US AIr Force 25 Hours of Thunderhill

Thanks to Dan and Bob Lawson, it was back to California to finish the season at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by the US Air Force. This year it was a focused team with four other drivers (all friends and all good drivers) and the same car we had tested a weeks earlier. Since Dan had just run a few laps a few weeks earlier, he left most of the testing time to the two guys who hadn't run there. Bryan Dobyns qualified the Team Lawson #11 car 4^th overall – and the fastest on street tires.

Dan spent a lot of time getting the team organized and focusing on strategy. The pit stops were vastly improved over the previous year but it's clear we still have some to learn. The cars are usually bullet-proof but we had little things go wrong that caused big problems. A lose clamp here, an overtightening of the lug nuts that caused a wheel to fall off, etc.

Most of the racing that we do is one on one. For the 25 Hours of Thunderhill it is definitely a team sport – and not just the drivers. In fact, the drivers are truly the least important aspect of this race. The FFR Team Lawson crew was incredible: they replaced an entire transmission in 45 minutes. When the wheel fell off it only took them 25 minutes to replace the entire axle and get the car back on track. Harry stayed up all night to help run pit stops and work out track strategy. Being crew was hard when the California nighttime temps dropped to the high 20s. Brrr!! For the drivers, it was staying out there and not making any mistakes. Our car ended up running the 5^th fastest lap time of the entire race – in a field that included some powerful cars. With the mechanical problems we went from 4^th overall (and first in class) to 55^th overall, but we managed to fight our way back into the hunt. We worked our way back to 20^th overall, but the lost wheel meant we ended up with a final finish of 3^rd in class and 28^th overall. It was a great experience and we're sure to go back.