25 hours of Thunderhill

[FFRSpec72]

Best of luck to Boothman Racing, Thunder Valley Racing and Prototype Development in the 25 hours, hope all goes well, no flips or fires. Keep us posted with some pre race photos and conditions.

[mhoward1]

Like...

[johngeorge]

Thanks guys! Ill post a link to the live video stream from pits, live timing, and radio broadcast when I get them.

[avgjoe]

Ya, what they said!

Plus, don't forget to pull the pin at the fire bottle (this comment has nothing to do with anything that happened last year, just my own personal grid guy mission).

[johngeorge]

Hi all,

I will be one of the 5 drivers on Team Boothman Racing in this years NASA 25hr endurance race. The race held at Thunderhill Racetrack (about 1hr north of Sacramento, CA) will start Saturday Dec 8 at 11am PST, and finish Sunday Dec 9 at noon PST. Wish us luck!

For updates go to http://www.boothmanracing.com for live video stream, live timing/scoring, twitter, facebook, pics etc..

[crash]

Good luck guys. I leave for the track early Thursday, and we will see you all there!

[FFRSpec72]

I saw that Thunder Valley Racing and Prototype Development finished, well done all, keeping the cars running and drivers awake! Boothman Racing seems to have went out yesterday, I hope everyone and everything is OK ?

[Mark Dougherty]

Yep all are well.
blew an engine around 7 hrs in

[mhoward1]

Sorry to hear about the engine trouble.

[crash]

We ended up 7th in class and around 17th or 18th overall, IIRC. I haven't checked the official results yet. Not what we had hoped for, but not bad considering we were in the paddock for almost 2 hours with problems, had to change tires much more than we thought, and had a driver get sick and puke while in the drivers seat. Lots of things to talk about, but we all have to kind of gather our thoughts. We'll post a report up soon.

[Someday I Suppose]

Mark, so sorry to hear about the motor problems, man it sounded like a rough night before that, bummed for all of you guys.

Crash, throwing up in the seat = no bueno!!

[crash]

Lucky for me, it wasn't me that had the involuntary medical issue. I did this race sick once and that was not much fun. One of our other drivers had the problem, so the rest of us had to take up the slack because he got sick about a half hour into his second stint. His first stint was also cut short also because he had cramps in his legs. Turns out his kids had the stomach flu the week before the race, but we didn't know that. So we had to make up for the guy that didn't perform as far as time in the car. This is one of the very reasons we went to five drivers this year. Four is about minimum, but if someone gets sick then the other drivers are really kind of screwed as far as getting any meaningful sleep time. So even though we had an issue with one of the drivers, we had our back up plan and it worked seamlessly. Just sorry the fellow driver had such a rough weekend...and hoping I don't get the flu! It was pretty nasty smelling in the drivers seat!

[FFRSpec72]

I hope that he did not get sick in his helmet !

[Someday I Suppose]

Man that is just horrible, but for sure good thinking on going to 5 drivers. That is still a boat load of seat time especially when you consider most NASA guys are used to 30 minute sessions??

Lucky for me, it wasn't me that had the involuntary medical issue. I did this race sick once and that was not much fun. One of our other drivers had the problem, so the rest of us had to take up the slack because he got sick about a half hour into his second stint. His first stint was also cut short also because he had cramps in his legs. Turns out his kids had the stomach flu the week before the race, but we didn't know that. So we had to make up for the guy that didn't perform as far as time in the car. This is one of the very reasons we went to five drivers this year. Four is about minimum, but if someone gets sick then the other drivers are really kind of screwed as far as getting any meaningful sleep time. So even though we had an issue with one of the drivers, we had our back up plan and it worked seamlessly. Just sorry the fellow driver had such a rough weekend...and hoping I don't get the flu! It was pretty nasty smelling in the drivers seat!

[crash]

I hope that he did not get sick in his helmet !

Um, yes, yes he did.

[vnmsss]

................. Four is about minimum, but if someone gets sick then the other drivers are really kind of screwed as far as getting any meaningful sleep time. So even though we had an issue with one of the drivers, we had our back up plan and it worked seamlessly. Just sorry the fellow driver had such a rough weekend...and hoping I don't get the flu! It was pretty nasty smelling in the drivers seat!

That had to be really rough for him, and for all of you guys! I'm sure he feels awful about it!

My first year fielding my own car (Challenge Series car, 2007), we had four drivers slated to run.....Scott McKay took the first stint, and turned it over to our 2nd driver at 1 PM.....We completed the pit stop, did a great driver change, and the car goes back out on track...We're all celebrating a great pitstop when we look up and here's our car coming down pit lane...No call on the radio, and no answer....Like WTH??? ......The car is heading to our pit, and then suddenly turns right on the main road and goes back paddock....Now we're like double WTH??!! We run back there, and the driver is already out, helmet off, and hugging a trash can....Not pretty.....To his credit, he made it off track before he tossed his cookies....Turns out he picked up a viral infection on the plane trip out, and he was under a blanket shaking and feeling like cra* the rest of the 25.......Just like that, we were down to three drivers....TC McNett, Scott McKay and I took turns driving 3 hour stints for the rest of the race, which none of us had driven that length in the car before....That was the year we had rain at night which turned to snow around 4 AM...I had the 2 AM to 5 AM shift in the open Roadster, and needless to say, it was a memorable drive.....We survived though! (and now 3 and 4 hour stints have become commonplace for us).

Karen

[David Hodgkins]

Karen Salvaggio, IRON (WO)MAN!

[crash]

That is one of the things about this race. There are SO MANY back, behind the scenes, stories of determination and never quiting that books and Gigs of video could be easily filled every year from just this one race. It is literally like running an entire season, or three, of races in just 25 consecutive hours. That, for me, is a really amazing thing to think about, and gives me a little bit of perspective when we have something go wrong in the last hour or so of the race. To do this race without ANY mechanical issues is just near impossible. I understand that the #48 sports racer changed TWO engines during the race, so it took them, basically, three engines to complete this event! "Never give up, never surrender!"

[johngeorge]

Incar videos from Team Boothman Racing FFR#85:

Test/Tune Fiat 500 flipping in front of me http://vimeo.com/56223388
Test/Tune Friday Fastlap of the weekend 1:51.4 http://vimeo.com/55910413

Dave Royce Stint 1.1 http://vimeo.com/56162272
Dave Royce Stint 1.2 http://vimeo.com/56162271
Dave Royce Stint 1.3 http://vimeo.com/56166991

Dave Riha Stint 1.1 http://vimeo.com/56179764
Dave Riha Stint 1.2 http://vimeo.com/56208132
Dave Riha Stint 1.3 http://vimeo.com/56208134
Dave Riha Stint 1.4 http://vimeo.com/56208133

John George Stint 1 - engine fails http://vimeo.com/55912920