forgot and I apologize, loaned me his DiFalco controller for the race. As well as great racing on a very nice track, Andre provided lunch for everyone. Andre told me this was the last race to be held on this particular track as the track was being replaced by a newer version of his Riverside Raceway.

For me this was an awesome day. My years in the slot car hobby started with an Aurora HO slot car set and racing and collecting HO cars. When I was young I would read about the southern Californian legends like Gary Beedle, Dave Ferguson, Andre Perra, and Bryan Henden. Here I was in the same room with them, it just doesn't get much better!

So a big thanks to Dave Ferguson for getting me there, and to Andre Perra for putting on such a fantastic event!