Then Keep it Alive for 25—Hours

The Ninth Annual USAF National Auto Sport Association 25-Hours of
Thunderhill.

By Larry Crane

Three abreast. Class warfare—my class is faster than your class. My Porsche
Cup GT3 managed to pull a power pass on the Mazda MX-5 at the exit of 4, but
it was a tight squeeze when I noticed the Daytona Prototype arriving in my
left-side mirror between me and the grass verge. Very busy. Big mirrors
help, but this late at night his sudden arrival fills my mirror—and my face
shield—with dusty glare. As he pulls ahead and back on the track he covers
both of us with dust and Sacramento Valley agriculture. GREAT STUFF.

Club racers, pro racers and factory racers all jostling for a piece of a
beautifully smooth, wide racetrack with a dozen fast sweeping corners and a
couple that require major brake wear and serious attention to mirrors. By
4:00 a.m. Sunday morning they all feel like they’re racing down to Mulsanne
being chased by monster prototypes in the storied valley of the Sarthe. An
exhausted brain and a distracting cramp in your right leg can make a
friendly 25-hour race among about 350 friends in 86 well-prepared cars, and
a broad range of talent and resources, feel like something historic.

It all began as a bit of a surprise to everyone, including Jerry Kunzman,
National Auto Sport Association Executive Director, as he made his way from
his table to the podium at the 2002 post-season banquet. The club had been
growing its series of endurance races and had managed a popular 12-hour
event. A round-the-clock version was floating in the atmosphere—until Jerry
was half way to the stage. By the time he reached the podium it had gained
an hour and the western hemisphere was introduced to its first 25-hour
endurance challenge. By the time the idea reached David Vodden, CEO of
Thunderhill Raceway Park: “At first I thought it was a crazy idea.” Now it
is the event that put the beautiful northern California facility in the
national racing conscious.

“This is the most grueling race anywhere in the world,” explains an
enthusiastic Kunzman. “At tracks like Daytona, Sebring and even LeMans in
France the endurance races held there are the result of years of practice
and adjustment. Even though we have done this event for eight previous
occasions, the look and feel of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill is a throw back
to a time when racing was not about big-business and the competitors were a
combination of driving talents and back-yard mechanics.” He adds, “This is a
race that everyone knows about and talks about but no one wants to change.
And no one wants it to become a big publicity deal.”

“There’s nothing in club racing across North America like NASA’s Thunderhill
25,” said Robert Davis, team principal and famously successful team manager
of Robert Davis Racing. “RDR runs the 25 because it gives us a chance to
close the year by pulling our team together, and performing at a very high
level and that gets results.” Davis continues, “Results are what drives the
hard work from our team, everyone from drivers to the crew. Regardless of
the amount of preparation we’ve put into our effort, regardless of how many
parts we’ve replaced, regardless of how hard we’ve worked to try to consider
everything that could possibly go wrong, we know we’ve missed something.
But that’s why we race – to pull together as a team to overcome the
adversity of top-level endurance racing. We love it.”

Shea Holbrook, Donna Giglio, Glory Fernandez, Karen Salvaggio were the first
all female team at the Thunderhill 25 in 2008. Karen is back with her own
Thunder Valley Racing team, running a Factory Five Racing roadster and a
65-R coupe. And Donna’s Divaspeed team is in with a pair of veteran Acrua
Integras and a Honda Fit for another run of the clock. According to Donna,
“Fear is a state of mind. Will is an action taken.”

National Auto Sport Association impresario Kunzman wants you to remember
NASA was formed in 1991 to deliver high quality motorsports events to
enthusiasts at major racing venues throughout the nation. It has created
programs that allow owners of both racecars and high-performance
street-driven vehicles to enjoy the full performance capabilities of their
cars in a safe and controlled environment. Best of all, membership starts at
$45 per year and a weekend ticket to the The USAF NASA 25 Hours of
Thunderhill, one of its signature events, remains $10.