With a year of experience running the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, the team behind TAPG Motorsports came in with a plan and so far it’s paying dividends with their Toyota car leading the E2 class.
The Phoenix-based team has essentially led since the start of endurance to build a 10-lap lead over the second-place team Technik Competition. Slipstream-racing.com is in third.
The TAPG Motorsports team is comprised of Toyota engineers and technicians, and the group competes in endurance competitions as a team building exercise. The team competes in the Western Endurance Racing Championship but no others that last 25 hours.
“Last year was new for most of us so we did well. We were leading when we broke but we had a lot to learn but we had a good plan,” said DJ Quint, team captain. “The big thing now we get to leverage that experience having done this one time before. We do have a nice lead right we’re just trying to focus on doing our job.”
Quint said the team plans to have some of its drivers do double shifts to get through the night. “We also know once it gets to 2 o’clock in the morning we’ve got to be flexible,” he said.
Other than adding a quart of oil, Quint said the car has been problem-free. Quint knows from last year’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill that things can change quickly.
“The endurance thing is not new (for us) but the 25 Hour is its own thing,” Quint said. “Even now I’m trying to remind everybody to do their job, stay focused, don’t get too relaxed, because that’s how we end up making a mistake, drivers included.”
Here are the standings as of 10 o’clock Saturday night. Updates will resume with the 6 a.m. standings Sunday morning.
E0 Laps
1 Honda Racing THRW 2 272
2 MPACT Racing 255
3 DIG Motorsports 239
4 Dragonfly Motorsports 150
5 Honda Racing THRW 1 139
E1 Laps
1 FLIR Vision Racing 261
2 El Dorado Motorsports CRX 256
3 Funduro Racing 251
4 Bullet Performance 251
5 MF Racing 188
E2 Laps
1 TAPG Motorsports 271
2 Technik Competition 261
3 Slipstream-racing.com 259
4 HQ Autosport Racing 257
5 SRC – Sampson Racing Comm. 255
6 MooreWood Creative 251
7 AR-G Motorsports 235
E3 Laps
1 Tazio Ottis Racing 237
2 Brown/Heyer 102
E3S Laps
1 RA Motorsports 40 248
2 RA Motorsports 35 244
3 A+ Young and the Restless 242
4 Lesher Motorsports 239
5 Steyn Motorsports 233
6 RUSSH Racing 231
7 TFB Teen Mazda 231
8 A+ Old But Still Fast 176
ES Laps
1 Lowe Group Racing 281
2 Valkyrie Autosport Nissan GT-R 273
3 Three Thieves Racing 246
4 Kleen Blast/David’s Racing Prod. 240
5 Valkyrie Autosport Nissan 370Z 230
6 Glorious Bastards 191
ESR Laps
1 Turn 3 Motorsport 294
2 K2R Motorsports 291
3 Lahouse/One Motorsports 283
4 Praga Cars/Fellner Motorsports 281
5 Norma’s Last Chance 266
6 One Motorsports Radical 245
7 JFC Racing 1 215
8 Fast Toys Club 167
9 CSR Performance 162
GT Challenge Laps
1 Frasun Racing 282
2 Flying Lizard Motorsports 255
3 Precision Driving Tech/Hive 10 165
