Thunderhill Season Opener 3-Hour Enduro

NASA Race Season Opener GTI-Cup racers fielded three cars for Sunday's 3-Hour Enduro instead of the usual Group A Sprint race.  All cars competed in the E3 class.  Teams included: Carlos Suarez and Don Bailey driving the #83 PS-3 Mel & Sons Muffler GTI,  David and Daniel Pina driving the #19 DP Racing GTI-Cup  and Scott Neville and Joe Craven driving the #44 VB Racing (Vicious Bunny Racing-a new team name) GTI-Cup. Weather for the weekend was rain...rain and more rain.  Sunday morning practice was on a dry track but by the time of the afternoon enduro dark rain clouds and wind were moving in and about an hour before start time rain started falling.  Rain continued unabated for the next 3 hours!

The E3 GTIs were grided in the back of the Enduro Pack, a total of 21 cars.  Rain was falling at the drop of the green flag and continued heavy and light throughout the 3-hour race.  Added to the rain, at various locations around the track, were splashes of slippery mud, brought on to the track by previous race groups and HPDE.  Click here for a RealPlayer video clip (5 MB file size) of the green flag drop and first lap.  Drivers for the first half of the enduro were: Dan Pina (DP Racing), Carlos Suarez (Mel & Sons Muffler) and Joe Craven (VB Racing).  Early on the race Dan Pina (DP Racing) really showed his expertise driving in the rain (due to his rally and drifting experience) and steadily pulled ahead of the E3 class cars and was busy passing faster-class cars.  The DP Racing GTI was in the E3 lead until their car ran out of gas and coasted into the hot pits during a yellow caution flag, which meant that the car could not be touched until the green flag was resumed.  Normally the car would go out on the track until the green flag was reinstated so as to minimize losing laps, but DP Racing's GTI was out of gas and had to wait.  During refueling of the DP Racing GTI,  gasoline was spilled and a 5-minute penalty administered by the Pit Marshal.  David Pina had to wait in the Hot Pits for 5 minutes after taking over for the Dan.  Meanwhile the Mel & Sons GTI and the VB Racing GTI continued to to bites out of the lead that the DP Racing GTI had earned.  The next car in for fuel was the Mel & Sons GTI.  No problems with refueling and after a successful driver change Don Bailey took the Mel & Sons GTI back out on the track.  Joe Craven, driving the #44 Vicious Bunny GTI came in last for refueling and driver change.  Like the DP Racing GTI, spilled gasoline caused a 5-minute penalty and second driver Scott Neville had to do the waiting this time.  Click here for a Quicktime movie of Mel & Sons GTI, click here for a QT movie of DP Racing GTI and click here for a QT movie of the VB Racing GTI.  All Quicktime video clips are approximately 1 MB in file size.

The Mel & Sons GTI held the E3 lead for the rest of the race as Don kept the driver mistakes to a minimum.  David Pina spun and went off track between Turns 1 & 2 while Scott Neville spun and or had off track excursions at least 4 times.  During the last 15 minutes of the race, Scott came in the pits complaining of loss of brake pedal (he almost went sailing off of Turn 10 twice as his brakes were hardly working).  A quick check of the brake fluid reservoir showed no loss and he headed back out on to the track to nurse his car until the end of the race.  What no one realized is that his front axle nut was working loose and causing the brake rotor to wobble thus causing the brake pads to spread apart and pedal loss.  With about 5 minutes left in the race  the wheel hub broke and the car came to a grinding stop in Turn 2.  This caused a full course yellow as the tow truck removed Scott's car from the track.  Just as the tow truck got into the the paddock with the #44 GTI...they were called back out to the track to pick up another stranded car....the stranded car this time was the DP Racing GTI which had run out of gas with only about 2 minutes or so left in the race.   In the end the Mel & Sons Muffler GTI won first place in the E3 class and finished 13th place overall.  The DP Racing GTI finished second in E3, six laps behind Mel & Sons and 17th place overall.  E3 Class 3rd position went to the VB Racing GTI nine laps behind Mel & Sons and 19th place overall.  Interestingly, Mel & Sons GTI finished only 5 laps behind the overall winner of the Enduro, the Porsche GT3 Cup car driven by Team RS Motorsports.  Click here for the results sorted by overall position and click here for the enduro results sorted by class.  Fastest laps for the GTIs were as follows:  Mel & Sons 2:33.9; DP Racing 2:30.6 and VB Racing 2:31.1.

(Webmaster's editorial: I've come to the conclusion that road racing in the rain is CRAZY...I suppose American road racers feel they have to do what the Europeans do and not wimp out with the the track gets wet....but, in practice, trying to drive a car at its limit on a slick muddy track that's constantly changing when you can't see out you mirrors or are completely blinded by the spray from the car in front....is just plain crazy...but...that said....being able to drive fast under these conditions is a real accomplishment and I guess that's why we do it! --S. Neville)