NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by Hawk Performance is Attracting Top Entries and Drivers
Herta, Unser Jr., Braun, van Overbeek, Law, von Moltke, McQuarrie will race
NAPA VALLEY, Calif., (Nov. 8, 2016)
- The 14th edition of the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by
Hawk Performance is getting top entries and drivers for the
twice-around-the-clock plus one-hour race to run December 3-4.
With
the race a month away the field for the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill
presented by Hawk Performance is filling with a variety of top entries
in each class and a who's who of drivers from IndyCar to IMSA.
Flying
Lizard Motorsports is returning to defend its overall win in 2015 with
their Audi R8 LMS Ultra on Toyo tires with drivers Darren Law, Johannes
van Overbeek, Dion von Moltke and Mike Hedlund.
"The
25 is just a really fun event," Darren Law said. "It's is low pressure,
kind of old school racing. We are in one of the fastest cars so you are
constantly just flying by other drivers. It takes a lot of patience and
race craft to pick the right time to go or not go when passing the
other cars, sometimes 20 a lap. It is really a blast out there, but you
have to be extra careful because of the large difference in the closing
speeds and skill levels of the drivers. It also has a huge range of
changing conditions from warm to cold from wet to dry, light to dark,
you never know what you are going to get and you will probably get all
of those conditions and more."
The Lizard team uses the 25 as a testing ground for Toyo tires.
"The
25 hour is an important year-long wrap up for us after a season of
development with Toyo," Law continued. "We have been working on
different constructions, different compounds as well as testing through
different temperature ranges and track conditions. This event will
provide the critical data in a variety of race conditions over an
extended period of time. Race conditions are always different than
testing and we hope to prove that the work we have done all season has
paid off and going in the right direction."
Ryno
Racing is returning to the 25 with their Ginetta G57, the same LMP3 car
the team ran last year, but with added Chevrolet horsepower, LMP2 aero
and traction control. Team owner Ryan Carpenter will be driving with
IndyCar team owner Bryan Herta and his son Colton Herta along with IMSA WeatherTech Series competitors Colin Braun and Parker Chase.
"Last
year's race was a tough one," Braun said. "Ryno Racing did a fantastic
job with all the preparation and we showed we had a fast car.
Unfortunately Ryan had a little incident in the last corner and spun
across the track into the inside wall and the car was fairly damaged. It
was a bummer because there are many places you can get away with a
little mistake at Thunderhill, but the one place you really cannot is
that corner. It was just such a big consequence for a tiny mistake. But
we showed we had a fast car. I really enjoy the race because it reminds
you of what this sport is all about. Very passionate people all out
racing to just race, very bare and raw, which is so cool. I feel it
refreshes me on why racing and sports car racing is such an amazing
sport! Looking around the paddock and pit lane at 2 a.m. is just amazing!"
Braun
started his racing career in the NASA Formula Renault series and is
looking forward to driving with Carpenter and the Herta's.
"Very
excited about our driver line-up this year," he continued. "Having Ryan
with us again is going to be great, we all learned a lot from 2015 to
put towards this year so that experience will be great. And to have
Bryan and Colton join us will be awesome. Bryan's experience and
knowledge will be invaluable. Colton looks to be on the path to stardom,
so it will be neat to get to race alongside both of them. I have a huge
respect and understanding of how cool it is to work with your father as
well, since my dad has been engineering my IMSA car at CORE for the
past year. I am glad those guys will be able to race as a father/son
duo. Really excited!"
Fantasy
Junction with Winding Road Racing is bringing the Riley built Daytona
Prototype to Thunder Hill. Driving the DP car will be Spencer Trenery
who has
IMSA experience as well as multi-time Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona starter
Rob Gewirtz, Mazda MX-5 Cup champion driver Mark Drennan and Darrell
Anderson who was second overall at the 25 in 2015.
"We
have fielded teams in nearly every 12 and 25 hour NASA races since
their inception," Trenery said. "Generally in E1 and E3 and ESR, and we
have been on the podium many times. In 2014, I finished second overall
and first in ES with the Award Racing Porsche. We are running a Daytona
Prototype that we have converted from 5.0L to 6.2L, added a sixth gear,
and some significant downforce. We are looking forward to a very
competitive race next month."
Professional
drivers listed on the entry include: Bryan Herta, Colton Herta, Ryan
Eversley, Al Unser Jr., Kyle Marcelli, Randy Pobst, Burt Frisselle,
Brian Frisselle, Dion von Moltke, Colin Braun, Johannes van Overbeek,
Darren Law, Tommy Sadler, Sean Rayhall, Darren Law, Tyler McQuarrie,
Kelly Collins, Taz Harvey, with more expected.