NASA 25 hours of Thunder Hill, 2006
Awesome. No other way to describe the anticipation. Cars gridding, crews socializing and preparing their cars, the buzz of divers and officials. Three US Air Force F-15's hang in the air, off in the distance, waiting for the end of the singing of the star spangled banner before crushing the entire crowd with a low pass down the front straight. Car and Driver magazine has two entries, there are cameras everywhere, and all faces are smiling. NASA has worked hard over the years, and this event has really become something special. It is well on it's way to becoming a premier international endurance venue. I love this time, the camaraderie and the spirit that you feel just being here. Being a part of it is simply beyond words.
Our team is the B and B Tantrum entry. A 1987 second generation RX-7. We have six or seven listed drivers, which in my opinion is at least one too many. But it's always better to have to much and not to need it than to need it and not to have it.
Cars roll out from grid behind a pace car and a safety truck. One pace lap through the pits at the designated 25 mph speed limit, and the next time around is a clean first corner start. The race has begun.
Mark started for us.
His job is to stay out of trouble and run the car completely out of
gas. By the first hour and a half, we're
38th overall, and 8th in class. This is
Mark's only event each year, and he flies out from
Nick is in second. He's a hot shoe. He quickens our pace to a 2:10, and has a totally clean session. While he's out, I walk around and meet up with a group of Air Force guests and we have a good time talking about airplanes and race cars. I'm in the car next, so I return to the trailer to suit up. I'm sitting in the pits, ready to go while the car still has a good 20 or 30 minutes left on the track.
Then, it’s helmet on. Nick brings the car in, jumps out, and Bill helps me get belted in. Time to get to work. I come out on track in a fairly clear spot, and soon find myself racing a Black Mustang. We're back and forth a few times, he's a little faster, but he bobbles here and there, so I can keep up. Soon he pulls into the pits. There's a missle fast red and white Mazda powered frisbie out here, and I see it in my mirrors a few times. I point him by and continue. There is a pretty wide speed variation between this group of cars, and our machine is right in the middle, so I have to look in front and behind while I drive around. I get settled in to a pretty good pace and just try to keep it clean. I'm just using two gears for the whole track, trying to minimize the shifting and the wear and tear on the car. I still manage to do a bunch of 2:08's and an occasional 2:07. It's a good car, and I've driven one like it all year. This one oversteers, so you basically have to manage the rear end of the car. The front will go wherever you put it, but you have to be careful what you ask from the rear.
At one point, I come up on an old 2002, and as I'm trying to keep my momentum through the exit of 11, 12, and 13, I think I just nudge his bumper a hair and he's giving me the "what the f- ?" with his left hand out the drivers window. I don't even know if I felt it, but I wave him a token “I'm sorry” anyway. Personally, I'd have appreciated the bump at the start of a straight away, but not everybody here has the same tolerance for close racing, and there are strict body contact rules, so I radio the pits to let them know.
Near the end of my stint, I get into a heated battle with a Honda. Car #20. He's closing on me real slowly, and finally gets up on my bumper. We are very comparable. I watch what he's doing, and although I try to be sure he doesn't pass me at the end of a straight, I eventually have a chance to let him by. He puts about a hundred yards on me over the next 6 laps or so, but he gets hung up in traffic, and I pass him and another car braking for ten. He lights it up again, and passes me a lap or two later, but then heads for the pits.
About that time, there's a Black and Orange M-3 that goes off big in turn 1. I pass the mess and do another hot lap only to find he's broken down in turn 2. The tow flag is out on the next lap, and there are a few yellow corners, but it's time to put the pace car out, so the track goes full yellow and all the cars bunch up.
It's about time for a fuel stop anyway, and we decide to pit right as the track goes green. The light on the pace car are off, then on. I radio to make sure the crew does not bring me in unless they know the track is green for sure (no pit stops under yellow). Apparently, there's a car stopped on the track somewhere. The track goes green, the pace car comes in, and then it goes yellow almost immediately again. We got in at the perfect time. Driver change and fuel, and we didn't even go a lap down. It was a freak, and Bill was yelling and screaming about it because he needed to make sure the officials knew it was a legitimate stop.
Like clockwork, so far. But it's a long race. We decide to uncover the lights on the next stop. It's about 3:30, four and a half hours in, twenty and change to go, and the sun will be setting soon. I take a break to change and check on our overall position. Wow, third in class, 14th overall. I can be proud !
A short nap in the motor home to put some money in the bank. I couldn't really sleep, but I shut my eyes for an hour and a half or so. When I woke up Donny was getting out and Al was going out. We were leading E1, and eighth overall. The Hoover E1 car had just pulled off with some kind of mechanical issue.
Four Pizzas walked right into the motor home, and I ate. It was dark out, and I couldn't help noticing how many cars were up on jack stands in the pits.
At midnight and there's a bunch of bright safety car lights in turn 2. A safety truck just went haulin’ ass through the back paddock with lights blazing. Something’s up.
Anyway, I got in the car a second time, and slowly got into a night rhythm. The tires are coming in, but there's one new one on the car and it's handling a little funny. There's a full course yellow almost immediately as two cars pile into the pit wall and scatter tires all over the place. I come up on it while tires are still rolling off the wall behind a Porsche and we all check up. I get piled hard on the rear, but it seems like the car is ok.
