25 hours of Thunderhill Wrap up

Take a couple of laps around the track at Thunderhill courtesy of Bruce on practice day.

Beachman-McClure Racing team take to the track.
Weaving through the hords of traffic.

Midnight pit stop..........Bruce out & Darren in.

Darren waiting to go for his midnight run.

Aaron & Jeff...........numb! Later that day it was found that the temperature during the night reached a chilling 20 degrees, this was not suprising to most as it was difficult to find a warm spot outside and drivers were shivering as they left the car.

Scott talking with Jeff as he prepares to go in the car.

Mark & Eric watching as the race comes down to the wire.

Strategy session for the last run of the race, at this point Bruce and Aaron are crunching numbers to see if the BMW or Porsche can catch up to us before the finish. We all thought that both had to stop for, at least, fuel before the end and it turned out to be right.

Jeff, our fueler, is staged and ready for the last stop.

It is tradition at the end of an endurance race to go to the track wall and congratulate all the drivers as they come down the straight to take the checkered flag. Here's the team lined up at the wall to do just that.

Congratulations all around, Jeff took the last leg of the race and brought it on home.

After race inspection of the car.....appears to be in good shape....you can't imaging the toll a 25 hour race takes on a race car.....and driver.

Jeff & Kathy after the race.....no explanation needed.

The team had an excellent run and are shown here in full glory, all of us needed sleep but you could not tell it due to the excitement created by the finish.

Results

Third Place
Third Place
Third Place!!!!

It's official.........

Jeff held on to third place working through the recurring braking issue......what an effort!!!

Time to celebrate.......or sleep?

We will be posting more pictures from the entire race later this week, please tune in later for a wrap up.

Pit Box Mathematics

The only car that has a chance to catch us at this point is the Porsche, the car is 6 seconds a lap faster than we are and is 2 laps down +.  Aaron & Bruce calculated the differential and time to finish and have determined that it is very close as to wether he may be able to overtake us at the very end, we still feel that he has to pit before the end...............again..........hope.........stress level has risen a bit again.

Hour - Oh, who cares what hour it is!

The last stop for us was just completed with the same precision that has been shown by the crew the entire time, it has been amazing to watch this team work as a TEAM!
We came back out with Jeff remaining in 3rd position, the BMW two laps behind, and the Porsche three laps behind.  Eric & Aaron feel that both cars need to pit one more time before the checkered and with the time remaining it would be difficult to pass us now.
All the crew have let down thier hair a bit as it it now a lapping game.........we hope.

Hour 22

It's crunch time and no one wants to leave the party......we all opted for breakfast in the box.....pit box that is.  We remain in 3rd position with a BMW on our tail and a Porsche Cup car coming up fast, the BMW was on the same lap that we were but just received a 5 minute penatly for doing something stupid....well, at least we think it was stupid, you normally don't get a penalty for doing something smart.  This puts them a lap down but we are now watching the Porsche as this is a fast car that has the potential to catch us.  Anything can happen at this stage of the race and normally does, this is why we all remain at the ready to handle any and all that is thrown at us.  All of the crew have performed masterfully in the face of adversity and we certainly do not want to fall down on the job now.
Everyone is tired, sore, & cold but you do not hear a single complaint out of anyone in the pit, we are all on edge as the last 3 hours await us.
Jeff is jumping in the car at 10AM for the final run to the flag.

Hour 20

Another pit stop done Bruce is now on the sidelines and Darren is on the hot seat.

Just a little explanation of where we are, we are 3rd place currently with the top two places being held by the Porsche Cup cars.  they are very fast cars that have at least 40 laps more than we do at this point.  Third through 6th place are all within a lap or two with the 4th place car on the same lap as we are.  We have been swapping places depending on the pit stop rotation and this will come down to the wire.
At the last pit stop it was determined to swap nose cones again (if you remember we swapped last night to get the headlights that were mounted on it) the original nose cone is much more aerodynamic and will let us run a better lap time.......and the way it is shaping up this was a good decision.  Gord changed this out in very good time and Darren headed out.

Catch Up

Here's a  photo from through the night

Bruce getting out of the car last night around midnight

Hour 20

Good Mrning Sunshine!

It's daybreak here at the track, a beautiful but very cold morning.

Bruce continues to run and we have fallen back to 4th pace due to the fact that one of the Porsches has been able to get back on the track......still another 5 hours left.  Next scheduled stop with be around 8AM with Darren getting in the seat.  I would imagine that we will bleed the brakes when we have the opportunity to allow for us to make a good run at the end.

