Diecast Drags net $365 for Progeria Charity

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Thanks to many friends of mine and the support of generous parents, it was the kids that won at the “Home Runs, Hot Dogs and Hot Rods” show in downtown Mesa, Arizona on 2/28/09.

One set of winning, smiling kids were the ones that enjoyed 4 hours of non-stop action running down the 50 foot track during practice among the car show hot rods. By the time racing action started, they had nailed the timing of the Christmas tree’s amber-amber green start. My boys know the drill, so more than once you heard, “You got smoked!” Next time, bring your kids to the show! Now you’ve got something to enjoy with them that’ll get you out of your lawn chairs!

The second set of kids that won we’ll probably never meet. A rare few will ever know the courage needed to be so different on the outside but remain a smiling, energetic kid inside. I hope other folks were inspired to give to the Progeria Research Foundation like I was when I read Amy Foose’s story. As the younger sister of famed designer and builder Chip Foose, her life ended at 16 before many doctors knew what Progeria is. I’m proud to have raised $365 in donations from the kind car show goers that Saturday. Thank you.  You can still donate yourself by going to Terry Foose’s fund raising site: First Giving for Progeria Research

So what happened in the race?

Kids were separated into elimination brackets of: 5 and under, 6-8, 9-12 and over 12. The 6-8 group fielded a full 16 car field followed closely by 15 and 14 racers in the 9-12 and 5 and under. Race action was fierce!

The kids discovered in practice that it wasn’t the heaviest car (like common wisdom might say) that proved fastest, it was (as I’d been saying) the car that goes straight! My tracks a little wider than standard Hot Wheels track, so super-fast cars that got the “High speed wobbles” scrubbed speed on the track sides and were eventually passed. Lead changes, believe it or not, were NOT uncommon, especially with the Christmas Tree start. More than one “holeshot” winner celebrated and alot of “snoozers” restarted their breathing by making it up on the big end.

For the younger racers, Allison, the over 12 champ had her “Ratbomb” Hot Wheel rocking and took what was probably a holeshot win in the finals over 6-8 year old champ Nathaniel. Allison bested Thomas from the 9-12 year old bracket and Nathaniel used a holeshot to sneak past the “young gun” of the group, the cute but not quick Barbara. 3rd and 4th were to split the case of Hot Wheels that Hot Rod Art Book supplied, but as it turns out, Barbara and Thomas are brother and sister! They smiled incredulously when I handed over the case of 72 brand new Hot Wheels.

For the big kids, my mom and wife got in on the action but were quickly SMOKED by the men. Mark tried to use his daughter Allison’s winning car from the kids races. Boo Mark. Nope. We fielded 25 racers for the adult bracket and I thank them for their generous donations. The field included some ringers from the Arizona Outlaws Hot Wheels club (who by the way helped all day long!) but couldn’t make it out of the first round. In some fast paced, “snooze you lose” action the final featured Ray (and his smiling son) racing Ricardo. Ray’s Nomad-like wagon proved to be to much for the competition and closed out the best of 3 with 2 wins in a row. Ricardo, “You got smoked!”

More thanks are needed: Thanks to Lance Baker from www.Hotrodplanet.com for putting on a good show. Other than not saving me an XXL t-shirt, a job well done! Thanks to my buddies: Big John for countless hours building the electronics behind the starting gate. Turns out he got sucked into my plan and we both underestimated the time needed to see it through. At 3AM on the Thursday before the show, my man put on the finishing touches. That’s a dedicated and true friend. Then thanks to E-rock for the support and transportation. Turns out a minivan (hey! it’s my wife’s car!) isn’t big enough to haul everything. He also kept my fire lit and hooked me up with a timely Filaberto’s burrito when needed.

Finally, thanks to the generous donations from www.Ridemakerz.com and Dwayne Vance over at www.Hotrodartbook.com. The kids were drooling over the “build-a-bear” take off that’s “build-a-car” over at Ridemakerz. First place for the kids took home a $100 gift certificate to Ridemakerz and 2nd place took home the ready to be assembled and trick Dodge Viper with motor and remote control. I think 2nd place thought he won!

