2012 NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill

[BKaczmarek]

The tenth running of endurance racing's best kept secret is coming up quickly - just 9 days to the green flag on December 8-9!

This year's entry list is looking pretty impressive - the unlimited classes, especially. ESR, for prototypes, finally has a Norma M20 going for the full 25 hours, along with a Radical SR3 and a Catfish... A Catfish? Apparently it's a Miata chassis with brand new bespoke aero and an LS3 in the front...

For ES, there's the usual Porsche Carrera Cup cars, plus a Cayman, plus an RCR Eagle/SLC Superlite, plus the Audi TT-RS of VLN fame...

72 Cars in all - have a look here: http://www.nasa25hour.com/registration.htm

Additionally, there's live commentary for the full race:

For the second straight year, NASA's 25 Hours of Thunderhill has found an exclusively live home on Endurance Radio, presented by Motorsports Southwest and Wolf Racing Cars! Over 70 teams are set to make the trek to Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA for the 10th running of the longest endurance race in the United States. Endurance Radio's Brendan Kaczmarek will be on scene for 26 hours of live coverage. Join us on Saturday, December 8th at 10:30AM PST (1:30PM EST) for pre-race buildup before the green flag flies at 11:00AM. As long as there are cars on track, Endurance Radio will have something to say about it right up until the checkered flag at Noon PST on Sunday, December 9th.

The broadcast can truly be accessed from anywhere. The NASA 25 Hour website - http://www.nasa25hour.com - will be streaming our coverage all the way through the race and will have links to countless other resources for following the race, including live timing, entry lists, qualifying results, and some streaming video. The player is HTML5 compatible - meaning you can listen anywhere on a smartphone while also following live timing!

Endurance Radio's presenting sponsor, Motorsports Southwest, is the exclusive distributor for Wolf Racing Cars for North America. Find them at http://www.motorsports-sw.com or visit Wolf at http://www.wolfracingcars.com.

The Wolf GB08 is a state of the art CN/LMP Sports Racer from Italy with high downforce and a Gen3 aero package, and is the championship winning car in the 2012 European SPEED Euroseries. Ivan Bellarosa drove the Wolf to 10 victories in of 12 races and will compete in next year's Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Wolf GB08 is available with a 255HP Honda K20, a 320HP engine or a 450+HP V8 which makes the Wolf capable of LMP2 laptimes for a fraction of the cost. Motorsports Southwest will campaign the all-conquering Sports Racer at Thunderhill in 2013, along with cars each from Miles Jackson and Ivan Bellarosa - Three Wolfs in 2013!

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by BKaczmarek

The tenth running of endurance racing's best kept secret is coming up quickly - just 9 days to the green flag on December 8-9!

This year's entry list is looking pretty impressive - the unlimited classes, especially. ESR, for prototypes, finally has a Norma M20 going for the full 25 hours, along with a Radical SR3 and a Catfish... A Catfish? Apparently it's a Miata chassis with brand new bespoke aero and an LS3 in the front...

For ES, there's the usual Porsche Carrera Cup cars, plus a Cayman, plus an RCR Eagle/SLC Superlite, plus the Audi TT-RS of VLN fame...

72 Cars in all - have a look here: http://www.nasa25hour.com/registration.htm

Additionally, there's live commentary for the full race:

This seems interesting.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Beetle

This seems interesting.

Sure does, I wish I could make this! I well remember the days of the Cannibal, so good luck the Catfish!

Real hoot a VLN car is coming over.

[Mike Hedlund]

I'll be there with the car I normally use for testing/practice (ES class Porsche) w/ my buddies doing crew/logistics who normally run the Mercer program. It's great practice since more then half the race is in the dark and the weather conditions are normally pretty gnarly.

-mike

[Porsche917K]

This isn't too far away from me, maybe I will head over for part of the race.

[BKaczmarek]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

I'll be there with the car I normally use for testing/practice (ES class Porsche) w/ my buddies doing crew/logistics who normally run the Mercer program. It's great practice since more then half the race is in the dark and the weather conditions are normally pretty gnarly.

-mike

Mike, is the Motorsport Solutions group essentially the Mercer crew from the last few years? Given the equipment choice and driver lineup it appears, to the untrained eye, like it might be.

@Porsche917K, get out there! Last year was my first visit and I fell in love with it... It's one of the last "real" endurance races where it's not just about outright speed but rather reliability and being clever. It's extremely accessible (despite being in the middle of nowhere) and has an amazing atmosphere.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by BKaczmarek

Mike, is the Motorsport Solutions group essentially the Mercer crew from the last few years? Given the equipment choice and driver lineup it appears, to the untrained eye, like it might be.

That's correct. Scott Mercer was also kind enough to let us borrow some of his gear which helps for this particular event. Michelin and Pagid are also helping us out and without them we'd be at home prepping for Daytona & Sebring. :-)

-mike

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Sure does, I wish I could make this! I well remember the days of the Cannibal, so good luck the Catfish!

Real hoot a VLN car is coming over.

I didn't notice the VLN car.

[NaBUru38]

What kind of drivers do the race? Are there any Rolex GT, SCCA World Challenge or Conti Challenge guests?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

What kind of drivers do the race? Are there any Rolex GT, SCCA World Challenge or Conti Challenge guests?

