Mercer Porsche Wins USAF NASA Thunderhill 25 Hours
Mercer gets the hat-trick
WILLOWS, Calif. (Dec. 4, 2011) - The United States Air Force (USAF) National Auto Sport Association (NASA) 25 Hours of Thunderhill was won today by the No. 75 Mercer Motorsports Michelin Porsche at Thunderhill Raceway Park.
Mercer's win gives the team from Los Altos, Calif. their third USAF NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill win in a row, getting the hat-trick. Drivers Johannes van Overbeek, Jon Fogarty, Tommy Sadler, Rich Walton and Wolf Henzler had only one small incident in the 25 hours of running. That was when they had contact with the E1 Class Scion at 4 p.m. on Saturday, resulting in a broken right rear wheel. The Mercer Porsche covered 691 laps, 2,073-miles at an average speed of 101 mph, and, amazingly posted the fastest lap of the race on circuit 641 with a time 1:45.036 on their way to a 41 lap win.
"Three in a row for Scott Mercer and the team is great," Jon Fogarty, driver said. "He puts together a great team for this event every year. All of our stints were good, and we had great weather. Most of the drivers out there were very heads-up, using their mirrors, which meant no drama for us. We really had a clean run, except for that slight brush with the Scion early on."
"It is a wonderful day for us," Scott Mercer, team owner said. "We have great drivers, great crew, and great teamwork all the way around. It was a fun day. We had one incident on the track. We were so fortunate. We had that little accident at 4 p.m., but we fixed it and just kept on charging. The drivers did a great job, not putting a wheel wrong for 25 hours. The Porsche ran strong and fast for the full run. A great win!"
Second place in the ES Class was the No. 29 Porsche of G22 Racing/Truspeed, with the No. 161 BMW M3 of Team Stammer Inc./Bavarian Performance finishing third.
In
E3 the No. 23 Miata of RJ Racing took the win in the biggest class of
the race, with 22 cars. Second in E3 was the No. 96 Mazda
Miata of Team Hooverspeed 2; third was the No. 3 Mazda Miata of
Miatacage.com.
"It was interesting. The race seemed to thin out in the night time," John Gibson of RJ Racing said. "The track was rough this year. There were a lot of cars in the class. Rob, my brother and partner, made great strategy calls all day. We were changing tires just at the right time. The car ran strong and we really had the brakes working great."
In
the E0 Class, the No. 100 car of Team Atlanta Motorsports took the win.
In second was the No. 9 Miata of Team Edge Motorsports; third was
the No. 30 Bimmerworld BMW.
"I want to thank team A & G in putting together a great car," Elivan Goulart of Team Atlanta said. "I want to also thank Mazda for a great car. Mike Cooper and Jesse Combs, my teammates, did a great job behind the wheel for 25 hours. We had a few issues and the crew was able to sort it out, and we came up on top. At the beginning we lost the transmission. This incredible crew changed it in 25-minutes."
The
No. 38 CJ Wilson Mazda MX-5 won the E1 Class for the second year in a
row. In second was the No. 34 Robert Davis Racing
Mazda RX-8; third was the No. 72 Scion Racing Scion.
"We started on pole and led a lot of laps," Tyler McQuarrie of CJ Wilson Racing said. "The biggest thing in this race is not to make mistakes, and we had some. But the CJ Wilson team didn't give up. At the start of the night we were sixth in class, 30 laps down. We pushed. I think I did three doubles and one triple-stint. I think I was in the car for 11-hours. This is my fourth win in the E1 Class."
The
No. 99 949 Racing Mazda Miata took the win in the E2 Class.
Second in E2 was the No. 102 of Team Atlanta; third was the No.
051 Team Super Miata.
"It was great stints by all of our drivers," Dean Thomas of 949 Racing said. "If it wasn't for mechanicals we could have won by like 14-laps. We tore the front corner off of the car, but the team never gave up and just kept working. We lost a brake caliper into Turn 14, and that was a 45-minute fix for that stop. To have us win this race makes me so proud. The competitors were really respectful, really good racing out there this weekend."
In
ESR the No. 48 Factory 48 Motorsports Radical took the win.
"We ran as high as third overall in the race at one point," Jeff Shafer said. "We had to change an engine around 8 p.m. and then came back in a few hours to change the clutch. A tough weekend on the parts trailer, but we won."
