Race and Performance Expo Set to be Bigger than Ever

Each year the Race and Performance Expo grows in response to increasing demand from the industry. The 9th Annual RP Expo, held Feb. 20-21 in Schaumburg, Illinois, is slated to be the biggest yet with over 100,000 square feet of high performance products. “We’ve increased our size 28% and sold out a month earlier. It’ll be the biggest and best consumer Race & Performance Expo show in the Midwest,” said Tom Stockenberg, the show’s director.

While the Expo is built upon the same idea as the SEMA and PRI Shows, the Expo stands out by allowing entry to the general public, providing even the Shadetree mechanic the opportunity to purchase parts at discount prices and browse the Car Builder’s Showcase while still affording more invested enthusiasts the opportunity to attend educational racing seminars and network with retailers, engine builders, sanctioning bodies and more. The Expo will also feature a Swap Meet in which consumers can buy, sell and trade parts.

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Students are inspired and challenged at PRI Show in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – While the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show did not officially start until Thursday, December 10, students from across the nation convened in Indianapolis on Tuesday to kick off the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Dual Championship. With the first four spots in the Engine Challenge Finals filled from SEMA competition, 17 additional teams came to compete for the final four spots at PRI. From Tuesday through Friday they competed in performance engine rebuilds, looking for sub 20 minute completion times.

In the PRI Dual Championship, teams completed a total of four rebuilds. The top three were then averaged to determine overall winners. Team Weld Racing from Eastern Oklahoma County Tech Center, Team Hypertech from Forsyth Central High School, Team Mahle from Burton Center for Arts and Technology and Team Moroso from Elkhart Area Career Center topped the leaderboard in the second half of the Dual Championship to fulfill the final Elite Eight spots.

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Coach John Rickerson has been a part of the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Championship each year since its inception. His teams have always finished in the top ten, and often in the top five. When asked about the key to his teams’ successes he simply says, “teamwork”.

“You’ve got to find a group of kids that can work together,” told Rickerson. “If you don’t have that team aspect where they don’t communicate and don’t work together, then you can’t have success. They’ve got to get along.”

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Jill Arata, the sole female coach to qualify for a Dual Championship playoff spot, was preparing to take two teams to compete at SEMA Team Taylor Cable and Team Edelbrock. Team Edelbrock had already made history by becoming the first all female team (including a female coach) to qualify for the Dual Championship. However, two short weeks before heading to Las Vegas from Belvidere, Illinois, Arata’s son was in a major car accident. Her son happens to be part of the male team, and it quickly became very uncertain whether or not he would be able to compete.

“My guys are all seniors,” told Arata. “They have lives and jobs and girlfriends. Before the accident, they could barely make time for each other. I had never seen these guys pull together and support each other in the way they did after my son’s accident. I knew they would be phenomenal at that point. It was really our defining moment. I saw how amazing these guys truly are, how determined, how passionate.”

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Loara High School in Anaheim, California had two teams qualify for the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Dual Championship. Both teams finished in the top 15 and Team K&N finished in the top four. Completing their rebuilds with an average time of 23 minutes and 52 seconds, Team K&N qualified for the Engine Challenge Finals, where, in less than two weeks time. They will compete against seven other teams to determine who will be crowned the 2015 Engine Challenge Champion.

The road to the industry trade shows where the Engine Challenges are held is never an easy one, and once there, things don’t get any easier. Teams, comprised solely of high school students, must complete performance engine rebuilds to exact specifications, all while competing against the clock and other teams in front of live audiences. Even when teams have perfected their jobs, the pressure can cause simple mistakes that are costly in the end. The teams that hold up under pressure are the often the ones that go the distance. Such was the case for Team K&N, as their coach, Anthony Boccignone, explains:

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LAS VEGAS, NV – “I think that’s one of the biggest things as a coach that you have to try to take care of is to compensate for any surprises that may come along.” This statement was made by Bobby Bard, coach to the final team from the SEMA Show to qualify for the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Championship. He and his team of Franklin County Career & Technology Center students came through adversities, setbacks, hundreds of travel miles and seemingly endless practice hours in order to clinch fourth place at the first half of the Dual Championship.

“One of the biggest challenges that we had to overcome was, like everybody else, the time barrier,” Bard continued. “As far as recorded times, at Carlisle in April we were at 26 minutes and 9 seconds. We went to another qualifier at the Route 66 Dragway in July and we shaved 3 minutes off our time. Then at SEMA, with penalties we were at 24 minutes and 9 seconds. We had two runs where we had an intake manifold bolt that was loose, which was a four minute penalty. Our time should have been right around 21 minutes. If we would have had clean runs, we would have came in second place.”

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The first half of the 2015 Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Dual Championship is complete. Twenty-two teams competed in the Engine Challenge, held at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. These teams – comprised solely of high school students – faced off against each other and the clock to complete performance engine rebuilds, and, for the first time, also took a 50 question written exam to further test their knowledge. Team ARP – Peach County High School from Fort Valley, GA. came in at an average time of just 17 minutes and 20 seconds to set the bar and take the top spot from the SEMA Dual Championship.

In order to determine an overall Engine Challenge Champion, the top four teams from SEMA will compete against the top four teams from the second half of the Dual Championship, forming an “elite eight” showdown held at the PRI Show, December 10-12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.. With their incredible time, Team ARP has secured their spot at these Engine Challenge Championship Finals.

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Forty teams comprised solely of high school students have put in countless hours in perfecting a performance engine rebuild in less than 35 minutes. Now their hard work is paying off as they head to the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Dual Championship. The Dual Championship is the last step before competing for the overall title of Engine Challenge National Champion at the Championship Finals.

The first of these semi-final events is held at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 3-6. Twenty-three of the forty teams will compete at SEMA, but only four will go on from there to compete in the Championship Finals held at the PRI Show. The remaining teams will compete at the PRI Show Dual Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana, December 10-12. The top four from SEMA And from PRI will then compete in an ‘Elite Eight’ Championship Finals, held on Friday afternoon and Saturday, the last day of the PRI show.

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The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge has put 12 events in the books for 2015. Throughout these events, held from Florida to California, 40 teams have qualified to compete for the Engine Challenge National Championship. In order to qualify, these teams, comprised solely of high school students, must complete a performance engine rebuilt in less than 35 minutes. These 40 teams have now advanced to the semi-finals. Twenty-three of these teams will compete in the first round of semi-final competition, held at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, November 3-6. A second round of semi-final competition will be held at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Show, December 10-12, with the remaining teams competing there.

In 2014, Hot Rodders of Tomorrow converted to a Dual Championship format where the top two SEMA teams face the top two PRI teams in an epic showdown. With the success of this new format, Hot Rodders has expanded the amount of teams from four to eight, in 2015.

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On July 11^th,  The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow’s West Coast truck and trailer that housed the tools, parts, and equipment for these competitions was stolen, and on July 19th only the trailer was found  – but it was stripped. It was left abandoned in the Beaumont, California, area with lots of damage and just about everything was stolen except some counters and flooring. July 21^st it was brought back to San Jacinto, CA. and is need of repair.

However, the 2001 GMC Topkick C7500 that was used to haul the trailer is still missing, the bright red paint and graphics are a definite standout and would be easily recognized. However, we believe it might already have the graphics stripped off and  been repainted by now. We need everyone to continue to keep a look out for it and spread the word as it will be difficult to replace it. Thank you all.