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25HR: Thunderhill Post-Race Notebook
Mercer Motorsports victorious; Mazda’s ’25 in 25’ a success; Ironman Steven Gorriaran, Nordschleife Meister John Edwards and more!
John Dagys  |  Posted December 08, 2009   Willows, CA
25 Hours of Thunderhill. (John Dagys)
Mercer Motorsports Scores The Win

This year’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill will go down in the history books as being the fastest, and cleanest race in the event’s seven year history. A new distance record of 761 laps (2,432 miles) was achieved by the overall race-winning Mercer Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, and the race was slowed only twice for full-course cautions totaling a mere six laps.
Mercer Motorsports put in a dominating performance in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. (John Dagys)

Driven by Johannes van Overbeek, Jon Fogarty, Tommy Sadler, Rich Walton and Todd Grantham, the Mercer Porsche dominated the 25-hour enduro, never relinquishing the lead from the third hour to the end. Early on, van Overbeek had a spirited battle with fellow American Le Mans Series regular Wolf Henzler in the Ehret Winery Racing Porsche and the overall pole-sitting BMC Tool Racing Panoz DP-02 IMSA Lites car.

“I felt like we had more pace than Wolf, but he was doing a great job punching through traffic as he always does, so I thought I’d sit behind them,” van Overbeek said. “It was a long race and there was no sense in getting too racy.”

Van Overbeek took a cautious approach to the opening hours, which turned out to be the key of the race. After mixing with the two Porsche Cup cars, the BMC Panoz succumbed to mechanical issues early on, and eventually dropped out of the race altogether following a Hour 9 accident.

Meanwhile. the Ehret Porsche gradually lost more and more ground to the Mercer machine, first with a long stop for front-end repairs following Vic Rice’s run-in with a ESP car, and then with a series of of penalties for passing under local yellows.

“It was actually pretty easy for us,” van Overbeek said. “I have to thank Scott Mercer from Mercer Motorsports for making this all happen, and also Yokohama for making great tires. We didn’t have any issues whatsoever. It was a pretty flawless run. This win is a testament to some of the Flying Lizard guys who are here with us. They did a great job with pit stops as always. It’s been a great experience.”

In addition to team regular van Overbeek, there were a number of familiar faces from the Flying Lizard Motorsports camp helping the Mercer squad this weekend. Chief strategist Thomas Blam was calling the race, while the Lizard’s crew chief, Tommy Sadler, traded his headset for a helmet, and wound up victorious in his third 25 Hour attempt.

“This is my first racing win, ever!” Sadler said. “Honestly, I don’t get to race very much; I think I’ve only run four or five races. I’ve been on our cars a lot in testing, so I have some experience, but as far as competition, I’ve only run a handful of races here and there when somebody has an open seat. I don’t actually have a car, so it makes it kind of hard to race! It’s great that I get to pair up with such good people. Scott Mercer had a car and luckily had the resources to put it all together, with the team support from Jerry Woods Enterprises.”

Fogarty received a late call to race for the team, but the two-time Rolex Series DP champion was quick in adapting to the Porsche Cup car. In fact, it was the first car other than his GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Riley that he’s driven in over three seasons. Yet, on the track, Fogarty was impressed with the professionalism of most drivers.

“We just needed to pace ourselves in traffic, really,” Fogarty said. “But everybody was pretty good about it. They were more heads up then a lot of the professional races I do. The whole key was staying out of trouble.

“There was such a huge variety of speed differentials, so you just had to remember each car from the previous time you encountered them on track. Once you had a good feel of what cars were doing what out there, you put that in your memory bank. The car looks great for running 25 hours. There’s hardly a scratch on it!”

The Ehret Winery Porsche of Henzler, Rice, Pierre Ehret, Robert Orcutt and Anthony Ward came home 22 laps behind the Mercer car in second. While it may have not been the ideal result for the pro-am squad, it was a testament to the Dennis Chizma-led crew, who put the entire program together in only two weeks.

It was also refreshing seeing these two teams, supported by ALMS and Grand-Am personnel, out there enjoying the racing for the fun of it. Isn’t that what it’s all about in the first place?

Mazda’s “25 in 25” Takes The Checkered Flag

After 25 hours, and 25 drivers behind the wheel of a single MX-5 Miata, Mazda’s “25 in 25” team completed the Thunderhill marathon with a very respectable result. The Rick Weldon-managed squad crossed the line in 22nd overall and sixth in the E1 category.
John Doonan in the "25 in 25" Mazda MX-5 takes the checkered flag alongside the sister RX-8 from Robert Davis Racing. (John Dagys)

“The car was amazing,” said John Doonan, motorsports manager for Mazda North America, who took the MX-5 to the emotional finish. “We didn’t have one single issue. We changed brakes, tires, put gas in it but had no other mechanical issues whatsoever. We know we were stopping every hour, so maintenance was absolutely routine. It was a fantastic result.”

Drivers ranging from 2009 Atlantic Series champion John Edwards to female open-wheel and endurance racing legend Lyn St. James to two-time NHRA Sport Compact drag racing champion Ed Bergenholtz and a wide variety of Mazda employees and media all took turns in the No. 26 MX-5 Miata, supported by longtime Mazda partners BP, BFGoodrich Tires, and Mothers.

Why carry the No. 26, you might ask? It was in honor and remembrance of the four Mazdaspeed family members that have passed over the last year.

“It was a tough year for us,” Doonan said. “We lost Carol Tremblay about a year ago. She was a wonderful person that means a lot to us. We also lost Neil Warrior, one of our colleagues from the Mazda group. The two others were Takayoshi Ohashi; he started Mazdaspeed, and Tom Thrash, a former national champion that we lost in the June Sprints. The 26th driver in car No. 26 were all of those folks. This is for them. Our angels brought us some blue sky. It’s very cool.”

With the 25 Hours barely in the books, planning for the 2010 edition has already begun. Could Mazda have another ingenious program in the works for next year?
Will the "25 in 25" effort be duplicated again in the future? Stay tuned. (John Dagys)

“I know these guys want to come back with the RX-8 in a big way and go for the win,” Doonan said, pointing to the third-place in E1 finishers Robert Davis Racing. “We may have some other surprises up our sleeves. Jim Jordan and I have been talking about something for a couple of years. We may show up here with something that would knock everyone’s socks off. We’ll see what happens.”

25 Hours of Thunderhill Race Gallery

Thunderhill Friday Gallery

Thunderhill Thursday Gallery

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