December 2020 • Photos courtesy Optima Batteries
Presented by BUA Motorport & USAutomotive

I was making plans to attend the 99th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb when I received a call from my friend Cam Douglas of Optima Batteries. He had just got news that the 2020 SEMA Show had been canceled and he was brainstorming ideas for something to take its place.

He asked me what I thought about a show that would bring a few manufacturers together, not necessarily a trade show like SEMA but more of a festival with drifting, auto crossing, road racing, and other car-related activities. I said I thought it would be a great idea, but where would he do it, after all, we were in the middle of a global pandemic and SEMA being canceled was just another event in a long list of shows that would not happen in 2020. His answer, Texas!

Fast-forward to September and I start getting notifications for the Hi-Performance Expo (HPE) at the Circuit of the Americas or just COTA for short.

Once again Cam called and personally invited us to attend and cover the event. COTA was built to host the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. HPE was not F1 but it was an opportunity to access a world-class venue where legends such as Hamilton and Vettel have done battle— we packed our gear and jumped a jet.

HPE came together in less than two months from conception to execution and I have to say it was the best event I attended this year. It had everything including a car meet with over 100 vehicles, the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational with the winner taking $25,000 in cash and the Optima World Championship Autocross also with a cash prize of $25K to the Street Car Take Over Roll Racing.

What is Roll Racing you ask? Well, it’s like drag racing but the street cars get a rolling start and once they hit 40-60mph they go full throttle and race approximately 1,300—in this case about 1,000 ft. The winner is the first across the finish line. It’s just Iike drag racing but with street car speeds as high as 200 mph. As you would expect, this is a perfect event for high horsepower cars with limited traction.

The biggest draw at HPE was the Optima World Championship Autocross. The format was intentionally straightforward and simple—one class capped at 100 entries consisting of production cars with 200+ treadwear tires. Entry was $250 per vehicle and $25,000 was going to the winner. Additionally, the event would be livestreamed with a full production TV crew. It was all a leap of faith, but in what could easily be described as a crazy year, it seemed like it was all just crazy enough to work. Would the OPTIMA World Championship Autocross draw competitors on a large scale? Would anyone watch the livestream besides a few friends and relatives who couldn't attend in person?

A total of 73 entries from around the country made the trek to Texas. While nearly half the field was Corvettes, the top-five overall featured five different marques. However, it was the 2011 Corvette piloted by Jeremy Swenson of Moorhead, Minnesota that took top honors.

The inaugural Hi-Performance Expo was a huge success. In a year of so many disappointments, HPE was a ray of sunlight and we can’t wait for HPE2021. Although COTA might not be its permanent home, the automotive world has been waiting for a show like this and we hope it continues in the future.

More info on the HPE can be found at https://hiperformanceexpo.com/