They call me on the radio and tell me to turn it down a notch. I say I don't know how to do that, so I start short shifting at 7,000 rpm. I'm only shifting six times a lap, and Bill had wanted me to go easy on the brakes, so I'm just going smooth and easy.
Eventually, I turn a 2:06.5 - faster than I went in the daylight. The car is starting to get louder and seems like it's making a tad more power. At first I'm thinking the rotary is starting to break in and loosen up, but soon it's clear the exhaust is breaking or cracking somewhere. The hit I got coming out of 15 onto the front straight had damaged our exhaust system. We got pulled in for noise, and had to go back paddock to fix the tail pipe.
That cost us about 6 laps, so we're running 2nd in class, 14th overall.
At the next fuel stop, they can't get gas in the car. Something has screwed up the tank so much that the gas would go in, and blow back out. The guys spent four laps fixing that problem, so we only have 2 laps over third. The race is half way down, and Bill says it's time to light the fuse.
I'm going to take another shot at sleeping. We're double stinting the drivers now to save some time in the pits, and I hear from all the other drivers that they are shifting more than I am. I'm getting better mileage, so Bill wants me to talk them through my shift points, and they're going to eliminate one downshift. My laps are faster, and I'm using less fuel, so we all need to do whatever I’m doing. Nick, Donny and I chat, then I go back to the motor home to get some rest.
I try to sleep, but barely nod off. When I do come to in the motor home, there are bodies all over the place, on the table, in the bed, on the couch... I walk down to the pit and Donny is in the car. He just went out after fueling for his second stint. I'm still tired, but when I get back to the motor home my spot is taken, so I nod off in Jennifer's truck for a few minutes. Soon Bill bangs on the window. Everyone else is asleep and I'm on call, so I drive from about 4am to just around sunrise.
We’re still having a hard time getting gas in the car. Maybe the exhaust is heating up the fuel area and the tank vapor locks as it fills, finally we find there’s a bend in the filler tube. I get two new tires and there's so much rubber on the new tires that the car is loose in all the left hand turns. I manage to settle in to a 2:10 pace and pop off some 2:09's.
At some point, A Miata loses a wheel right in front of me between turns 2 and 3. It's the middle of the night, so all I see is a shower of sparks in front of me. As the car turns right for turn three, I can see there's no right rear wheel, so I scan the track for it. I don't want to find out what happens when you drive over a wheel and tire. I see it, and avoid it, then radio it in to the pits seconds later. They tell me it just got there. Apparently it rolled about six hundred yards, right across the track at start/finish, and came to rest at the head of the pit lane right next to them.
Now, the wheels are shaking so hard that I can barely hold on to the steering wheel. I found out much later that it was rubber build up inside the rims. The steering is banging so hard that the wheel is jumping out of my grasp in the corners. My hands are dying, and after my fuel stop, I start to consider deliberately running the car out of gas so I can get back to the pits sooner. I don't do that, of course.
I'm behind an S-2000 when I see a car in front of him start to lose control at the exit of turn 3. The S-2000 lifts, and I set up to jump inside at the next corner. I can't see the out of control car for a split second, but in turn 4, it’s up on the apex berm, and going backwards. I decide to aim for the apex. The spinning car turns out to be a Honda, and I stab the pedal just as a hole opens up between the corner apex and the front bumper of the spinning Honda. I end up passing both cars. It was definitely one of those moments I wish I had on film. But we don't run cameras in these enduros, because there's no time to change the media during pit stops.
We're not making enough time on the leader, and we are about 7 laps down, in second when I turn the car over to Paul. I can barely get out of the car. I tell everyone I don't want to drive another second Gen RX-7 for the rest of my life (which is a lie). But I am spent. Before I came in, it crossed my mind that there might not be another driver up and ready to take the wheel at 6:15am. I am horrified by this and call the pits to make sure I don't have to do another stint.
I don't remember whether I went to check the standings, or fell asleep directly after that, but when I woke up, the car that had been leading our class had just come into the pits with an exploded clutch. Six or seven laps later, and we were leading E1. Second place was a long way back.
Bill told me I wouldn't need to get back in the car, and that my job was over. I went into town, got 36 cans of Budweiser for the crew, and took a one hour nap and a shower.
I got back with about three hours to go. We were up 20 laps on second place, and the next three cars back in our class were all pretty tight. All we needed to do was keep turning laps, break nothing, and watch the clock.
Our track position afforded us about a 20 minute lead, so at about 11:40 the cheers from our pit were heard all over the place. We had won. I’m not sure, but I think Bill was crying like a baby. Even if the car pulled back paddock and parked, we were the winners of our class. It was huge.
At the end of the race, all the crews run up to the track wall of the hot pit lane, and congradulate all the drivers.
It's amazing. The trophies are five feet tall.
All of our drivers get a polo shirt and a clock. Brad is keeping the trophy. It's his son Parker's fifth birthday today. That makes a pretty cool birthday present for a five year old kid. And I'm still basking in the glory of this thing.
After the awards ceremony, there were photos and bench racing. Then Bill and Mark Van Midde had a burnout contest. Bill won. Soon Bill and Brad are dancing on the roof of the car, and they make more new body damage than we had incurred in the entire race.
What a year. B and B won the SCCA ITS championship, we won the 4 hour Ilgen Enduro at Laguna, we took the NASA PTF class trophy, and now we had the elusive 25 hours of Thunderhill. Definitely a banner season.
This is some cool shit.
Steve