25 hours of Thunderhill

I am not sure if the Capri was running at the end but they accepted a third place trophy at the awards ceremony. Congratulations!!!! :smilie_pokal:

Sampson Racing Communications 86 Mazda Rx7 finished first in class E0 and 12th overall :smilie_pokal: . We were completely outclassed and qualified 7 of 8 in class. Our lap times were 2-5 seconds a lap slower than most of our competitors. Due to consistent lap times by drivers Dave Varco, Chuck Koos, Shawn Sampson and Charles Buzzetti and great pit stops and refueling we were able to get the win. All cars in our class had at least one mechanical failure during the race. Our came at hour five when the trans gave up sending us back to 42nd overall.

Thank you to everyone who helped us out.

Victory is sweet!
 
Congrats on the victory :happy204: It's tough to win those long enduro's. It sounds like you guys did a great job with car prep and staying on schedule lap time and pit wise to get to the finish with a victory.


E0? Did you run a turbo or ported car? Wouldn't that have put you into ES?
 
Originally posted by wlfpkrcn@Dec 5 2005, 01:52 PM
How did Joe Craven and crew do? I'm suprised he has not posted his results yet. Di the Capri break?
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Unfortunately Joe was out early, I saw them pit smoking during my first stint, probably about the 3 hour mark of the race.

Tom
 
Our car was stock port but ran under the CalClub regional only rules for RS (radial sedan) that let us run a carb (48 down weber) at 2,222 lbs w/o driver.
Essentially a lightweight ITS car.
We never ran the motor above 7,500 RPM and stayed on our target lap times.
We did incur two 5 minute fuel penalties as well as a $50 fine for using a water only fire extinguisher in the pits. We did have multiple chemical extinguishers we just took this one over the wall during refueling and got caught with it.
The classing for these enduros seem to be a little screwed up. There were cars that should have been classed higher than us in our class, and cars below us that were very fast.
I suspect that some of the SM cars were less than legal.
 
Originally posted by cbuzzetti@Dec 5 2005, 06:01 PM
Our car was stock port but ran under the CalClub regional only rules for RS (radial sedan) that let us run a carb (48 down weber) at 2,222 lbs w/o driver.
Essentially a lightweight ITS car.
We never ran the motor above 7,500 RPM and stayed on our target lap times.
We did incur two 5 minute fuel penalties as well as a $50 fine for using a water only fire extinguisher in the pits. We did have multiple chemical extinguishers we just took this one over the wall during refueling and got caught with it.
The classing for these enduros seem to be a little screwed up. There were cars that should have been classed higher than us in our class, and cars below us that were very fast.
I suspect that some of the SM cars were less than legal.
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oops!

Some of the Miatas were running as ITA cars, not spec cars...

Marcus
 
Good point Marcus!!! I went and checked to see if any ran under the SM or ITA record and a few did but not by much.
Since we wanted to run laps in the 2:07 - 2:10 range it would make sense that they were right there with us.
The ITA track record is 2:08.107 and SM is 2:09.143

The fastest laps in the E0 group was closer than I expected. Though we ran a 2:04.8 (slowest fast lap of group) we tried to stay in the upper range noted above.
We ran the whole race on 8 tires and no brake pad changes. The car only used one quart of oil for the whole race. We did not even bother to check it after the first initial check at six hourssince it had not used any at that point.

The car went on the rack today just to see if anything was going wrong.
Here is the list of problems we found today.
1. Broken engine mount. This allowed the engine to drop and rest on the steering rack. The result was that the engine was occasionally hitting the track grinding the oil pan down on the drivers side. Fortunately it did not wear through. Got lucky on that one!!!!
2. Front sway bar lost attatchment bolt. The car would turn well right but not left. This happened at about hour 20.
3. Rear caliper bolt fell out and brakes got soft but kept working. The pads stayed in place but just lost that good feel.
4. Rear diff oil was very black and goopy, but seemed to not have any effect on track. I'm sure it needs a rebuild now.
5. At hour 24.5 the engine developed a high RPM miss and the tach quit. It seemed to run fine below 5000. Not sure what that problem is yet. But my suspicion is that the cap,rotor and plug wires that were on this used engine when we bought it may be wore out. Yep thats right we never changed them after we bought this engine. Somehow it never made it onto the master list. DUH!!!! :bash_1_:

I can't wait until next year.
 
:023:
edit: We have already started planning for next year also. I think I just blew up my racing plan for next year....
You guys ran well.

