E1
One of the best class races at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill has been the competition between Bullet Performance and FLIR Vision Racing, who have been trading leads since the start of the race. Bullet Performance currently has a two-lap lead over FLIR Vision Racing. The El Dorado Motorsports CRX is in third.
“We can watch (them) pit, we get a lap on him, (they) get a lap on us,” said Ivan Zwart, crew chief for Bullet Performance. “In the rain they were a little bit better and they put drys on a little bit sooner, so they got a little bump on us. I think our pit stops is where we’re making up all our time in the pits.”
Drivers Mickey Miller, Vic Pizzino and Ed Sukchai have been behind the wheel already for Bullet Performance. Zwart knows the team still has a long night ahead of them.
“It’s a really, really long race but our pit stops have been flawless and we’re making a lot of time,” Zwart said.
E0
Honda Racing THRW 2 continues to build an impressive lead in the E0 class, outrunning second-place team MPACT Racing by 14 laps. MPACT Racing has been running second- or third-place during the first six hours of the 25 Hours on Thunderhill. Honda Racing THRW’s sister car, Honda Racing THRW 1 was in third, trailing MPACT Racing by one lap.
E2
Five cars are within eight laps of each other in the deep E2 class. TAPG Motorsports had a two-lap lead over Slipstream-racing.com and a six-lap lead over SRC-Sampson Racing. Six hours into the race, TAPG had logged nearly 450 miles on the track. TAPG Motorsports’ best lap time was on lap 148 with the team turning a 2:03.383 in the Toyota.
E3
Tazio Ottis Racing is the lone car left in E3 after Brown/Heyer departed the race on lap 102 with a mechanical problem. Drivers Tazz Harvey, Jesse Prather and Dan Erickson built its lead to 13 laps Brown/Heyer had to leave. As the track has dried, the team has improved its lap time by 28 seconds (from 2:45.022 to 2:17.570).
E3S
The RA Motorsports team holds the top two spots in E3S with third-place car A+ Young the Restless working to close the four-lap lead. Steyn Motorsports led earlier in the race and dropped to fifth. With a drier track, the RA Motorsports No. 35 car has shaved 30 seconds a lap to move into first. RA Motorsports is the defending 2018 25 Hours of Thunderhill E3 champion.
ES
ES class attracted some top shelf hardware this year, including a Nissan GT-R and a well-developed Nissan 370Z, but the team making the most of its hardware is Lowe Group Racing, which is racing a 20-plus year old BMW M3, which also is well developed. Lowe Group Racing had the lead at 2’clock and still had it at 5.
Right behind Lowe Group Racing is the Valkyrie Autosport Nissan GT-R in second, with the Kleen Blast David’s Racing Products in its Chevrolet Camaro-bodied stock-car chassis.
ESR
Turn 3 Motorsports had taken the ESR and the overall lead by 2 o’clock when the leader JFC Racing had to pit for repairs. At 5 o’clock, Turn 3 Motorsports still had the lead and had maintained its lead over the One Motorsports Radical, but that team had closed the gap from three to two laps.
That puts Turn 3 Motorsports in the ESR lead with Team One Motorsports in second in its Radical. Team LaHouse Vineyards/One Motorsports was in third in its Ligier JS-P3, which is making its first appearance at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill
GT Challenge
In GT Challenge, the three cars in class are keeping things close by keeping their cars on track. With no major caution periods and no major mistakes from either of the three teams, they were all still on the same lap when the clock struck 5 and the sun dipped below the hilly horizon.
By then, Team Frasun Racing had taken the lead in its BMW M4 GT4, with Team Precision Driving Tech in second in its BMW M4. The two BMW-powered teams were both turning laps in the 1:57s, while the Flying Lizard Audi had topped out at 1:59.
