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The race also had a mix of tuner cars. The 034 Motorsport team competed in the ES class racing their Grand-Am spec Subaru WRX STi. Honda’s Research and Development team competes in the race every year, this year the team brought out the new 2012 Honda Civic SI that was built from the new shells HPD is selling to customers. In addition, they also campaigned an Acura RSX in the E1 class. The DG Spec team has dominated the E1 class in NASA’s WERC in their Scion tC but ran into issues early on Sunday, having to swap the engine to finish the race.
Overall, this year’s event was a very clean race that ran with little cautions. During the night, temperatures dropped to 35 degrees, making it a long night for the crew and drivers at the track. The 25 Hours of Thunderhill is one of the most underrated events of the year and features some close and exciting racing. It’s seen incredible growth over the past few years and continues to be a race driver’s talk about throughout the season. It’s an experience like no other and gives racers of all levels a chance to feel what it's like to compete during a super endurance race like Daytona or LeMans. So start planning for next December, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill should be a race you either drive or attend in the future!
In the drivers seat w/ Robbie Montinola: I was lucky enough to secure another ride for this year’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill with the Road Shagger Racing BMW M3. We competed in the E0 class and were one of the teams favored to win our class after the team finished 2nd in class and 3rd overall last year. We made big improvements in this year’s racecar, but bad luck struck us in practice. In turn 1 our racecar was hit by a spinning MX5 that took out the entire left rear corner forcing us to miss qualifying. After starting 73rd, we swiftly made up positions and after my first stint we were sitting 12th overall and 2nd in class. A few hours later we busted a wheel bearing, changed it out quickly and only lost one position. Unfortunately, soon after that we started having cooling issues and lost a head gasket going into the ninth hour. Our race was done and it was my first DNF after racing in five 25 Hours of Thunderhill events. But that’s racing and I’m looking forward to next year.
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