Our broken list:
2 front fenders
front nose panel
transmission crossmember bolt (stolen off my pro7 during the event to replace our missing one)
Panhard bar (broke twice)
m/c resevoir is leaking
starter quit working at our last pit stop
two off road lights lost bulbs
rear diff is making bad noises
header (one main pipe is dented about half closed)
Expansion chamber (pipe tore off at the 24.5 hour mark, leaving us with a nopen header the last half hour)
disassembly of the entire suspension, the car was F%^&ing slow. I couldn't come close to my Pro7 times, with all the ITA equpiment. That was a bit frustrating...
:bash_1_:
Marcus
 
Originally posted by cbuzzetti+Dec 5 2005, 07:32 PM-->
Good point Marcus!!! I went and checked to see if any ran under the SM or ITA record and a few did but not by much.
Since we wanted to run laps in the 2:07 - 2:10 range it would make sense that they were right there with us.
The ITA track record is 2:08.107 and SM is 2:09.143
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Keep in mind the SCCA track records are in a different track configuration then NASA runs. SCCA runs over the top of turn 5, where NASA uses the T5 bypass. Depending on the car, the SCCA config is 2 or 3 seconds slower per lap.


<!--QuoteBegin-Marcus Miller@Dec 5 2005, 07:46 PM
two off road lights lost bulbs
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Considering those lights had the original bulbs from when I installed them on my Toyota truck in 1989.........
I seem to recall someone advising new bulbs in those lights. I think his name may have been Tom. :D They worked great while they lasted though.

rear diff is making bad noises
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I know you guys fixed a leak in the rear end, did anyone check the fluid level after the fix?

Tom
(still tired)
 
Originally posted by Tom A+Dec 6 2005, 12:44 PM-->
Considering those lights had the original bulbs from when I installed them on my Toyota truck in 1989.........
I seem to recall someone advising new bulbs in those lights.  I think his name may have been Tom. :D   They worked great while they lasted though.
[/b]
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We checked the bulbs last night, one of the bulbs is dead, the other measures okay. It might be the switch wiring.
<!--QuoteBegin-Tom A@Dec 6 2005, 12:44 PM
I know you guys fixed a leak in the rear end, did anyone check the fluid level after the fix?

Tom
(still tired)
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who, us? :rolleyes:
I don't remember.


Marcus
 
:smilie_pokal: Class Winners in E0!

:023: 20 year old 2nd gen RX7 w/ a ground up build of 14k.

Go Mazda!

Drivers: Charlie Buzzetti, Chuck Coos, Dave Varco and Shawn Sampson.

Great drive and great win!
 
Well I should probably toot our own horn here. The Workpad.com, German-Sport, Mel & Sons Muffler GTI Rabbit won the E3 class in NASA's 25-Hour Endurance Race this weekend at Thunderhill. :smilie_pokal: This is one grueling race and our Rabbit GTI-cup race car survived. BTW Joe's Capri burned a piston after only 77 laps ~3 hours into the race. Tough luck

E3-champions.jpg

Photo courtesey of NASA and HeadOnPhotos

Here's a write up posted on the NorCal GTI-Cup Home Page:

http://home.infostations.net/GTICup/news25...ortDec2005.html

Driver's were Don Bailey (Mel & Sons Muffler), Carlos Suarez (German-Sport European Auto Repair) Dave Bongiovanni (Workpad.com) and Dan Pina (DP Racing).

Our main competiton was the Honda Factory-backed Opak-Spoon Team driving a Honda FIT imported from Japan. The Opak-Spoon Team (we think) took the "turtle" approach waiting for our "hare" to break down. Our GTI ran flawlessly. We had great pit stops (only one gas spill resulting in a 5-minute penalty) and two minor mechanical problems. A front sway bar bracket broke and the throttle cable came off the pedal assembly. We removed the front swaybar when we brought the car in for a front brake pad R&R at hour 13.5. The throttle cable was a five minute fix after getting towed into the hot pits. With only about three hours left in the race the car was getting hard to shift so the drivers just keep the car in 4th gear to baby the clutch/tranny. Here are some stats I compiled for the race:

1st in E3 Class
18th overall in a starting field of 58 cars
75 laps behind the top finisher
44 laps ahead of the second place E3 Spoon Honda
44 laps = 132 miles or approximately 1.7 hours
Completed 590 laps which equals 1770 miles
Average lap speed (including pit stops and 5-minute penalty) of 70.8 miles/hour

Fastest Lap was 2:12.703 which equals 80.38 mph
Consumed 143 gallons of gas
Total Gas Cost $519 (track racing gas)
Average gasoline consumption of 5.7 gallons per hour
Fuel efficiency: 12.4 miles per gallon
Consumed 10 tires @ $120 per tire = $1,200 (Toyo RA-1s of course)

Cheers,
Scott Neville
#44 GTI-Cup
 
SRC/Sampson Racing Communications would like to thank all the teams that support NASA and this great event!

Congratulations, you are all winners!

Teams that took first place in class and were running the SRC stickers are eligible to receive the $200 contingency award from SRC :

ESR #12 Team Players Racing $200
E0 #60 Team SRC Awarded to 2nd Place #50 Team Bullet Motorsports $200
:happy204: E3 #22 Team Workpad.com $200 :smilie_pokal:

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season and a Safe and Fast 2006 Race Season.

NASA and SRC look forward to seeing you all at next year's 25 Hour Enduro!

Kind Regards, Shawn Sampson
SRC - Sampson Racing Communications
O:1 866 396 7231 F:(805) 649 9014
www.sampsonracing.com
 
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