mark kibort

what car was it??

RPetty

It was fun...

First time for my son and I.

Team mates hit, Night time spins, motors blown.

All the good stuff.

dp35

It started off as this car:


And ended up looking like this:




Big thanks to CJ for letting me be part of this awesome team & experience. This guy's an even better person than he is an athlete, and he attracts other very cool people (but don't tell him I said that). Our other drivers were David Cheng and Tyler McQuarrie, and MER prepared & maintained the car. I think each of us brought something unique to the team, all of which made it possible for us to do it. We were especially lucky that Bobby Oergel & his wife Lisa (owners of PR1 Motorsports) came along with David, because that led to Bobby managing our team's strategy, radio, and overall sanity. Without him I doubt that our drivers (myself especially) would've maintained the focus & seriousness required to win.

My first stint was from 5:00 to 10:00 PM, in light to heavy rain, on slicks for the first 2 hours. My second was from around 8:00 to 10:30 in drying conditions. It was during that stint that the car we had been chasing & trading the lead with the entire race broke & DNF as a result of contact (I think). From there we cruised home. CJ got to take the checkered flag, which was an especially great moment.

I can't wait for next year. But I'll be surprised if this experience is ever outdone.

Eric S

Hey Guys, Way to go this year.

After a 4th place finish in 2009 you were all over it. Sounds like a wild and crazy wet & cold test of all's endurance.

Congrats to all involved with this team and to CJ taking the checker.

Great job.

schwank

Indeed. Nice to meet you guys. What a top notch event... spent the tow home discussing the event with the core of our team and there really is nothing quite like the 25 hours of Thunderhill. Congrats on the class win!

A 5 hour stint dp35? That is certainly hard core!

C.J. Ichiban

yeah Darren did some ridiculous yellow flag fuel maintaining, due to one of the radicals or other fast cars catching fire there was a pair of full course cautions for something like 35 mins a piece. in that nearly 5 hour stint we only used 21 or so gallons of fuel which was obviously pretty good. we had a set of wet tires that lasted over 6.5 hours which really saved our bacon because it allowed the dry weather tires to get saved for a later set of changes.

overall, I think our race could have been a little cleaner but really to have won class with 3 dudes driving that nobody other than rennlisters have heard of is pretty rad. Tyler was awesome and brought a hankook tire sponsorship, and having worked with him previously at the jim russell racing school he delivered exactly what I expected- and has now won 3 years in a row.

Darren really kicked *** as his fast laps in dry conditions during practice were not surprising at all considering the amount of spec miata racing he's done this year and as serious as he is about racing after being, like myself, basically a convert from just doing track day stuff and jumping in with both feet.

the night and rain and raining at night conditions were totally insane. If we wouldn't have been speared by a pair of cars we legitimately had a shot to finish 2nd or 3rd overall, and at one point we were 3rd overall.

I was t-boned in t14 on the right side knocking the right rear toe out of whack around 1130 in the rain and david was hit on the left side which had the effect of knocking the car back straight again. got pretty lucky to not have any worse damage than that, but with those incidents we lost about 10 laps of track time.

When I got back in the car to drive the last 2 hours or so, I was just putting around as darren david and tyler had done all the work in between my earlier stint and that one, and the 01 AMG car broke the steering column somehow. So the hard part was trying to set a "risk free" pace- if you went too slow then the spec miata cars tried to get all racy. So eventually with about 25 mins left I just came in for a splash of fuel and drove the crap out of the car- by that point we had a 45 lap lead and if we broke something we still won big time.

the sketchiest stint for me was the 2.5 hour drive back to the RV rental location in full wet conditions.

said it last year, I'll say it again...DO THIS RACE. IT IS AWESOME.

2011!!! who's gonna be there??

C.J. Ichiban

dp35

¡VATO!

C.J. Ichiban

darren I've got about 100 photos from david and dan as well as the blue milk company- tyler kicked in for the dvd apparently. I'll email you a bunch asap

Kevinlpl

Congrats to you and your team CJ. It was good to see you again and see you stand at the podium with your team to enjoy the acknowledgement of your racing peers.

We were happy to podium in our little E30 Frankenstein. We walked into the race hoping for a top 10 overall and maybe have a chance at a podium, so 4th overall and 3rd in class made for a very special weekend.

