The car made all 25 hours!

The team and the car finished the 25 hours of ThunderHill with only 1 mechanical issue which was the right rear wheel bearing which cost us 1 hours and roughly 34 laps.  It was a terrific effort by a dedicated group that brought a car back from the brink to not only start but finish a 25 hour endurance race.    You can see more photos on our Flickr account:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/2105214@N24/   And more videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/racecraftllc

Team Oregon Raceway Park

Team UUC Motorwerks/Oregon Raceway Park is comprised of 5 drivers and 17 crew from the Pacific NW and SW Canada.

The car is a highly modified 1989 BMW 325is owned and prepared by Scot Adare of Adare Motorsports of Spokane Valley, Wa.

The Drivers: Michael Conatore from Olympia, WA. Scott Morton from Lake Stevens, WA. Terry Overdieck from Surrey, BC Canada, FY,e. Jonathan Clark from Vancouver, WA. Rick Delamare from Snohomish, WA.

Please visit Oregon Raceway Park in Grass Valley Oregon if you ever get the chance.  Some say it's like ThunderHill, on steroids.   See you there.

8:30 AM Update

At 7am the team made a pitstop: Mike for Rick.  The car also took on new tires (ho hos) and 29.5 gallons of fuel.  Rick is now setting fast times and between Mike and Rick we have moved our position from 35 back to 30th.  We still anticipate a few cars in our class and not in our class to have some technical difficulties as well. 

And let there be light:

3:25 AM Update

During the pitstop/driver change from Terry to Mike, a problem with the right rear was recognized but not identified.  Mike left hotpits for his stint but the car was undriveable.   After returning the car to the paddock for closer inspection it was discovered that the right rear wheel bearing gave up its life and in doing so caused the brake rotor to split from the rotor hat.  

The repair took just under an hour and Mike is now back on track.  Team ORP lost several spots due to the repairs dropping the team from 17th overall to 35th overall, a drop of roughly 34 laps to our competition. 

1:09 AM Update

The car is still running just fine but we seem to be going through drivers faster than tires.  We are down from 5 to 3 as it stands but the remaining 3 feeling fit as a fiddle and #4 looking OK to drive after dawn.  The car is still running strong and now it slows down too after a change of brake pads. (see previous post). 

When we pitted at 1:00AM we were sitting in 17th overall, a slow and steady climb up the leaderboard into that slot.  The combination of consistent and fast lap times with long stints (over 2.5 hours) have given us the edge over several of our competitors. 

Mike Conatore just woke from his slumber to prepare for his upcoming stint at 3:30am and might be staring down a possible double stint (5 solid hours). 

More to come.

25 Hours and Stock brakes...

Can you run a 25 Hour endurance race on a OEM brake system with nothing more than some good fluid, air ducts and some race pads?   Of course you can but you have to ask yourself; Do I feel lucky?

Well,

do ya?

PUNK!

Video update of Pitstop #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK7h8o8e5Q&feature=g-crec-u

The videos aren't getting online as fast as we'd like due to a Verizon 3G card.  But, thank goodness for VZW as they're the only one with a cell tower at the track.... so there's that.

This pitstop was much faster and smoother.  The 2 stops following it (Johnathan to Mike and then Mike to Scott) were smooth as well but with a snag where the wheel stud came off with the wheel during the changed but it was quickly remedied without much of a loss of time if any.

It's nap time for now, see you soon.  

p.s. Scott Morton is now in the car and is scheduled for 2.5 hours.   Probably will pit at 10pm. 

Unscheduled pitstop

About an hour into the 3rd stint the call came over the radio that the driver needed to get out of the car.  Details beyond on that are sparse but Mike Conatore jumped into action.  Stint 3 was about 1 hour long.  Car took 9.5 gallons of fuel and no tires were changed. 

At 6:04pm we are currently 24th overall and in our class (ES) and we are 1 lap behind our next competitor in a Porsche 997.   Not bad for a an old bimmer.

Drivers are currently reviewing data and re-scheduling the driver lineup for the remainder of the race.

Rick and Mike have a long history together doing Enduros and they have always had a healthy rivalry about who can set the fastest time.  Obviously that's not the goal of a race this long but Mike is currently running 2:07 laps which is within 1 second of the average lap time Rick was running in the morning.

Some images (including the back of Mr. Pobst's head!)..