Hour 19

At last our local wi-fi is back up and running, it has been a long while without access and there has been a lot happening.
To catch up quickly we are currently running in 3rd with, as Gord put it, the only thing beating us is a half million dollars worth of Porsche engineering.  It has not been without challenges though, all was going well until Mark took the seat and soon after start feeling sick but he managed to make it through and Jeff jumped in to continue on.
The lights that were an issue to start have been working supurbly, but during Jeff's stint the brakes have begun to fade.  Apparently when going into a corner and needing to brake he would depress the pedal and sometimes it would go directly to the floor and others work just fine.  As you can imagine this is a very disconcerting feeling for a driver wondering if you are actually going to stop or not.  The only way to continue with this situation is to pump the brake pedal when you need to use them, this is a slower process and decreases the lap times.
Jeff is now out of the car and Bruce has taken over, he is working with the situation and the crew is on stand by for an immediate stop if he feels the brakes need to be bled before the next scheduled stop.  What has happened here is that somehow air has gotten into the lines and we will need to remove that in order to restore the proper utilization of the brakes.
The sun is starting to come up here, it is cold, but other than that pleasant.  We all have tried to get a nap in here and there with varying success......once the sun comes up the energy level will as well.

Hour 11

According to Eric & Aaron we are currently running 7th with 4 cars on the same lap.  Bruce is out on track currently and screaming along with Darren on deck, next pit stop should be 10:30PM.  Noone has really napped as of yet the excitement in the air is enough to keep you goin', of course, it is only 10:00PM.

It is a clear night here and the photo below shows the view from our pit stall looking toward turn 5.

Hour 10

Dinner is done back to racin'

Had a dinner of Bar-B-Que ribs and all the trimmings, hoping to keep the crew fat, happy, and WARM.  All seams to be quiet with the car and Bruce racking off laps, we are currently in 9th place but are fast approaching the 8th place car.  Thankfully the wind has died down a bit making the chill a little more bearable.

Here is another pit box shot with, from left to right, Kirk, Gord, Howard, Jeff, & Cory all awating the next call to duty.

Hour 8

Meet the Crew...
Below from left to right is:Scott - timing & Scoring, Aaron - timing, scoring and statistics, and Eric - Crew Chief.  We have broken into the top 10 with our position being 10th.  All fixes have held and we are running wild.  Bruce is about to take his second shift at driving and then the balance of the crew will settle down to eat a little dinner.  Next post may be a little late but stay tuned...........

Hour 7

Problem Solved!!

To add to the headlight problem Mark had a flat tire on the track which forced our hand to pit.  During this stop the crew sawed off the old headlight, mounted it on the spare nose cone, wired the light, installed the nose, aimed the headlights, along with the normal stop of fueling, tire, and driver change........all of this in 4 min 49 seconds..........AWESOME.
The action packed stop did not cost us in postion we are now running in 12th position with Jeff at the helm.  Bruce is suiting up to climb in the car for his second round as Jeff is the clean up driver for the rotation.  Next pit stop should be around 7:30PM.

Hour 6

Our drama with the headlights continue as it is now getting dark.  The drivers side main headlight has now flipped back and rotated so we are driving with two small lights located in the grill of the car.  Mark is still out there and continues to run well but we are approaching the full darkness and it appears we will have to bring the car in to fix the problem.  The plan is to put the spare nose of the car on which has lights already mounted to it, this should not take too long but we would rather not pit early unless we have to.  For right now it is a wait and see situation and we will bring Mark in early and do a full pit stop with driver change and then will fit the new nose on after that.
Our track position continues to hover around 11th or 12th so the issues have not affected Mark's ability to run fast.

Hour 5

As the time was near for pit stop #2 we discovered a problem with one of the lights on the passnger side.  Kirk, one of the pit crew, went to the wall as Darren was going by to try and get an indication of what might be wrong.  Pit stop #2 has taken place where Mark is in place for the next couple of hours, at that time the crew discovered that the bracket for the light was broken, it has now been taken off and the fix is happening in trailor as I write this.  There is no doubt that edurance racing is a game of problem solving all along the way and this is just another example of that.  the great minds we have on this team WILL come up with a plan and we will have this fixed either on the next driver change or, if need be, make an extra stop in Mark's driving stint to rectify the problem.

Hour 4

Darren is now in a groove driving like a mad man, we are now in 13th place and all is going well.  The wind has died down a little bit.......heavy on the "little".  If the wind continues on into the night it will be a very chilly one and warmth will be hard to come by in the pit box we are very happy to have this rented motorhome for a little respite from the weather.  Below Darren is behind the wheel and in the process of passing a couple of slower cars on the back side of the track

It is about time for our second pit stop where Mark will climb in the car and give it a workout.

