2016 25 Hours of Thunder Hill

[FFRSpec72]

So there will be 2 FFR cars there this year, the GTM and the 818 RSR. The RSR is the 818R Sports Racer (center drive) modeled after the FSR (Ford Sports Racer). They are co-workers and they have been setting up this car all race season, they are not new to the 25 hours as in the past driven a Mazda. They just finished (but not quite) a 8 hour race in Portland a few weeks ago and had some issue, they seem to be on target to finish the 25 hours.

[vnmsss]

Thanks for the post, Tony. Will be following our good friends in the GTM and the 818 RSR team in the race.

Here's a link to the livestream:

2016 NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill - Race

Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 1:30 PM EST on endurance-radio

Join our primary stream live on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrW-7glw0T8

[Sgt.Gator]

I'll be there as a spectator and will get some 818R goodness pics.

[DanielsDM]

Best of luck to the FFR teams in the 25.

[C.Plavan]

At 4 hour and 30min in:

So far the GTM (if you want to call it that- It is so heavily modified) is 3rd in class, 7th overall, fast lap 1:53.5 (8 Laps down from overall leader)

The #25 818R is 5th in class (of 6), 52nd overall with a fast lap of 1:58.4 (41 laps down from overall leader) (6th place is coming hard doing 1:53's- it had an incident earlier)

The NP01 is 8th overall with a 1:52.8 fast time (10 laps down from overall leader)

http://racehero.io/events/nasa-norcal-25-hrs-of-thunderhill-2016#

[Bob_n_Cincy]

This was a post on facebook by the #25 818R Dragonfly motorsports team.

'Welp, that was fun. But, unfortunately, our turbo gave up the ghost and that is one area where we don't have sufficient spares. So it looks like we're done before nightfall unless we can pull a rabbit out from somewhere"

[Sgt.Gator]

Yes it was very disappointing for the Dragonfly Team. They were losing oil level and couldn't figure out how and where it was going away. They concluded it had to be going thru the Turbo Bearing about 15 mins before the turbo quit.

The GTM lost a left rear suspension part that just came unscrewed. That took out several other parts and left them working hard in the cold pit for quite awhile. They rallied, got it back together and went on to finish the race.

The overall winner was the Flying Lizard Audi R8 in ES class, beating all the ESR cars. And this was the second year in a row for the overall win, which is quite an accomplishment!

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[C.Plavan]

Take a wild guess as to how many sets of tires the NP01 went through during the 25hr. They finished 6th overall!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Take a wild guess as to how many sets of tires the NP01 went through during the 25hr. They finished 6th overall!

just because the way you asked. I will guess 6 sets.
were they running the Proxes RS1?
If it rained, did they have some R888 available.

We are running the R888 full time and have been pretty impressed by their wet performance.
Bob

[RetroRacing]

Wow, that really sucks. We just took all of our three turbo's apart, just to port match and clean up the housing in preparation for ceramic coating and found one that was loosing oil....new seals for everyone!

[Sgt.Gator]

Take a wild guess as to how many sets of tires the NP01 went through during the 25hr. They finished 6th overall!

Ok, you got me, how many?

I hung out a lot with an ES team running a BMW M3, folks I know from racing in the PacNW. They pitted every 2.5 hours for 40 gals of fuel and four new tires. So 10 full sets of tires.

No rain, the weather was perfect (for Thunderhill in December). Highs in the low 60s, lows around 40. The light show was awesome with all the cars running LED side markers.

If you want to dig into the details the Results including individual lap times are posted on Race Hero:
https://racehero.io/events/nasa-norcal-25-hrs-of-thunderhill-2016/results/1073743881#

[C.Plavan]

They ran the normal Toyo RR's. They only used 2 sets! They threw a 3rd set on just to be safe towards the end. They are still good for the next race!

The NP01=Fast, cheap car to run. Also, runs just pump gas. I may be running mine next year.

[Sgt.Gator]

Holy cow, that's amazing. And regular pump gas sure beats the Thunderhill Tax on their 110 race gas. They require you to buy your gas at the Thunderhill gas station.
How often did they have to pit for gas? I figure my STI in E0 would be pitting every 45 minutes for the 10 gal max. That often really wears a pit crew out all night long.

[DanielsDM]

That was an impressive run for sure. Does the ENP class have the same 10 gallon per fuel stop restriction as E0 and below, or can they fill it up like ES and ESR?

[C.Plavan]

That was an impressive run for sure. Does the ENP class have the same 10 gallon per fuel stop restriction as E0 and below, or can they fill it up like ES and ESR?

No- basically ES/ESR rules hence the ENP class specification. The cell is 12 gallon. Every 1.5 hours they would pit and fill around 11/12 gallons. They used under 200 gallons for the whole race.

They changed tires every 11.5 hours. Lol

[Sgt.Gator]

The NP01=Fast, cheap car to run. Also, runs just pump gas. I may be running mine next year.
That means it will be cheap for a driver seat too. I'm in!


No- basically ES/ESR rules hence the ENP class specification. The cell is 12 gallon. Every 1.5 hours they would pit and fill around 11/12 gallons. They used under 200 gallons for the whole race.

They changed tires every 11.5 hours. Lol

With a dry break tower that would take less than 15 seconds!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Some nice pictures of the Dragonfly 818R (http://headonphotos.net/gallery/NASA/NASA2516/25/index.html)

John George's Car (http://headonphotos.net/gallery/NASA/NASA2516/96/index.html)

The Np01 Car (http://headonphotos.net/gallery/NASA/NASA2516/71/index.html)

GTM Prototype Development group (http://headonphotos.net/gallery/NASA/NASA2516/4/index.html)

[johngeorge]

Wow! what a race.

I still cannot believe how fast the top end of the field was. There were so many cars under 1min 55sec laptimes it was insane.

Good to see the GTM guys and finally got to say Hi to the 818R guys, 818R started right behind the Corvette, wish I had more time to chat with them but that race is so insane no free time is available.

I ran a Corvette this year, my main competition in ST2 in the NorthEast, Adrian, put together a team and asked me to drive his car. Such a difference between my old FFR and the Corvette, I have never driven something that heavy on track. It did handle good though, balance was neutral most of the stint, of course it went understeer full fuel, then slowly worked itself to oversteer when fuel was burned down to nothing. We ended up finishing 6th in ES, and 13th overall, completing 673 laps. The top 3 cars in ES were pro teams, so that's not bad for a car and crew that has never been to the 25hr!

Next year I'm already thinking of a '2 car East Coast team' Adrian in the Corvette, and me in the FFR type65 R coupe!! I sure hope it happens as I believe the coupe platform being lighter, better on brakes, with wide tires will do real good, and should be as reliable as the Corvette was.