For the adults I had 4 copies of Dwayne’s new book: Hot Rod Art Book, “Masters of Chicken Scratch”. I don’t know how many times I answered the question, “Are these for sale?” No, they’re for the racers! Get your own copy of the book and instructional DVD at www.Hotrodartbook.com. To sweeten the winning deal, the adults got a “treasure hunt” Hot Wheel donated by Kirk at KMJ Diecast in Mesa.

In Closing

That was fun! Alot of work, but fun. I’d really love to hear from the participants and on-lookers who took in the action. I’d also like to make the track available for charity events and future car shows. I’m also hoping to some day have an “Unlimited” diecast drag race where anything goes. Who’s up for that?

Stay tuned for a story about the car show and the fourth Saturday cruise that followed. So many burnouts!!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures and the winner’s shots:

Diecast Drags in Mesa – For the Kids

Most times it seems like nobody’d notice anyway, but I’ve been slacking on blog writing lately cause I’m working on my Diecast Drags track. I posted about it in the discussion forum. Did you see it?

The Diecast Drags, or some might say, “Hot Wheels” track is brought to you MyRideisMe.com and supporting the Progeria Research Foundation (http://www.Progeriaresearch.org)

The track is 2 continuous lanes that measure 50 feet! I roll it up when I’m done. The entire track lifted off the ground on a support platform to give a gradual decent and super high speeds! Racing will feature an electronic finish line and a “Christmas tree” start that gives an edge to the better reaction time. This promises to be more fun than Pinewood derby racing because it’s easier to get started and the fastest car might not always win!

Of course from the trial run 2/21 at the local, “Cruise in” called the “Mesa Pavilions” at Power and Hampton (Kmart parking lot) the kids could care less about the start! They just want to see who won and the small jump we had setup at the finish line!

The official race will be held on Saturday 2/28 as part of the “Home Runs, Hot Dogs and Hot Rods” car show. Lance Baker at www.Hotrodplanet.com is running that show. All the info you need to know about the show is at Hotrodplanet.com. There are no less than 4 car shows happening that weekend, but none of them have a cruise planned for after! Mesa is hosting a cruise to support local businesses (so bring and empty stomach) on the 4th Saturday of every month. The show starts at 11AM right in downtown at Center and Main streets and the cruise will start about 5PM. So even if you attend another show, make it back to Mesa for the cruise.

The racing action will be, “Free with donation” for all the racers. With each donation, you’ll get 1 Hot Wheel and as many trial runs and races as I can fit in. I’m hoping for $5/person and 100 people/racers to give $500 to the Progeria Foundation. I’d like everyone to know that 100% of the money will be donated.

For more info, I’ve already got a poster and some informational fliers about Progeria. I learned that Chip Foose’s younger sister died of Progeria before most people even knew what Progeria was. Amy Foose’s story of courage was deeply sad yet encouraging and hopeful at the same time. I was inspired to help and will make the donation on behalf of Terry Foose, Chip’s mom, at her fund raising site: First Giving for Progeria Research

Racing on 2/28 will run 12 AM-2PM for kids and at 2-4 for adults (depending on participation). Prizes will include 1 unopened case of Hot Wheels donated by www.Hotrodartbook.com and a gift card (or more!) to build your own custom ride from www.Ridemakerz.com. I’m hoping to add more prizes so more friendly car folks will race and/or donate to this super worthy cause.

Any questions or to make a donation yourself, please contact Craig Pike at pikesan@myrideisme.com or for information about the show and “Main Street” cruise that will follow, go to Hotrodplanet.com.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures, the kids sure did! If you’ll be racing, leave a comment telling me how many kids. Also, if you’d like to make a donation to Progeria but can’t make it to the show, please go to: Terry Foose’s website

Hot Wheels and Nintendo? Dwayne’s Blog

So I’m cruising the Grand National Roadster Show with ProblemChildKustom’s Brian Stupski. He freak’n knows just about everyone, so it doesn’t surprise me when he knows Dwayne. Dwayne’s got a booth at the Grand-daddy show and in the main hall no less. He’s selling these prints like hotcakes: (click to enlarge, it’s worth it!)

