The Pre-Party in Miami

The adventure for us once again began in Miami at HP Racing’s NOPI Nats pre-party. The crew at HP did its usual fine job of playing host with lots of food, good music and great giveaways. We went to hang out for a few hours with some of the South Florida dudes showing off their rides as they prepared to make the trek to Atlanta the following night.

Road to Atlanta

The next day we headed out toward Jacksonville, Florida, to pick up some of our cars from the seaport. The guys from Vision Entertainment were gracious enough to ship two of our cars down to Puerto Rico for one of its spin-off events. We picked up the cars from the port, along with some friends from the Akina Speedstars, and started our drive to Atlanta.

Hurricane Ivan Looms

Of course, we can’t forget to mention that in the midst of all of this, Hurricane Ivan was moving through Florida and heading toward Atlanta! As you may recall, it was BIG news. Rumors were flying that the Nationals could be postponed or even cancelled.

Keeping a close watch on the hurricane reports, we anticipated bad weather, but persisted just the same so we would arrive on time. Which we didn’t. It was late Friday evening when we entered the Speedway—without a drop of rain on our windshields! The skies looked clear, so it appeared the NOPI event would be fine for the weekend.

Last-Minute Prep

Before arriving, we stopped a few highway exits away from Atlanta Motor Speedway to wash our cars and get them ready for display. The place was already saturated—not with rain, but with other tuners who had the same idea. We joined the waiting line.

Once that was done, we headed to our hotel for the night, only to discover that there was a slight dilemma with our reservations, and we had to call around to find more hotel rooms. Take our advice: Always schedule your hotel accommodations way in advance for the week of the NOPI Nats. And if you want to actually sleep in your room, stay as far away as possible from the track. Otherwise you get drunken antics, burnouts, engine revving and “SHOW ME YOUR HOO-HOOS!” at all hours of the night. Luckily, we found a nice, quiet hotel where we all got adequate sleep for the weekend.

The Saturday Morning Line

One trademark that stands out about the NOPI Nats is the colossal line that forms in the early morning hours before the show opens. Cars start lining up beforehand to get better parking for the weekend, and this year’s event was no different. So we cruised the caravan of vehicles, trying to spot some cars.

One of the cars that stood out was owned by Jon Jon “JDM hater” Guadalupe. We’d seen his car last year at the same event, as well as at the spring break Tuner Bash, so we were familiar with his car, but we had never met Guadalupe. We pulled him out from the show on Saturday and messed around with his car, so be sure to look for his ride in an upcoming issue.

Drama and Dedication

As the day progressed, Neil “The Book Nazi” Tjin had Team China Man working full-tilt. Raul Brenes, Ben Bodor, Gene Tjin (Neil’s brother) and Warren Shim-Quee apparently managed to stir up the usual drama with some of our competitors while there, but we won’t get into that now. (We’ll save it for Neil’s editorial.)

The Show Lives Up to the Hype

So despite dangerous tropical storm threats, it was another great year for the NOPI Nationals. We’d like to thank Clint Bartwell and Arturo Johnson for helping us with the gate situation. These guys made it a piece of cake for us to get the cars in and out, so we could get them photographed. The Nats had its share of subplots and a bit of drama, but once again the show lived up to the hype. There were thousands of cars on display and, considering the weather reports, more spectators than anyone expected. Once again, NOPI set the bar for others to follow.