At least one (look 2 posts before yours)!

also, I believe Pagenaud has done the race in the past with a Honda of some type.

[BKaczmarek]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

What kind of drivers do the race? Are there any Rolex GT, SCCA World Challenge or Conti Challenge guests?

Davidson Racing's lineup this year is wicked. They've got Randy Pobst and Brian Frisselle and a few local guys (also very quick) in a Norma, with Troy Casteneda, Burt Frisselle, Anthony Lazzaro, and Mark Wilkins in the SLC Superlite (or RCR Eagle, whatever).

Jon Fogarty and Johannes Van Overbeek are in the Motorsports Solutions Porsche described previously.

Charles Espenlaub and Tristan Vautier are the big guns in the Mazda2 for Mazdaspeed.

CJ Wilson has a Young Guns car of much interest this year, including MX-5 champion Stevan McAleer, MX-5 race winner Elliott Skeer, IMSA Lites champion Tristan Nunez, and F2000 runner-up Spencer Pigot.

Plenty of interest, but the full lineups are here: http://www.nasa25hour.com/drivers-list.html

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by BKaczmarek

Plenty of interest, but the full lineups are here: http://www.nasa25hour.com/drivers-list.html

groan. It would be kind of nice to have a list that includes team, car, and drivers on one list.... I guess it becomes unwieldy if done that way?

[BKaczmarek]

For the organizers, certainly... For my purposes as the commentator I'm working at combining them - give me a day or so.

[Nick6]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

What kind of drivers do the race? Are there any Rolex GT, SCCA World Challenge or Conti Challenge guests?

A mix bag. You see pro drivers, and some teams from GA, ALMS, SWC and Conti along with a slew of amateurs. The Thunderhill 25 is almost like a scaled down version of the Nring 24.

[BKaczmarek]

Can't believe I missed one: None other than Elliott Forbes-Robinson will be at the wheel of the #4 FFR. Car had a lot of potential last year - should be fun to watch.

[BKaczmarek]

The recently promised, decidedly less cumbersome entry list: http://www.mediafire.com/?k2ckwal5nl5wqlc

Appears they're still waiting for a few teams to confirm.

[BKaczmarek]

Testing for the race started yesterday and will continue for today, before being capped off by a half hour qualifying session at dusk tonight.

I managed to get up to the track to watch a few hours of testing - the Motorsports Solutions #64 looks awfully strong, regularly turning laps below 1:50 at will. I clocked him at a 1:46.5, and he wasn't much slower than that in traffic. That said, it's worth noting that that car maintained its speed through traffic much better than anyone else did, including the TT-RS. I clocked him at a high 1:49 on a flying lap, and the same goes for the SR3.

The Bimmerworld car is awfully quick in a straight line but it lacks mid-corner speed, being so heavy. It hovered just above 1:50 for the most part.

No laps yesterday from either the Norma or the RCR Eagle from Davidson Racing. They should be in the day session today. The Norma is capable of 1:42's around here - they shouldn't be far off that.

The Rimicci Corse Abarth rolled yesterday as well: http://youtu.be/5-0xbQF4k3s ... The driver was okay and actually drove the car back to the pits. The damage was mostly cosmetic it seemed and the car is expected to be back on track today.

[skycafe]

gadzooks, he wasn't helped in that?

[BKaczmarek]

Unfortunately not - doesn't bode well...

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by BKaczmarek

Unfortunately not - doesn't bode well...

...looking for adventure and whatever comes my way, Born to be Wild!

They certainly can't complain about lack of grip!

[joeb]

Originally Posted by skycafe

gadzooks, he wasn't helped in that?

Originally Posted by BKaczmarek

Unfortunately not - doesn't bode well...

Guess he found where the limit was.

[BKaczmarek]

The Davidson cars have finally headed out on track. The Norma just ran away from the Motorsports Solutions Porsche while doing reasonably clean laps in the 1:44-1:46 range... Going to be interesting to see how well they can sustain the pace - the Porsche seems a bit more consistent through traffic.

There was a rollover this morning for the #1 VUC Motorwerks BMW. It appears he got hooked between T13 and T14 to drivers' left and the car dug into the soft mud and rolled up onto the right side. The damaged seemed to be limited to mostly cosmetics apart from the RF suspension and, as far as I know, will race tomorrow.

Qualifying starts in a little under 2 hours - half an hour for 70 cars. Traffic is going to be insane - can't wait to see how this pans out!

Reminder that our broadcast, presented by Motorsports Southwest and Wolf Racing Cars, starts on Endurance Radio tomorrow at 1:30PM Eastern (10:30AM Local). We'll have a short preview and then a rundown of the grid... Join us for all 25 hours!

[Maelochs]

How does one tune in to Endurance radio? I'd like to listen but I don't know if it is a website or a radio station or what?

[BKaczmarek]

Sorry - it was mentioned in the presser in the first post

I'll post all the details again tomorrow morning, but head over to www.nasa25hour.com - it'll be linked there tomorrow morning, as will live timing.

Or, failing that, the direct link to the Livestream page is right here: https://new.livestream.com/enduranceradionet/25hour

[Maelochs]

Fantastic. Thanks Very much.