I’m pretty sure these are all $10 and available at Dwayne’s Website: FutureElements.net Store

These drawings are enough for a wicked blog, but that’s not what I’m writing about. As I was thumbing through some of Dwayne’s work, I see one of my favorite Hot Wheels, simply named 49 Merc.

I’m impressed. We all played (or still play) with Hot Wheels, so now I’ve met the dude who designed one of my favorites. So I started asking a bunch of questions…

1) How did you first get involved with Hot Wheels (Mattel)
That’s a very interesting story. I was taking a class for 3D using Alias Autostudio while working at Troy Lee Designs and I was learning how to build things in 3D. I got to know a few guys in class and they were all professional working for various companies. I started hanging out with one guy but I never asked what he did. We both had such a passion for cars that we just talked about cars all the time. Then one day he asked me “Do you have any friends that can draw cars well?” He was thinking since I was at Troy Lee Designs that I didn’t know how to draw cars. So I said “ Well I know how to draw cars, why? Then he said “ I am looking for someone to hire because we need help… I am the director of Hot Wheels and we looking for some good guys.” My eyes lit up and I said “I would love to draw cars for Hot Wheels, what do I need to do to apply” So he told me to bring my portfolio to him next time and he’d take a look. I brought my stuff and he basically hired me right there on the spot. I was at Hot Wheels about 3 weeks later and they gave me my first Hot Wheels to design which was the 68 Mustang “Boss Hoss” and the racing Lexus IS. Then I worked on various toy lines and several basic cars.

2) If you were a big hot wheels kid, (who wasn’t?) what was your favorite hot wheel?
Mmmm, good question. Well first I’m going to be biased and pick one of my own designs and that’s “Bully Goat”, What I thought the GTO should have looked like. Just for the record I designed it before the new Camaro ever came out, it has some similar characteristics. But as a kid one of my favorites was probably “Iced-T” I had several of them so if I lost one I had another one. I always wanted to do a remake of that model.

3) What kind of guidance did you get from Hot Wheel/Mattel about the design? Did they want a sled? If so, why do you think they picked you?
Yes I did have some guidance. Hot Wheels wanted several designs done that had different proportions for vehicles. Me and another guy Eric worked on this stuff and he actually drew the proportion with the big front end. So I added my take on it and I drew the 49 Merc to fit those proportions and everyone loved it.

(How cool are the extra hood pinstriping ideas Dwayne laid out?)

4) Anything we don’t know about the car/process that’s cool/unusual/interesting?
Well most of cars are built 3-up. So it is 3 times the size of the original Hot Wheel. I have My “Boss Hoss” and 64 Impala models. They look really cool when they are bigger.

So to wrap up the creative genius that is Dwayne, I had to ask him about this crazy drawing video he did on a what? Nintendo DS? (That’s still kinda freaking me out!)

Dwayne told me: I recently had a friend tell me about a drawing program for a Nintendo DS called “Colors”. The only way you can run it though is by modifying the DS with a Flashcart and a micro flash card. Basically it replaces a game cartridge and allows you to run new software on it. Then you install Colors and use it as a small digital sketchbook. It is really fun to doodle on. It is kind of like having a digital sticky pad with me all the time. It’s funny I draw for a living and I still love to draw in my free time.

So the drawing I did probably took about an hour and a half total. I did it with nothing in front of me I just started doodling and this is how it came out. Here’s a pic of the finished sketch.

Click on the picture of “Dusty Rod” to see the video over at FutureElements.net (it’ll be worth it!)

Too much! I gotta let my son see that so maybe he’ll give Star Wars and Mario Karts a rest!

Dwayne’s got some new stuff coming out soon. He’s making a book for the LA Roadster Show that will feature a lot of my sketches and artwork. I will also give an incite look on how I create a few of my drawings. He’s also got a few new pieces that will be on hand patined metal. Then, check out his website for a step by step process of how I work and get my art on the metal. The store for all of the $10 artwork and the tutorial section just went up.

I hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I enjoyed meeting Dwayne. Look for stories in the future.

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More from Dwayne Vance.  Here’s a link to his new book called, “Hot Rod Art Book, Masters of Chicken Scratch”.  Get it in advance and save $5.