25 Hours of Thunderhill

[bpanther]

Well, I'm off to the 25 Hour at Thunderhill!!!

Here's info on the race: http://www.nasa25hour.com/ I'll be driving a Honda for Opak/Spoon Sports.

One of the teams said they'll be doing live updates from the track, you might want to check out this link for details: http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=7085

[bpanther]

Willows, CA - 12/4/05

The Honda FIT of Team Opak-Spoon finshed the grueling 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 26th overall and 2nd place in the E3 Class.

The Honda FIT driven by touring car experts Tyler McQuarrie, Richard Woo, Tom Pitre, Justin Elin and Dave Balingit started in 59th position and finished in front of many faster cars due to a successfull strategy of "slow and consistant". The only mechanical issues seen during this twice around the clock endurance race was one loose bolt and a broken front right spring. Both issues were quickly fixed and only a few laps were lost in the pits.

In addition to it's excellent reliability, the fuel efficient Honda gained time over many teams as the Opak-Spoon team was able to stretch out some of the stints to 2 hours between fuel stops.

Results can be found at: http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=255372

[ker]

congrats dave. i can only assume you had fun (if not tired).

[bpanther]

Thanks. I'll get some more pictures up soon but here's some on Opak's site: http://www.opakracing.com/

Yes, I'm still recovering. I did stints from 3:30pm-5:30pm, midnight-2am and then 10am - checkered. I did get about 4 hours of sleep (3:30am - 7:30am on Sunday), so I didn't do too bad.


BTW, endurance racing is something that NASA will start doing here in the 2007 season. We will start out with some 2 and 3 hour events throughout the year.

[bpanther]

Here's some video on the Car and Driver site showing the start of the race. We started about 6th to last if you're looking for us......

http://www.caranddriver.com/custom/stream/stream.asp?mode=low&low_id=544&high_id=544

[bpanther]

Here's a few shots as promised.

Honda Fit - Ready to do battle
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc040019sm.jpg

Our "Office" for the next 25 hours. Yes, it's RHD.:eek:
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc040021sm.jpg

Co-Driver Tom Pitre gives me some pointers about Turn 9
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc030015sm.jpg

[bpanther]

The "Big Brother" Acura RL team car. Why coudn't I drive this one????
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc030007sm.jpg

Spare parts for the Acura RL
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc030013sm.jpg

Sapre parts for our neighbor's BMW :D
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc030009sm.jpg

[bpanther]

25 hours, 546 laps and only one small incident (red paint courtesy of a pushy RX7)
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc040020sm.jpg

The Team
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc040023sm.jpg

Dang trophy is BIGGER than the car!!!
http://www.nasarockymountain.com/photos/25hour-05/Pc040024sm.jpg

[ker]

rhd? hope you were going ccw.......................:)

[CorSport]

Awesome! Thanks for the pics and coverage.