2012 NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill

[BKaczmarek]

How do you like that! Mike Hedlund, sir, great job. Class pole is excellent.

The session itself was incredible, especially at the top. The back and forth between the Factory 48 Radical and the Davidson Norma in second was really, really tense. For a long time they were separated by just .003. You could see right at the end the Radical was going to get a reasonable clear lap and do something special, but right before he did it the Norma put in a low 1:43, which made the Radical's job a whole lot tougher... Right before the checkered he threw down the 1:42.3... Really a special lap.

Story available here: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/F...id=qYco2QWY0_Q

See you all in the morning for the live coverage! Going to be an excellent race.

[Maelochs]

Keep those press releases coming---the public is eager to know.

[BKaczmarek]

Good morning all! I'm headed to the track in a little bit to get things underway. Please do join me in about 4 hours' time for the live broadcast presented by Motorsports Southwest and Wolf Racing Cars... A reminder that it's available here: https://new.livestream.com/enduranceradionet/25hour

Please feel free to repost this information in other forums - the more the merrier!

[Nick6]

Radio coverage has started.

[The Original Instag8or]

A Truck is leading overall.

[Nick6]

Just got home and surprised that the truck is leading overall!

[skycafe]

Truck body on stock car chassis with crate motor, and it is sorted and has won other races apparently. This is a cool event.

[Kid Roberts]

Isn't this race only like 5 hours old? Why are so many cars down laps this early? o_O

[Nick6]

Originally Posted by Kid Roberts

Isn't this race only like 5 hours old? Why are so many cars down laps this early? o_O

Laps are short and its not really a pro race.

[skycafe]

big variety of driver skill, car prep, loads of different classes. I guess a lot of cars have been off-track at some point. The Fiat Abarth had to replace clutch. The Audi TT is out, I think gearbox.

[Kid Roberts]

I'm watching a live onboard feed from the #12 Mazda RX-8. He's going pretty good.

[Nick6]

What happen to the Bimmer World M3?

[The Original Instag8or]

Originally Posted by Nick6

Laps are short and its not really a pro race.

And at that time, the race was 9 hours in.

[Maelochs]

Hate those short, 3-mile, two-minute laps.

This is turning out to be a non-stop, roller-coaster race. Right now, with less than an hour to go, it is uncertain if the race leader can leave the pits or will pass the lead back to a car which has tried four times to catch up but never got a break.

Just the #18 Davidson Eagle vs. Motosport Solution Porsches battle has been back and forth six times. And how many other fights? A Truck led half the race, and is now back in sixth. Two sports racers which were way off the pace are now in the top five.

The E1 fight looks to go right down to the flag.

This has been a very good race. No complaints here.

[skycafe]

It was like the good old days

I would actually go to Daytona 24 if that truck was entered, that would excite the spectators!

[Maelochs]

Major props to Mr. Kaczmarek for doing a great job calling a great race. Sad that even his enthusiasm couldn't get the Davidson Eagle into first place, but still a fantastic event well described and explained.

More impressive is he not only called all the action (25 hours straight,) he also kept his own notes on pit stops, both length and schedule. More impressive he (at only 22 year of age) understood what made this race special and equally as exciting as modern, flat-out sprint-style endurance races.

A weekend well spent for me, thanks to Mr. Kaczmarek and every one, from drivers to crew to track personnel and organizers, associated with the NASA Thunderhill 25.

[HJJ]

10/10ths poster Mike Hedlund loses his brakes going into turn 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=JrveASsJMZ0

[Maelochs]

The announcer said someone told him the car had been spotted three hundred yards off the track wrapped in barbed wire and starting a small brush fire with its exhaust. I put it down to exaggeration at the time.

What happened in the final stint, I wonder? The car went from the second to sixteenth in the final 2. 5 hours.

[HJJ]

From Mike's Facebook page.

Complete drivetrain & motec failure in the car while we were battling back after breaking an engine mount earlier. Game over for us. Thanks Michelin and Pagid for all the help.. We did what we could!!

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by HJJ

10/10ths poster Mike Hedlund loses his brakes going into turn 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=JrveASsJMZ0

Holy fuzzballs.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

The announcer said someone told him the car had been spotted three hundred yards off the track wrapped in barbed wire and starting a small brush fire with its exhaust. I put it down to exaggeration at the time.

What happened in the final stint, I wonder? The car went from the second to sixteenth in the final 2. 5 hours.

Lol! I was waiting in the car for the safety trucks to show up, hoping they could pull me back out and I could limp back to the pits. Soon as I started smelling the fire though, I tried to get out.. and the driver side door was held shut by the barbed wire... then super-human strength kicked in and I almost ripped the door off to get out. Ran over to the RV's (i pass in the left of the video) and one of the guys had a fire extinguisher so I ran back and put it all out before the safety guys arrived.

At around 7:30AM while we had a 5 lap lead on the field our engine mount broke (the only thing that holds the engine in place in a 911) so we had to come in and fix it, costing us about 9 laps. We went back out 4 laps down and were fighting our way back and were in second place when something in the drivetrain failed... we're not sure what yet. The ECU/Motec system went into some sort of diagnostic/limp mode and when I got it back to the pits, they reset some stuff and it seemed to work so we sent it back out with Fogarty at the wheel. He did half a lap and the drivetrain locked up... rear wheels wouldn't turn but it wasn't dropping any fluid or giving any warnings like the engine exploded. It was game over for us at that point.

Fun weekend though. We kicked the crap out of everything we had control over.. every stint was like qualifying. :-)

-mike

[joeb]

Glad you are ok mike, and that there was plenty of run off!

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Lol! I was waiting in the car for the safety trucks to show up, hoping they could pull me back out and I could limp back to the pits. Soon as I started smelling the fire though, I tried to get out.. and the driver side door was held shut by the barbed wire... then super-human strength kicked in and I almost ripped the door off to get out. Ran over to the RV's (i pass in the left of the video) and one of the guys had a fire extinguisher so I ran back and put it all out before the safety guys arrived.
-mike

Thank God for the car's roof! It kept your head out of that barbed wire!!

DK

[Coach Ep]

Mike, I believe this is you getting towed out of the grassland...

http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...208-a-3091.jpg

(thanks to endurance-info)

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Mike, I believe this is you getting towed out of the grassland...



(thanks to endurance-info)

Hah.. yes that's me. They couldn't get the car in neutral so I went over to help. :-)

-mike