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25 hours of Thunderhill


r k drake

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Well, it's that time of year again! Team Racing for a Reason will again be fielding my CMC Mustang in the race with a great line up of drivers.

This year we are fortunate to have Brady Flaherty, Nick Steel, Kirk Theiss, and Jason Swindle at the wheel doing laps for charity. Jon and Gary will be returning as key pit people this year and I thank them for the services, anyone else interested in being a part of a cool event are welcome to email me at the address below. Last year was one of the most emotional events of my lifetime and one that I beleive no one that was there will ever forget. As many of you know, last year we had a T5 transmission failure and this year that problem has been solved with a TKO 600 Tremec, so no excuses this year! We are a part of a four car Team this year including my Mustang, 2 65 Cobras, and a Factory Five rear enging prototype race car! We are already packing trailers in preparation for the event. One of our crewchiefs has asked for me to locate 2 sets of wheels for the 94 Mustang for use in case of rains. If anyone has some we can use, I will return them after the race, please email at the address below if you can help. Lastly, if anyone has a set of Toyo's they can donate, it will free up additional money for charity. My email address is [email protected] Thanks again!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just an uppate, having a ball, the Mustang is running like a watch thus far drivers are having fun and Brady is enjoying being crew cheif way to much! The Factory Five GTM is also running well and is currently 3rd in class. Try to update you as the night goes for those that are interested. Later.

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Is there a live timing and scoring link anywhere online? My brother is one of the drivers in the #14 FFR Cobra.

 

Mark

 

Mark, Your brother was the first driver. He looked good out there!

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Greeting from the cold, #14 has had several problems, first was a trans, panhard bar broke I think, fuel pump failire, they are replacing it now, pretty determined bunch of the car, should be out soon. Mustang has not missed a bit, statregy is proving successful, car is now 30th overall and moving up, GTM continues to have shifting problems, has a Porshce transmission, Porche guy told us our problem is we are shifting not selecting gears, gotta lot those guys...

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Greeting from the cold, #14 has had several problems, first was a trans...

 

Yup, Scott was driving the 14 when the tranny went south. First, it wouldn't downshift, then it wouldn't upshift, then it just wouldn't shift at all. 45 minutes for a tranny swap isn't bad at all. I didn't realize that they broke a Panhard and fuel pump...I'll have to text him to find out what's up with that.

 

Mark

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Quick update for the #44 mustang

 

The car didn't miss a beat. We wore teh first set of pads out in 6 1/2 - 7 hours and then Brady, Chris, Jason and I were just really really really REALLY easy on the brakes the rest of the way and managed to get the second set of pads to go the rest of the way. We brought it home 26th overall and 11th in class.

 

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE BLAST!!!

 

-- Nick

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I want to thank all the drivers and pit people that helped on the #44 cmc mustang. Scott we did miss you because this was the most fun I have had at the 25 in four years. Race recap: Car qualified #24, Brady was our first driver, our strategy was to be easy on the car, and not use up parts. Times through out the entire event were 2:12-2:18. The only parts replaced on the car were two front tires and the front brake pads. Brake pad change took about 15 min. About 4 hrs. into the race chris hit a piece of loose asphalt with the right front and ripped the brake duct tubbing off. By the next pit stop we had a plan to replace it and did in about a minute. The rest of the event was fairly uneventful until about 2 1/2 hours from the end an mx/5 cup car tried to drive through the door and rear wheel of the car. Needless to say Nick was not very happy with the other driver, but NASA was on our side do to the corner worker seeing the whole thing. Car was ok and nick kept on trucking. Just some stats: Appox. 250 gallons of fuel, one set of front brake pads, one quart of oil, two front tires, about five radio battery changes, driver changes every 1 and 1/2 hours, and a whole lotta good people helping out! I also want to thank all who helped out on all three teams when others needed it.

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Wow that is awesome !

Great write up John and sounds like a lot of fun,glad you guys did so well.

Did you guys end up using the Carbotechs I gave Brady 2 days before the event..as those were NOT enduro pads but just regular sprint pads,so that is pretty incredible if you did!!

Next year give me more than a 48hr notice and you can go the whole 25 hours on one set (of real carbotech enduro pads).

Tony Guaglione

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Great write up John and I wish I could have been there. Scott's say hello from the somewhere in the snowy northern plains.

 

This part cracks me up, did you read what you wrote?

Brady easy on a car? Never happen!

 

Brady was our first driver, our strategy was to be easy on the car

 

Congrats to all the drivers and crew!

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That is so cool. Glad you guys and gals had a good time and didnt have any significant issues.

 

Now, I could understand if the strategy was to start w/Brady to get an early lead...but to take it easy on the car??

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In all seriousness, Brady is a hell of a driver. He knows how to take care of a car. He got better fuel mileage in the dry than the rest of us driving (I think I got the best fuel mileage of all in my double stint in the dark in the rain).

 

During my first stint after I had gotten clear of some traffic after about 30 min I settled in to a zone and started banging some consistent laps out. Aftera bout 4 or 5 laps Brady got on the radio "Dude, that was a 2:10 and the last two were 2:11's. SLOW THE F*** DOWN".

 

Everyone did a GREAT job saving the brakes - We had about 3/16" of pad left with 6 hours to go. WE managed to make those pads go all the way to the end by just clicking off consistent laps without really using the brakes. It was GREAT!

 

-- Nick

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I am with John and want to thank the drivers of the 44 car. It is one thing to go out on the track and lay down the fastest laps you can and beat the car up and be fairly consistent but to ask these guys to hold back on their very instinct and then ask them to run a certain time and then tell them to be consistent...well it is pretty mind boggling...(especially asking Brady and Nick to SLOW DOWN). They were all fantastic. It was really great to meet Jason and Chris who I hope will return next year. I'd also like to thank all the new crew members as they too endured a bitterly cold night to fuel the car and never miss a beat. Great job guys.

But most of all as I did last year I'd like to thank Keith for bringing this group of people together who never missed a beat be it driving or fueling or cooking food to feed us all or anything they were asked to do. Thanks to all of you for making this 25 even better than last year for me. Gary

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I forgot to mention drivers names so here goes : brady, kirk, jason, chris, and of course nick. All drivers did a great job of taking care of the car. Nick was correct we had very little pad left with 6 hours to go, but they all did a great job saving it to the end. By the way there was about 1/16 of a inch left at the end of the race! As I said Brady was easy on the car, but don't expect that in a CMC race!!!!

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