,
Night racing is a surreal experience. Yes, we do put big light bars on endurance racing cars, but even our little MX-5 was averaging nearly 90 mph for the entire lap. Thunderhill is a very fast place. As the night went on, teams struggled with mechanical failures, fatigue, and bad luck. Our car soldiered on, racking up the miles.
Over the course of the night, we worked our way up from fourth into second position and eventually into first, and from there we increased our lead lap by lap. As the sun rose on Sunday we could tell that most of the cars were bruised and battered and that many had retired. They were back in the paddock getting feverishly repaired from the night’s battles. Our final stints became just about preserving the car. We had a comfortable lead and now all we had to do was make sure the car finished in one piece. At 11, I hopped in for my final stint and drove the car into the checkered flag 631 laps after we started and 20 laps ahead of second place in class. We finished 14th overall in this huge field in our humble little E2 Mazda MX-5, no small feat.
At the front of the field, the Number 00 Motorsport Solutions/Ehret Family Winery Porsche 997 Cup car crossed the line for the overall win with 679 laps completed in the 25 Hours. The Number 48 Factory 48 Motorsports Radical SR3 that started on pole finished 3rd overall winning the ESR class with 663 laps completed. The E0 class win was taken by the Number 31 Hankook Tire/El Diablo BMW M3 with 659 laps. 949 Racing claimed class honors in E1 with their Number 49 Mazda Miata logging 650 laps. The E2 win went to Atlanta Motorsports Group in the Number 79 MX-5 with me driving along with Guy Laidig, Beau Borders and Todd Launchbaugh. E3 was won by the Number 30 Mazda Miata of Miatacage.com PTE. Anyone who finishes this race can feel happy about it. To win it, is an unbelievable experience and achievement.
 |
| The Atlanta Motorsports Group 25 Hours of Thunderhill Team |