25 Hours of Thunderhill Side Stories:
Record braking event (North America): the most cars to start a 24/25 event (83); Thunderhill Raceway Park is the longest track of all the 24/25 races at three-miles; the USAF NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill is the longest race at 25 hours; NASA race records include just five penalties served for body contact; the No. 75 Mercer Porsche completed more laps than any other 25 hour, which included a red flag period - the most laps under green.
A team of high school students from Porterville High School, located south of Fresno, Calif. made it to 9 p.m. last night with their No. 7 BMW. The team is an all student effort that prepared the car, after school, with the payoff being to compete at the USAF NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill race this weekend. The team wore blaze orange hoodies with the words "Kids at the Track Don't Do Crack."
The No. 80 Team Edge BMW crew began a motor change in their BMW at 8 a.m. this morning in an all-out effort to finish on the podium third in E0 Class.
Four of the five classes that took the checker were won by a Mazda Miata or MX-5. Ten of the possible 18 podium positions were held by Mazda Miata or MX-5 competitors.
The No. 05 Mazda MX-5 of RDR ran over 19 hours of the race with no windshield or back glass.
No. 72 Scion Racing began an engine change at 9 a.m. Sunday morning and made it back out just in time to take third place in E1.
In both the E0 and E1 classes, two laps separated the first and second positions.
Results
Dec. 4-6, 2010
Pos. No. Name
Laps Total time
Diff. Best
time in lap Best speed
1 75 Mercer Motorsports
628 24:51:31.402
1:45.986 78 101.900
2 95 Nitto Tire - Bullet
Performance 608 24:52:27.531 20 Laps
1:57.476 84 91.934
3 61 Road Shagger Racing (6 &
25) 607 24:52:20.531 21 Laps
1:56.167 92 92.970
4 89 Speed Trapp Racing
601 24:51:10.013 27 Laps
1:57.321 23 92.055
5 66 Jager Super Truck (6 &
25) 597
24:51:40.267 31 Laps 1:56.347 579
92.826
6 36 MER 3
596 24:52:49.405 32 Laps
2:01.709 51 88.736
7 22 Tiger
Racing/BavarianTuning 591 24:51:48.365
37 Laps 1:55.595 123 93.430
8 2 Miatacage.com
590 24:51:58.513 38 Laps
2:06.803 53 85.171
9 19 Honda Performance Dev#2
590 24:53:08.859 1:10.346
2:03.601 45 87.378
10 1 Racing On Adare (6 & 25)
587 24:51:55.911 41 Laps
2:00.910 60 89.323
11 02 Atlanta Motorsports Group 2
587 24:51:59.896 3.985
2:02.389 41 88.243
12 58 RDR 2
581 24:52:16.883 47 Laps
2:03.027 79 87.786
13 96 Hooverspeed 2
572 24:51:41.143 56 Laps
2:08.821 74 83.837
14 90 Fantasy Junction
572 24:53:47.956 2:06.813
1:59.456 6 90.410
15 15 Honda Research West
570 24:52:14.569 58 Laps
2:09.364 566 83.485
16 56 Integri Team
568 24:52:49.992 60 Laps
2:08.298 130 84.179
17 51 Sector Purple Racing
567 24:52:13.509 61 Laps
2:06.240 15 85.551
18 85 Boothman Racing
565 24:52:08.287 63 Laps
1:54.692 48 94.165
19 20 RDR 3
559 24:51:47.879 69 Laps
2:14.381 56 80.369
20 29 RJ Racing (6 & 25)
553 24:54:16.887 75 Laps
2:07.113 143 84.964
21 31 Bimmerworld
552 24:50:11.229 76 Laps
1:56.367 44 92.810
22 70 Race Epic / Murillo Racing
551 24:51:48.474 77 Laps
2:02.235 113 88.354
23 48 Achilles Motorsport
