25 Solo @ TH

[IPRESS]

Steve Gorriaran the SM Runoffs winner went the whole 25 by himself and was class E2 winner. Pretty dang amazing.

[Streetwise guy]

Like no naps on the back straight or anything? I'd have a tough time staying awake 25 hours running through the forest with Neo-Nazis chasing me with axes.

[Greg Amy]

My first reaction: "Why?"

My second reaction: "Yeah, seeing guys doing aileron rolls in their Cessna 172 is 'amazing', too, but that don't make it smart. Or something I want to aspire to..."

[Knestis]

Count me impressed too but again, why?

The interesting thing to me is that this violates the typical rules about time-in-the-car, that I think NASA has on the books for enduros. It bothers me at a very basic level that one person is allowed to violate a rule (probably because he's got name recognition), when I can easily picture Joe Average getting whacked with a penalty by an enthusiastic steward for going 3 minutes over the stipulated maximum. I got tagged for speeding in pit lane at a NASA enduro because "it sounded like I was going like hell." It was wet and I spun the tires in first gear.

K

EDIT - I was wrong about the NASA enduro rules. They stipulate 2 drivers minimum but don't go into detail re: length of stints or rest time.

[MMiskoe]

My guess is he did it because the guy doing his car prep did it once, go look on the sand box page for details. I've heard the story in person & its a good story, even better that its true.

It is impressive, but I still say that things like Ivan Stewart of Mouse Mc...... doing the Baja 1000 solo are in another league.

Why? Same reason people die on Mt Everst every year. We can't make fun of other peoples hobbies considering what we call 'fun'.

[Greg Amy]

Sorry, Matt, this is not sexual orientation; labeling something a "hobby" does not make it immune to peer and societal criticism.

And possession of driving skill does not make one immune to the effects of human physiology (and psychology). When one falls off the side of Mount Everest, one hurts only them self; however, when one falls off the side of Turn One due to the effects of basic human physiology, one significantly endangers not only them self but their peers around them. That is not "amazing", it's "selfish". Managing to avoid such effects is not "amazing", it's "lucky".

Ironically to your point, a very large portion of those that kill them self on Mount Everest due so from arrogance and over-confidence...

They say the single most-oft phrase heard right before an airplane screws itself into the ground is "oh, shit!" (regardless of language translated from). The second most-oft phrase is "Hey, watch this!" Just because one manages to throw them self at the ground in front of a crowd and avoid hitting it makes it no less a "Hey y'all, watch this!" moment than the ones that that end up in smoking piles.

Congratulations, and all that. But please don't do that around me.

[callard]

An impressively stupid stunt. Not to be admired. But now others will want to try.....
Chuck

[cjb25hs]

So what did he have red bull being delivered via IV after the first stint

[Marcus Miller]

An impressively stupid stunt. Not to be admired. But now others will want to try.....
Chuck

He is the third to try this stunt in the last 5 years.
One ended around 19 hours, the other (also this year) around 12 hours.
David Del Genio who runs Steve's car did this in a Motorola Cup Maita sometime in the history adn is probably the driving force for Steve trying it.... Still dumb, and we still lost to Steve. (3d Racing 3rd in E2)

[NORRIS]

Marcus.

I think the other guy was "Bobcat" He lasted I think 16 hours in an RX7!! (Not sure I could last 30 mins in one of those!) I saw at about the 16 hour mark

"Hey Bobcat aren't you supposed to be driving?"

"Ahh.......... I became delerious and my Depends was chaffing!!"

ewwwwwwwwww!!

I think the car instrumental in the Mercedes crash at Le-Manns in the '50's that killed something like 80 spectators was attempting to drive 24 hours by himself!! That didn't work out so well either!!

[Marcus Miller]

John you got it! Bobcat tried it in 05, and made I think 19 hours, he lost the right front wheel when he had a hub failure (Very common on those first gen Rx7's) and it took too long to get towed in and the problem fixed; his body went into shock from the cold. As a former first gen rx7 pilot, I can tell you doing that 19 hours was harder than all 25 in a Miata... that is not to slight Steve (or DDG) in anyway.
Donnie Edwards tried it this year also in a spec E30.
Marcus

[philstireservice]

Sorry, Matt, this is not sexual orientation; labeling something a "hobby" does not make it immune to peer and societal criticism.

And possession of driving skill does not make one immune to the effects of human physiology (and psychology). When one falls off the side of Mount Everest, one hurts only them self; however, when one falls off the side of Turn One due to the effects of basic human physiology, one significantly endangers not only them self but their peers around them. That is not "amazing", it's "selfish". Managing to avoid such effects is not "amazing", it's "lucky".

Ironically to your point, a very large portion of those that kill them self on Mount Everest due so from arrogance and over-confidence...

They say the single most-oft phrase heard right before an airplane screws itself into the ground is "oh, shit!" (regardless of language translated from). The second most-oft phrase is "Hey, watch this!" Just because one manages to throw them self at the ground in front of a crowd and avoid hitting it makes it no less a "Hey y'all, watch this!" moment than the ones that that end up in smoking piles.

Congratulations, and all that. But please don't do that around me.

Sheesh.....It's was a great drive. He was turning laps consistently faster every couple hours. His fastest lap was somewhere around the 21st hour. I agree with Matt M., some people just do it because it's a challenge. This was a well thought out effort.......I know that for sure. Yep DDG did it before .......Having been on the inside of some of their team work, strategy and just plain ol' common sense meetings, it doesn't surprise me that success surrounds them.

Let's just leave it at ......An amazing effort, congratulations...

[jlucas]

I don't even want to think about trying it.
Finishing solo is amazing, winning solo.... I don't even know what word to use....

[MMiskoe]

Don't worry Greg, I don't really want him on the track w/ me or my friends doing a stunt like that either. I am amazed that NASA doesn't see the potential trouble with this, but many safety items result from someone getting hurt (The Cocanut Grove syndrome).


The hobbies comment is just that you can't take an objective look at car racing and tell me its all that smart in the first place. It isn't smart, but it is fun (at least to us). This is true for most any hobby.

[IPRESS]

This is a consistent bunch.....always tough on just about any subject.
I figure the favorite line around here at this time a year is: BAH Humbug!

[ericblois]

i was also at the 25 just competed in the 6, first endruo and all and even though we were a bit off the pace . we are going back next year and doing the 25 with 4 drivers maybe 5 no need to see how long we can last. and with great fuel economy, we plan on finishing on the podium in E2. we can go more then 2 hours on 10 gals . cant wait for next year

[wlfpkrcn]

Personally I think it's crazy. After 2 hours I'm fatigued enough to climb out. We are planning on the 25 next year and with the new classing that came out running E2 in an ITS second gen RX7. Quite a few E2 cars are dropping into E3 next year


http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/enduro.pdf

[Marcus Miller]

you are right... looks like pretty much all of E2 is now E3, and they split, e1 and e0 into e0, e1, and E2

[THawkbh]

...
Congratulations, and all that. But please don't do that around me.

i agree. if someone running over 20 hours did something stupid and wrecked my race car, i wouldn't be happy.

[philstireservice]

i agree. if someone running over 20 hours did something stupid and wrecked my race car, i wouldn't be happy.

I've had someone running 10 minutes do something stupid and cost me $9000 dollars to fix my car.....I don' think time has anything to do with it.