Flying Lizard takes on Thunderhill
It was a pleasant surprise seeing a handful of crew members from Flying Lizard Motorsports in the Thunderhill paddock this weekend. Driver Johannes van Overbeek, chief strategist Thomas Blam and crew chief Tommy Sadler, among others are here working with the Mercer Motorsports-entered Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.
Mercer Motorsports enters one of four Porsches in the field. (John Dagys)
“We have a mix of some of the best guys that were available at this time of the year to help do this effort,” van Overbeek said. “There are some Lizard guys and others from Jerry Woods Enterprises. Thomas was nice enough to spend some of his time to come out here and do this. We’re looking forward to having a good run on Saturday and Sunday.”
Van Overbeek, who makes his third Thunderhill start, will share the wheel with a few notable drivers, two-time Grand-Am DP champion Jon Fogarty, and Sadler, who trades in his day job as crew chief for a bit of weekend driving fun.
“Racing is addictive,” Sadler said. “It’s the same thing that gets everyone else behind the wheel. So every once in a while, we’ll have the opportunity to come up here and race. We did it in 2003 with all Flying Lizard people and had another run a few years later in an older Porsche Cup car.”
Both Sadler and Blam had fond memories of the 2003 run, where their Porsche finished third, despite suffering battery issues late in the running.
“2003 was a fantastic race,” Blam said. “It was our Cup car against two others from Glenn Yee Motorsports. The three cars were running nose-to-tail for something like 20 hours, all on the same lap. The weather was pretty crappy with rain and it was cold. That was one of the best races I’ve ever seen, to be honest.”
Sadler says the Porsche entered this weekend is a mix between a Patron GT3 Challenge car and a Rolex Series GT machine, with more endurance modifications. To help keep costs down, the team is renting equipment from Flying Lizard.
Despite the ALMS off-season, it’s busy times for the Lizards, as Sadler, van Overbeek and Seth Neiman head to Daytona next week to test a TRG Porsche in preparation for the Rolex 24 in January. While Sadler is only on the entry list for the test, he will no doubt be looking forward to taking to the historic high banks of Daytona International Speedway.
Wolf Henzler’s Late Call
Wolf Henzler thought his season was over following last month’s Asian Le Mans Series races in Okayama, Japan. But a phone call from Pierre Ehret last Friday changed that. One week later, the Porsche factory driver is in Thunderhill for a new challenge.
Henzler has been a late addition to the Ehret Winery Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup team, joining Ehret and Vic Rice, among others, behind the wheel of the former Patron GT3 Challenge machine.
“I’ve never been on this track before and it’s not very easy to learn,” Henzler said. “There are some corner markers, but others without them, and this takes a long time to adjust. It’s very hard to find the braking point. Also, going over the hills, the car gets very light and it’s easy to spin if you steer too much. The good thing is that the track is very safe. There’s a lot of run-off, which is good in case you run off. It’s also very difficult to hit a wall here, which is very good for a club-sport track.”
The team, run by White Lightning/Drayson Racing’s Dennis Chizma, claimed the ES class pole with a lap time of 1:47.762, and is likely to be a threat for the class win, if not overall honors, too.
“For sure there are many different cars, slower, but good cars,” Henzler said. “Many of them are in good conditions, which means they’re well-prepared. I think that shows the quality of the entries. I’m looking forward to the race. It’s my first time doing a 25 hour race! It’s one hour more than I usually do, but it should be a lot of fun.”
Billy Johnson, Achilles Motorsport Aiming For E0 Repeat
KONI Challenge, ahem, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competitor Billy Johnson makes his fourth Thunderhill start this weekend, aiming to repeat fortunes of one year ago. Johnson and the Achilles Motorsport/Nitto Tire team took top honors in E0 in 2008, finishing less than 20 seconds behind the overall winner. Back with the same 1996-model BMW M3, the team will once again go for the win.
“The result that we had last year was awesome, but we can’t contribute that to one thing because there’s so many different variables,” Johnson said. “For one, there’s traffic. The closing speeds are ridiculous. There are cars with a ton of horsepower, and they park it in the corners but pull away on the straights. Sometimes you have to deal with that for an hour if you’re turning roughly the same times. It’s definitely some weird dynamics.
“You can be behind a car and trust the guy you’re racing with. Then he pits and you see him 20 minutes later and it’s a completely different driver and he could be a complete idiot. You always have to assume the worst. It’s a crazy, crazy race.”
Johnson scored a pair of GS-class wins in 2009, including one with Jack Roush Jr. in a Ford Mustang FR500C. The California-native is likely to return with Motorsports Ranch next year, and is also eyeing possible drives in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, an event he last competed in 2006.
News & Notes
Defending overall winners Team MER/Mazda 1 is back with essentially the same Mazda MX-5 Cup car that took Jason Saini, Charles Espenlaub and Charlie Putman to victory, but fitted with the same 4-cylinder, 2.3 liter MZR turbo from Tri-Point’s Mazda3 SPEED World Challenge Touring Car. It’s all within the rules, as both ES and ESR categories allow for virtually any performance modifications imaginable.
Speaking of modifications, MPME Team Scion’s ES-class tC showed up at Thunderhill with a radical-looking aerodynamic package. The front wing from a 2000 Walker Racing Reynard Champ Car has been fitted on the hood of the Scion. Team owner, and SPEEDtv.com Auto Racing Editor, Marshall Pruett developed the new package himself and says components of the same wing were also used on his 2005 Thunderhill entry.
