We finished with no issues at all!! 6th in ES class and 13th overall out of 58 cars, completing 673 laps (2,019 miles) around Thunderhill Raceway.

Team F.A.S.T Auto Racing, what a team!

It is still unbelievable the effort accomplished this weekend, the car ran the whole time, not once did it go behind the wall for service. Like clockwork, fuel, driver change, tire change, brake change was executed to perfection. This is a grueling race fraught with difficulty, I had my reservations how we would accomplish this momentous task of running a Corvette in the longest endurance race in America, the NASA 25 hours of Thunderhill.

When Adrian Wlostowski asked me to be a driver in his team at this years 25hr I thought about it long and hard, do I want to endeavor down this path again? How would this end? Would we finish? My answer to him was HECK YES! Sign me up! I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to go back to this amazing race, last time for me was in 2012.  With my 5 years racing on Team Boothman Racing I stressed to Adrian the importance of car prep, logistics of getting everything and everyone to/from the race, planning and executing a successful race strategy. Well, we did all of that, and the result was a great finish.

The ES class was stacked with super fast cars this year, 13 starters would compete including famous pro teams, like Flying Lizard fielding 2 super fast cars, and a very fast Lamborghini. Our 2010 Corvette also in the ES class would compete against these type of cars sometimes 10 seconds a lap faster then us.

Even before the race started there was a snafu with the race tire shipment to Adrian’s shop F.A.S.T Auto Repair in NYC, scheduled to arrive Friday after Thanksgiving, with half of the team scheduled to leave for California that Sunday. The tires, of course did not arrive, delaying the departure for Cali to Monday 11am. The team had to get to the track by Wednesday, so they drove non-stop taking turns behind the wheel and arrived to the track in 47 hours! How is that for a cannonball run, NYC to Willows, CA!

Unloading and organizing the pits was done and the crew along with the drivers ready to test Thursday and Friday before the Enduro. Drivers included Adrian, David Stark, Mark Gaynor and I. Adrian and Mark, new to Thunderhill had the task of learning the track, David has raced his C5 corvette at Thunderhill before, and me with a ton of laps around Thunderhill, but never in a Corvette needing to familiarize myself with the car. We did a bunch of laps, testing fueling, driver change, and even tire changes.

All went well, and the car was ready for qualifying Friday night between 5:15-5:45pm. Adrian went out to qualify in this short session and set decent times early on, getting progressively faster in the night session. We had a problem with the transponders (there were 2 in the car per rules) with only 1 working intermittently and the second not working at all. This caused our fast lap of 1:54.x to not get registered by the official timing system, which had our other lap of 1:58 registered as the fastest so far. After the qualifying session we addressed the transponder issue by relocating the transponders closer to the track inside the car. The crew changed to new rotors, brake pads, oil, oil filter, ready for the start of the 25hr race.

Saturday race starts at 11am with me driving the first 2 stints, followed by Adrian, Mark, and David. Before the race we needed to get the car on the front straight for the start ceremonies and all the crews lined up their cars according to qualifying position on the front straight.

The start of the race was frantic, I took it easy and once everything settled down started picking up positions, moving from 23rd at start to 14th overall before our fuel stop. Another stint and running consistent times gets us into 13th overall. Adrian gets in, crew changes all 4 tires, fuels car with a total time in the pits of 4min 18sec! The rest of the race was like clockwork, car would come in, get fuel, go back out, come in , driver change, new set of tires, fuel, go back out. A total of 20 stops were executed to perfection, 2 front brake pad changes, 1 rear brake pad change, 2 quarts of oil added, and one 5 minute penalty for passing under yellow. All the drivers did great behind the wheel staying clean and setting consistent fast laps throughout the race.

Adrian’s finishing stint was rather stressful, as fuel was getting used up the finish of the race was approaching the end, Adrian had to save fuel, us updating him of time left in the race, him watching the fuel gauge counting down to 3% fuel left crossing over the finish line!

We were as high as 9th overall, completing 673 laps, finishing 6th in ES and 13th overall. Top 3 in ES class were all pro teams, so we are 3rd best of the rest! not bad at all.

I cant thank enough Adrian, Eric, Kuba and this fantastic team for letting me be part of this epic effort. The team participating the first time without any mechanical issues is remarkable and speaks volumes of F.A.S.T. Auto Racing’s excellent car prep and planning.

This finish marks the first time ever a Corvette finished the NASA 25hr race! Looking forward for next year to do it all again to improve on this years finishing place.

Incar footage from live feed (only lasted 11hrs:)

EnduranceRadio last 3hrs of the race:

Pictures: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/385