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25 Hours Racing in a Factory Five |
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Team Lawson and Factory Five West endure the 25 hours of Thunderhill! |
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Thunderhill,
California:
Factory Five customers and racers met to make history this past
December 6th & 7th at the first ever 25 hour
endurance race at Thunderhill raceway in Northern California.
Here is yet another too-good-to-be-true
story of Factory Five fanatics accomplishing truly remarkable things
with our cars. Background:
Almost a year ago NASA (National Auto Sport Association) owner
Jerry Kunzman dreamed up the idea of hosting “The World’s Longest
Race”. The NASA 25 hour
endurance race was born and scheduled for December at the excellent
Thunderhill raceway. Minutes
after the event was announced, Factory Five Challenge series racer Dan
Lawson was the very first entry into the event!
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| Dan and his brother Bob Lawson decided this was just the kind of event that the underdog spec car could excel in. Earlier in the year FFR customer John McIver had just won an enduro event in the Midwest with his own FFR spec car (click here for story). | |
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Huge
support came from Mike Easton (FFR Spec series driver), Don Vaught (FFR
Coupe customer), Cosmo (Griggs racing fame), and Mike Stevens.
Tim Noble (FFR Spec pilot and NASA official) helped out as the
event drew nearer despite having to work full time at the event for
NASA. |
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Team
1, FFR-West Drivers
Team 2, FFR-East Dan
Lawson Gary
Cheney Bob
Lawson Jim
Schenck (FFR) Bryan
Dobbyns Dave Riha (FFR) Brian
Cates Dan Elam Donny
Edwards Leonard Conn
Dave
Borden |
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| The Racers Gather: Most drivers and crew arrived on Thursday evening. Guys came from all over the country as word had spread over the internet that pit crews were needed. The weather for the Friday practice was forecast to be cold, rainy and miserable (or really nice if you’re from Massachusetts). | |
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| Qualifying
heats were run just as the sun was setting Friday evening from 5:30 to
6:00PM. Bryan Dobyns,
driving for Team one (FFR-West) qualified in 30th position
and Gary Cheney, driving for Team two (FFR-east) qualified just behind
Bryan in 32nd position out of about 70 race cars.
The lighting on the cars were just not bright enough for any of
the drivers to run the cars fast. That
makes sense because after the additional lighting was installed, the
cars were running lap times in the top 10-12 cars overall! |
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| Race Preparation: After qualifying runs, both
teams worked fairly late into the night to get last minute changes done
to the cars. During
qualifying (the real first time the drivers had to race in the dark),
everyone realized we needed more candlepower.
The crews installed additional lights on both cars to help the
night driving. The FFR-East
team installed a cool new aircraft fuel measuring computer that they
hoped would help manage pit stops better than the dash fuel gauge and
manual calculations.
The
cars were ready to go by midnight and everyone tried to get some rest
before the start of the race the next day. |
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| As the 11:00 am start time approached and the race cars were all staged, a military colorguard was present and country music star LeAnn Rimes sang the National Anthem. During the Anthem a group of F-15’s streaked overhead to kick things off! | |
| Drivers strapped in, the race cars headed out and the race got underway at 11:00 am PST. | |
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| Team one was forced to stop and changeover to rain tires after struggling in the wet with the Kumhos. Team two on the other hand was storming along. Leonard radioed that the car was working great and for a while it seemed as though a 25 hour race win was conceivable. | |
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What happened next was horrific.
At about 90 mph Leonard drove right into the back of the car that
was stopped on the track. The
car was a “Radical” sports car.
Think about this for a second…
At close to 100 miles per hour imagine hitting another car that
was not moving! |
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| The resulting crash totaled both cars and sent both drivers to the hospital. Leonard suffered five broken bones in his right foot (although the cage was intact this was from his foot on the brake pedal). | |
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Short
note here about character here. Gary
Cheney just watched his beloved dream car smashed to pieces and a good
friend slightly hurt. What
did he do? He turned to and
asked “How can I help the rest of you guys?”.
FFR president Dave Smith told him by phone that the company would
give him a brand new chassis no charge. |
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| The racers reported that the night driving was a real “challenge”… To give you an idea of how tough it was to drive, imagine 70 cars running flat out at night, pitting at all different times and all cars running with blindingly bright headlights. Both Dave Borden (2002 FFR-NASA Challenge Series Champion) and Donny Edwards pulled in shortly after starting their night shifts due to the challenging conditions where they just didn’t feel right. | |
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Shortly
past midnight drivers felt the car was slowing down. The team were running 6th place in class and had
to pull in. After pitting
it was revealed that two (2) of the engine pushrods were bent.
In only about 45 minutes the pit crew tore down the engine,
pulled out the rods and, without replacements handy, straightened them
by hand with a hammer (really.)! |
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| Brian Cates and Brian Dobyns racked off faster and faster lap times as they began to reel in other cars. With the engine teardown and longer than expected pit stops, the win was really beyond reach, but a strong showing and finish were looking probable. The cars actual lap times were really in the top ten, it became obvious though that the pits were killing our over-all position. | |
| Dobyns ran hard for the last few hours and turned the car over to Bob Lawson for the last 30 minute dash for the line and a fifth place in class finish! | |
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25 hours complete! What a weekend to remember! |
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| With an indescribable team effort by all the drivers, crew and support folks, this weekend has to go down in Factory Five history as one of the best. The best excitement. The best displays of driving skill and car performance. What stands out more than anything however was the remarkable fellowship and teamwork. It’s been said so many times but it is really true. Factory Five customers ARE the greatest people you will ever meet! | |
| (Photos courtesy of Dave Borden, Norm at Head-on-Photos, and other FFR Customers) | |
| Video
Clips from the 25 hours of racing:
Front straight and view of track from pits Front straight at start of race
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