Thunderhill 12 Hour

[rsc]

Is anyone planning on running at the Thunderhill 12 hour enduro on Dec 7 this year? I know this has always been an awesome race and want to know if anyone has any experience or advice.

[Knestis]

Where can I get more info? I want to add it to my list, too...

Kirk

[rsc]

I think you can get more info at www.nasaproracing.com

[Joe Craven]

I've been doing the TH 12 hour race for at least 5 years. I experienced 12 hours of warm dry weather (Won E3 class that year), cold wet dreary weather but it is normally 1/2 dry and 1/2 rain. It's a definite team event and NASA supplies warm hot food to the racers/workers and a heated tent to relax and drink coffee. I love the team aspect of enduro racing and I'll be back again this year in a Wabbit.

[wlfpkrcn]

Joe,

Are you going up Friday afternoon? Let me know and we can set up 2 pit stalls next to each other again.My car is coming off the jackstands! This year we are installing a panhard rod (no more broken watts link). I hope the weather starts off better than last year.

Eric

[Joe Craven]

Eric, I was planning to arrive late Friday afternoon. I don't think my car will arrive until early Sat morning.

Yes, I'd love to pit next to your team.

[wlfpkrcn]

Joe,

I guess you won't be running practice on friday night, but we can set up our pits. Who is on your team this year? Do you know how many in E3 or E2?

Eric

If anybody else is interested register early. There were lots of cars last year, and it's a great event.

[civicrr]

Here is the newest link: http://www.nasaproracing.com/enduro/12hr.html

I have crewed it for the last couple of years. This will be my first year racing it. We will be in the yellow #11 Civic coupe that you might have seen at the NorCal enduros. We will be running in E2.

[Knestis]

I would REALLY like it if you would send a couple of pictures of that Civic running the enduro. I would like to promote IT2 as an endurance racing option and include your picture on www.2litre.itgo.com .

Kirk

[civicrr]

Kirk,
Will try to remember to take some pics.

You could also go to www.headonphotos.net and check out the NASA NorCal races. Car #11 in the enduros.

[GarySheehan]

I went to the 12 Hour for the first time this year and had a blast!

We also ran in E2, in the white Progress Honda CRX (#41).

Unfortunately, we holed the block after an hour and a half into the race. We had a spare motor and did the swap in just under two hours, but lost a total of around 2.5 hours.

I got my turn in the car at 4:30 pm, just as the sun was going down. I'm used to driving our all wheel drive USTCC Subaru WRX, which has a lot more power and handles completely differently than the CRX. What a fun car that CRX is! It's so light, and can brake so late and you really have to carry speed through the corners to get quick laptimes.

The team kept me in for two straight hours with a stop after the first hour for fuel and to fill up our oil (which we were consuming at a rate of 1.5 quarts per hour). There were so many cars on the track that it was two hours of non-stop action! I had never driven the track in the by-pass configuration, and it turned out that was my favorite passing zone on the track. What a roller-coaster ride that turn is!

Our headlights were set perfectly, so the darkness was no problem at all. I set my fastest lap time of the weekend well after dark, probably in the middle of the 2nd hour. When the team called me in at two hours, my only thought was "Wow, that was over quick!" I wanted to keep going!

It's too bad that we lost the motor. I think we could have had a great race with the yellow #11 Civic that went on to win the class and finish 2nd overall.

The only thing that troubled me this weekend is that the cars weren't gridded in the positions they qualified in. What the heck was qualifying for if the cars were just going to be randomly thrown onto the track?

Anyway, it was a fun weekend for us even with our trouble. A big thanks to the Progress team of Miguel, Bernardo, Gus, Ryan, Carlos, Adam and Richard for letting me play. These are a great bunch of guys!

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.teamSMR.com

[This message has been edited by GarySheehan (edited December 09, 2002).]

[civicrr]

Gary,
Thanks for the props! We were lucky. The only thing that broke for us was the master cylinder. The lucky part is that it happened on Friday. We didn't leave the track until 10pm that night.
Luck definitely played a role in our win. Besides you guys, there were other fast E2 cars that had trouble too. The #9 Allegro Racing Civic lost their engine while in the lead. The #? Marin Motorsports Miata lost their waterpump. The Sentra team replaced their tranny & then lost all the splines on the clutch disk. Our car ran great. Thanks go out to our sponsors Auto Innovations, ACT & Rota Wheels; the other drivers on our team, Derek Ramsey(all season), Roger Foo (12 Hour) & Neal Looney (12 Hour); our killer pit crew Kevin, Oberto, Shawn & Russell; superior engine builder(s) James Chin & Kevin Chen.
Mike Quan
RNR Racing
#11 Civic E2