545 22:50:01.460 83 Laps
1:56.954 101 92.344
24 60 A+Racing
545 24:52:13.324 2:02:11.864
2:07.375 12 84.789
25 73 MER 1
538 24:51:52.802
90 Laps 1:58.608 40
91.056
26 92 Bloising Saddles
535 24:53:29.433 93 Laps
2:14.862 118 80.082
27 3 RDR 1
534 24:51:48.913 94 Laps
2:01.719 61 88.729
28 01 Atlanta Motorsports Group
533 22:09:57.646 95 Laps
2:00.720 82 89.463
29 62 Hooverspeed
530 22:45:06.999 98 Laps
2:02.611 36 88.083
30 27 3D Racing
528 24:49:06.848 100 Laps
2:08.685 127 83.926
31 33 Krider/Kramer Rcng (6 & 25)524
24:52:36.573 104 Laps 2:08.636
117 83.958
32 28 Thunder Valley Racing
523 24:51:10.402 105 Laps
1:57.893 112 91.608
33 57 HS Motorsports
522 24:51:43.507 106 Laps
2:10.743 518 82.605
34 21 Grip Racing/Wilson Mtrsprts518
24:52:58.112 110 Laps
2:03.600 8
87.379
35 23 Radical Ventures
516 24:51:44.508 112 Laps
1:44.834 45 103.020
36 63 Evil Genius
515 24:52:19.710 113
Laps 2:12.044 493
81.791
37 45 Theis Engineering
505 24:53:29.813 123 Laps
2:11.460 36 82.154
38 5 Divaspeed
503 21:46:26.728
125 Laps 2:01.306 5
89.031
39 74 MER 4
586 24:51:13.360
142 Laps 2:03.064 9
87.759
40 87 Chapter Eleven Racing
447 22:40:35.468
155 Laps 2:01.054 54
89.216
41 67 Marathon Motorsports
466 23:55:39.046 162
Laps 2:00.955 436
89.289
42 52 C-Note Racing
461 24:53:32.883
167 Laps 2:07.236 24
84.882
43 06 Project Motorsports
386 24:51:52.050
242 Laps 1:59.560 10
90.331
44 12 Hale Motorsports / RDR
371 16:49:08.790
257 Laps 2:13.812 69
80.710
45 93 Honda Performance Dev #1 350
19:46:29.983 278 Laps
2:03.180 45 87.677
46 94 BAMF Racing
314 20:55:39.460
314 Laps 2:09.468 97
83.418
47 11 Tool BMC Racing
308 19:13:58.511
320 Laps 1:45.364 38
102.502
48 80 MER 2
304 17:21:43.287
324 Laps 2:02.780
8 87.962
49 43 Speedy Motorsports
300 16:14:05.842
328 Laps 2:11.052 57
82.410
50 24 Team Copa
290 11:51:59.365
338 Laps 1:48.465 48
99.571
51 44 Lack of Focus (6 & 25)
281 17:11:22.422
347 Laps 2:13.986 15
80.605
52 64 Brown/Heyer
246 24:51:53.834
382 Laps 2:07.154 25
84.936
53 9 Gone Racing (6)
240 24:53:04.140
388 Laps 2:10.793 51
82.573
54 4 Prototype Dev.Group (6&25) 224
8:33:13.819 404 Laps
1:54.712 34 94.149
55 81 Acutech Racing
193 9:09:28.265
435 Laps 2:06.891 26
85.112
56 17 OZ Super Truck
189 8:08:09.754
439 Laps 1:50.808 15
97.466
57 88 Green Alternative Mtorsprts(6) 159
5:55:04.283 469 Laps
1:46.282 29 101.616
58 98 Ciencia Extrana (6)
154 5:54:04.477
474 Laps 2:01.305 39
89.032
59 99 The BMW Store
154 7:32:56.196
1:38:51.719 1:56.351 143
92.823
60 16 Stammer Inc./Bavarian Perf (6)150
5:54:57.182 478 Laps
1:55.954 80 93.140
61 14 AD3R.1 (6)
145 5:54:11.071
483 Laps 2:08.237 53
84.219
62 42 Gorman Motorsports (6)
145 5:58:20.929
4:09.858 2:12.901
35 81.263
63 59 Competition Auto/Offline (6)
141 5:53:53.451
487 Laps 2:08.910
69 83.779
64 41 BAF Racing (6)
140 5:53:44.287
488 Laps 2:08.166
60 84.266
65 91Motovation Motorsport (6)
140 5:54:02.907 18.620
1:51.480 107 96.878
66 13 RJ Racing 2/ Wknd-Racer.com 104
4:08:11.955 524 Laps
2:14.397 65 80.359
67 18 Semper Fi
78 15:59:12.987 550 Laps
1:55.823 19 93.246
68 6 Arnheiter Bros. (6)
26 2:10:08.456
602 Laps 1:55.769
5 93.289
69 10Consonus Racing
8 1:07:23.920
620 Laps 1:52.898 3
95.662