Hour 3

Pit stop went as well as can be, but that is not a suprise given the pratice everyone has done to get to this point.  After all of the pits have settle in we are currently in 20th position, Bruce is out and spent a little time debreifing with the other drivers to keep all informed.  Darren is now in the car and given the lap times he is currently turning he has settled into an unfamiliar car.

Hour 2

As in the last post we continue to run in the mid 20's placing with a question wether it is 24th or 25th.....I guess it doesn't matter much, there is 23 hours left.  All things are going well the team is preparing for the first pit stop of the race which tends to make everyone a little nervous making sure to get things right.

Just a little side bar below is Aiden (sp?) Cockle in the Rhino.........I think we have found a driver prospect for future enduro's.

Just got an update from our timer and we are currently in 21st.......most likely from a round of pit stops that other pepole have been doing.  We seam to be able to run lot longer than some of the faster lap time cars which does give us that edge.

Bruce's stint

We are an hour and a half into the race and Bruce has made a lot of ground on the competition.  Currently he is in 24th position and moving forward, that is over half of the cars that were ahead of us at the start.  It is lunch time here and everyone is taking a little breather to refuel before we actually do it on the car.
Drivers are pacing......well Mark is pacing back and forth and he is third in the seat.  Below is the driver order:
Bruce.......Out there currently
Darren
Mark
Jeff
We will most likely be doing a fuel and tire stop every two hours and 15 minutes.  The stops consist of fuel, driver change and front tires every stop with the back tires every other.......this is the plan.

Gentlemen start your engines

They're off!!!

After a parade lap and run through the pits for a speed limit verification all cars are now running at speed.  Below is our first driver, Bruce, driving through pit lane to get a gauge on RPM to make sure we do not go over the 25 MPH speed limit while coming in to pit.

Ready and Waiting

Car is done, team is ready to go......look at these good looking group of guys!

Race Day

We've managed to wonder out to the track bright eyed and bushy tailed.........OK, maybe just bushy tailed.  Bruce took the car out for qualification last night and afterward felt that we needed a bit more light for the long run at nighttime.  The team installed two of the bigger lights that we had laying around, aligned them, and we are off to the races.....literally!
Once we arrived this morning Aaron logged on to the track scoring system to find our qualifying position and we are 50th out of 80 cars.......Not to worry, though, the faster cars usually have longer and more frequent pit stops and we feel we have a great chance to win this thing.
Below you will see the crew arranging and preparing the pit stall for the upcoming event, the big silver drum is our fuel tower allowing us to fuel the car more efficiently and faster.
Weather here is a sunny day, rather cold, and 20 mph wind......good news is with wind there is no fog.  Fog will red flag the race (Stop) and put us in a hurry up and wait mode.

More to come

Countdown to the Green Flag

Today was a very busy day for all of the team, "tech" (Department of Scrutinization) offered up several points to change on the car before they would allow us to race.  A good portion of the team were focused on the changes in the AM as the rest of us set up the "pit" box and paddock for the weekend   It has been a day of running around in all different directions not allowing for the update of this record of which we intend to change. 
Now that the setup and stock up is done and the race is upon us it will be a different story, our plan is to update this blog site every hour as close to on the hour as situations will allow once the race is started.  The schedule is as follows:
8:00 AM     Team to the track.
11:00 AM   Race Start
Sunday
12:00PM     Race Finish
The link on the right side of this web page is a direct connection to the live timing and scoring from the race sanctioning body and is a great way to get up-to-the-minute status on the race standings.

The afternoon was filled with pit stop practicing as everyone honed thier skills on the individual job that was assigned to them and the choreography in which they need to happen.  We will explain this further a little later as pictures truely are better than words.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at the track and turning in somewhat early........

Practice Day

Most of the team arrived last night with car, equipment, and tires....tires...tires.  Today was the first day for on track activities and the opportunity to do a shake down on both man and machine.  Bruce (Driver & Engineer) has done a great job in preparing the car for this particular race and keeping track of the millions of different details that go along with doing that. 
We started the day with a minor issue of an oil leak that was quickly recified by Gord & Mark as you can see them with there head in the car. 

Robin, yes your husband is working hard!!!

Practice day is an opportunity to fine tune both the car and the driver as both will learn how each other reacts to the track and the track conditions.  Below is Bruce in the drivers seat as he navigates an off camber blind corner on this over 3 mile track.  The day was perfect as far as weather and the car is running and handeling superbly with some adjusting along the way. 
Tomorrow will be a day of praciting driver changes and pit stops so as to shave seconds off the time in which to do so and allow us to run more laps on the track.

Let's Roll

On December 5, 2009 the team will take on the 25 hours of Thunderhill held at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California.  Watch us here as man and machine take on the 25 hour test of endurance.