Special thanks

to Kumho Tires!

To find out about NASA Racing,
GTi Cup Cars, or Infineon,
 look under links at the right.

  

                                          

Road Racing

 

Thunderhill Raceway, December  1-2

Team Kumho Wins in the 12 Hour WERC Final

 Places 2nd

in

E2 Class

The 25 Hours of Thunderhill



25 Hour Overall Winner Parallax Racing's

Crawford Daytona Prototype



Team Kumho's #68 car places  2nd in E2

02 car places 9th in E2 after  repair



E2 class at NASA's final WERC race at Thunderhill



Among the celebrities entered,

Calvin Wan drove a Factory Five Cobra

An early Sunday morning stop shows damage to rear of the 68 car.



Not all cars were everyday cars, not all cars that finished, ran all night.




About 8:00 am Sunday, many cars still running hard.



Mr. Miller Senior stands next to the E2 Class winning #02 driven by Dean Thomas and Daniel Pina prior to the 5th WERC at Buttonwillow Raceway, Ca

Marcus Miller ready on the pregrid in the 68 car.




     After a first in class drive for the first 2 hours,
Dean Thomas greets and congratulates Dan at the finish of his stint in the car. Dan had jumped into the car after a 4 hour drive from Irwindale Raceway, bypassing the closure on Hwy 5 and a closure on hwy 395.


LtoR
Sean Nielson 2nd driver#68
Dean Thomas 1st driver #02
Dan Pina 2nd  driver #02
Marcus  MIller 1st driver#68





Official Results




Dan Pina, Dean Thomas, Marcus Miller, Thomas Aiken, Ron Swett take Team Kumho Tires/BiggsB Enterprises/Miller Motorsports to 2nd in Class and 9th overall at NASA's 2006 25 hour Enduro!

December 2nd, 3rd 2006 at Northern California's Thunderhill Raceway,  The Kumho Tires/BriggsB Enterprises/Miller Motorsports Team took Second in the hotly contested E2 Class, and 9th overall out of the 56 car field. 

 The team started out hopefull of a podium finish qualifying 4th in the 17 car class. The team had their first and last mechanical trouble around 2:30pm Saturday, when the muffler came loose and eventually fell off. The team was forced to repair the exhaust, costing 26 minutes of on track time. This thankfully would be the only problem the team would face, and gave the drivers plenty of incentive to drive hard the rest of the race. With the help of the awesomely fast Kumho tires, the team charged on through the night, working their way back up the order. As time wore on, the race began to take its toll on teams and cars. Several cars were forced to retire due to mechanical failures,  and even a few incredible wrecks.  By day light on Sunday, the team had worked their way back up to fourth position in class, and 11th overall. With two hours remaining in the race, the team found themselves in the 3rd position in class,  and now rounded out the top ten teams still remaining in the race. In the final minutes of the race, Team Kumho/BiggsB Enterprises/Miller Motorsports had overtaken the 2nd place E2 competitor, now moving up to the 2nd spot on the podium. The team drove hard til' the finish hangin on to the 2nd spot in E2 class, and moving up to the overall position of 9th place.

A quick pit stop for gas & Driver change

An unscheduled stop to repair the muffler

 

The overall winner

 

 More pictures and details to follow. Also check Shed Racings report (http://shedracing.com/2006_25hours), Miller Motorsports report (http://www.miller-motorsports.com/)




 Results from 2005

Daniel Pina, Carlos Suarez, Don Bailey and Dave Bongiovanni win at Nasa's 25 Hours of Thunderhill!!

    

Dave, Carlos , Scott , Dan, Don ,Tony with 1st placeTrophy

  

David, Dan Pina and Alex Castro

 
Team German Sport/Mel & Sons

Drivers Carlos, Dan, Don, Crew Chief Scott, and  crew member Alex on Pre Grid
 
One of the Factory backed Honda Civic Si's
 

 
Exhausted Drivers and Crew just after the finish

The Energizer Rabbit, she just kept on ticking!  



       
Over all Winner!! Job Well Done!!

What an experience!    Carlos Suarez, Don Bailey, Daniel Pina, and Dave Bongiovanni motored Carlos’ 1983 Volkswagon Gti Cup car to NASA’s 25 Hour Severe Endurance Race win. Not only did they win the E3 class, they dominated it! The closest competitor was the Opak/Spoon Honda Fit, some 44 laps behind.  What a  perfect way to cap the year for 2005 Gti Cup Champion Carlos Suarez. He and Don Bailey did a magnificent job preparing the car for the 25 Hour. With only three mechanical issues, the Rabbit just kept on ticking. The issues were: twice the throttle cable came off the gas pedal. Once while Daniel was exiting turn two and the second time on Carlos while he was attempting to leave the pits. The other issue was the  header was hitting the front sway bar. We pulled the sway bar off.
The car used up only two sets of front pads and ten tires.
Daniel Pina set the fastest lap, which was also a new course record for a Gti Cup Car. His time was a smoking 2:12.703. The only driver issue we faced was keeping the drivers from using the right pedal too much, keeping the speed down to : 1st, make everything last, and 2nd, keep the car as fresh as possible in case the Honda Fit was just setting us up for a Speed Attack the last part of the race. Check out Car & Driver .com for more stories and photos.

 

1st in E3 Class

18th Overall of 58 cars

75 laps behind top finisher

44 laps ahead of 2nd place E3 team Spoon Honda Fit

132 miles, or 1.7 hours ahead of 2nd place E3 finisher

Average Speed (incuding pit stops and 1 5-minute penalty) of 70.8 mph

Fastest lap set by Dan Pina 2:12.703 (80.38 mph average)

Consumed 143 gallons of gas costing $519

Fuel Economy 12.4 miles/gallon

Consumed 10 tires at a cost of $1,200 total

1 penalty stop (5 minutes for spilled gas refuel)

2 mechanical failures (broken front sway bar, disconnected throttle cable)

1 brake change at 13.5 hours

Drivers Time in car:

Carlos Suarez=5hrs

Don Bailey=7hrs

Dave Bongiovanni=6.25hrs

Dan Pina=6.75hrs

 

For more info, go to: www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=10380&page_number=1

Our next project?
Spec E30