As you and your teammate mentioned, driving at night was the greatest driving challenge I have ever experienced. My night stint was from 9:30 to midnight. the mixture of heavy then light rain and back to heavy, along with mud and oil on the windshield, bright lights and tricking yellow flags made for an intense 2.5 hours.

This was my first 25, but certainly not my last. I too would encourage everyone to consider joining the party next year! From my perspective the vast majority of drivers were respectful of each other, and fun to race with.

Congrats on your progress in racing CJ. It sounds like you have been able to team up with a bunch of great racers to have fun and continue learning. As a dad I want to say again I appreciate the positive example you set for our children as well. Keep up the good work. See you at the track!

early_grayce

Awesome job guys!

CAM14

What an interesting racing weekend. A lot of really cool cars on the track at the same time as the lowly Mazda Miata that I was in. Great team dynamics. Hanging out with dedicated and fun people. A great track with very good flow. Night racing in the rain has its own set of unique challenges. All in all, a great time and unique event for the club racer like me.

It was great seeing old friends and making new owns. Wanted to visit and meet more people but it is just amazing how busy one can stay over a 4 day weekend. Never had a change to meet dp35, just did not make it over to the MER pit area.

My team in a 1.6 Miata earned 3rd in class E3. We had a total of 3 drivers which worked out well this year. No significant mistakes by crew or drivers so never had served a penalty. We were not the 3rd fastest car in E3 but we did cover more laps than all the other E3 cars except two. The winner in E3 is a class act and earned the win and overall under 2 liter winner. And did it in a Miata! The 2nd place E3 car has to be miss-classed. It was the Honda factory prepared and supported CR-Z rated at 175 HP with a push to pass button with some kind of electric motor worth an extra 20 HP.

Link:
The overall winning Porsche was a very clean and fast. As least when I was on the track, they made clean, strategic passes and avoided the low percentage/high risk passes. Good job to that team. Team MER once again made a great showing, from an outsiders perspective, they appear to be highly organized and dedicated. And then there as the white Ford Focus which was like driving around a drunk Humpty Dumpty as he wallowed around the track. Their daytime dry lap times were slower than my night time wet lap times. Not sure if it was the car or drivers or combination but they were driving more like a Lemons event than a real race.

schwank

Don't forget StopTech front brakes on the CR-Z

Awesome job on your third place too... congrats. We had some good battles against your car at times acutally. E3 is a tough class now. Most of the top 10 would have been podium finishers in the higher classes. The MiataCage guys put out a great effort. We were happy that so many local PacNW teams did well... racing in the rain a lot helps! Our 26th overall was 10th in E3 and we ran the race with no mechanical issues at all.

Loved it... had a great time in our first try at the full 25.

Here is a pic of both of our cars right at the start

Circuit Motorsports

I doubt the CR-Z was misclassed. After talking to a couple of folks I think it actually was classed right NASA just saw a factory effort with big time money and development show up to the plate. They had it classed based on dyno sheets and that is where they killed the competition. With that little engine and the turbo I bet they were able to tune a map that gave them a ridiculous amount of area under the curve and by curve I mean flat line from 3000 RPM up to redline. Then add to that factory level drivers like Simon Pagenaud to the mix and they should be turning ridiculous times. PTxxx rules are very vulnerable to a big money car.

CAM14

Thanks I had a good time with you guys. I had you a bit out gunned in the rain. Our Miata was on Hoosier R6 the whole race. Used a total of 7 tires (meaning the left rear started the race 25 hours earlier) and never changed brakes. I did around a 6 hour session starting a little before 7 and ending after midnight, maybe 12:30 or so. With all the FCY and the red flag stop, the car got great MPG. But the R6s in the rain were challenging. I went off twice; avoiding other wreaks, but otherwise never dropped a wheel and never had contact. I think the other drivers on my team were equally clean. Did the Orange pick-up truck block you during the rain? He was so fast in a straight line and just parked it at turn-in. Once I got past him, was able to lap him for another round of "follow the truck thru the corners".

If the CR-Z is really a legal E3 (PT something) car, then it should dominate both sprint and endurance races. I was close to keeping up with it in the wet but it was much quicker then me in the dry.

As others stated earlier, this is a great event, I plan to be back for 2011.