USAF 25Hours of Thunderhill 2011
28 Nov, 2011
The USAF 25 Hours of Thunderhill is upon us. If you are not familiar with the race, it is an endurance sports car race akin to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona (only it's an hour longer) held the first weekend of December each year in Willows, CA. Thunderhill Raceway is three miles and 15 turns of undulating track set in beautiful northern California. The race runs from 11am Saturday December 3rd to noon on Sunday the 4th.
The 25 hours attracts both professional and amateur teams competing wheel-to-wheel, battling multi-class traffic, the cold, fog, rain, even snow one year! The grassroots meets professional aspect garners this race a following across the country and even around the world.
The racers come from the SCCA, NASA and Grand-Am are divided into 5 classes with 86 total entries this year. From near stock small B segment hatchbacks to imported French and English open top prototypes.
Class Breakdown
EO- Featuring cars from the World Challenge series Touring and GTS class.
ES-Most of the event winners have come from this class. The highly modified production based machines mixed with tube framed purpose built silhouettes racers. With Grand-Am GS and Trans-Am machinery entered, Including the Mercer Motorsport Porsche that is trying for a hat trick of overall victories this year.
The ES and ESR classes are the unlimited classes; there only limitation is the requirement for the safety equipment to match the speed of the car.
ESR-The top class of purpose built baby Le Mans prototypes. They’re fast but fragile machines, from Norma, Panoz, Radical and spec racer ford. ESR represents the fastest cars in the race.
E1- Features machines from the Playboy MX-5 Cup, USTCC and Spec Porsche Boxster. These cars have highly modified suspension and slick tires with few engine mods.
E2-Mild increase in performance from E3, a mix of highly tuned four cylinder cars and lightly modified sports cars. The class is filled with Miata’s, BMW’s and Honda’s.
E3-For production based machines with limited modification. The cars come from the Spec Miata, E30, Honda Challenge and other small displacement classes. With 21 cars entered, it’s also the largest class in the 25hours.
2011 marks the ninth year for this end of season classic. The 25hours is unique for its distance and its two races in one. The six hour mark is the end of the Western Endurance Regional Championship [WERC] season with champions crowned and a few competitors calling it a day.
The rest of the paddock buckles down for the long night ahead. Unlike Le Mans held in the summer and has less then six hours of darkness the 25 runs through the long cold nights of December. The nights are not only long and cold but also completely in the dark. The race is run without the flood lights that are common at other endurance races like Daytona, forcing the drivers to rely on their own headlights and the lights of others on track. The 25hours offers no easy victories; the race has taken on a moniker born out of the trials of the race “Survive the 25”.
To catch more of the race in early spring 2012 the race will be broadcast on Versus Cable network. Highlighting the struggle and determination it takes to “Survive the 25”.
Coverage of the race will be provided courtesy of RJ Racing.
For more information log onto nasa25hour.com
[Additional photos are copyrighted to their respective rights holders.]