2009 25HR: Gary Sheehan, 1st Stint from Marshall Pruett on Vimeo.

To me, the race start is the most dangerous and most exciting. All seventy something cars are tightly bunched up and hitting the throttle simultaneously. Invariably, there’s always those few that think they are going to make up significant ground at the start. Like the positions they gain right now is what is going to be what puts them in the winner’s circle 25 hours later. Of course it doesn’t. And outside of the car every driver will certainly understand that concept. But man, get a bunch of racers together and for some of them, logic goes out the window. There’s always some stupidity going on at the race.

The challenge that I like is making my way through the craziness at the race start and keeping the car out of trouble and healthy. This year was going to be even more difficult since the rear tires were so slick when cold. I was concerned about being on the inside of turn one considering that I spun there on my outlap last time I went out cold!

We had two full warm-up laps before the green flag dropped and I took full advantage of it. I worked that wheel back and forth like a two year old working a Logitech G25! My arms were tired after the first lap! By the end of the second lap I was looking for my drink bottle. I was relieved when the race actually started so I could take a breather.

I worked into the first lap very slowly. Seemed like the back of the car had more grip than I was expecting, meaning working the tires probably helped quite a bit, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I let a few people go by me on the first lap, knowing once the tires came up to full temp that our Scion tC would be faster. Based on our qualifying time of 1:59, I knew we had the ability to go 2 seconds per lap faster than the cars around us. So I let them go, knowing those positions would come back to me.

Starting the second lap I started pushing the tires a bit harder and the car responded well. Sure enough, I caught up to the other cars in short order. I had a fun battle with an Acura that I think was being driven by Bob Endicott. I forget where I got past him, but I wasn’t pulling on him too hard yet as the tires were still settling in, so he was right back on me when I caught a very slow Miata in turn 11. I was stuck behind the Miata through 12 and swung out to the right to go around him in turn 13. Of course the Miata driver doesn’t see me, and tracks all the way out to the exit, putting me four wheels off in the dirt on the right side. I wanted to get away from this idiot as quickly as possible, so I kept my right foot in it and passed him in the grass. When I got all four tires back on the track, the Acura was alongside me. He must’ve sneaked around the left side when the Miata driver was busy trying to kill me without knowing it. The Acura had a fender on me, but I was on the inside for turn 14 and stayed in it. Once we got to the braking zone the corner was mine and whoever was driving the Acura conceeded.

I settled in and started driving my laptimes lower. Traffic becomes a factor very early in this race. Within just a few laps backmarkers are being lapped and getting in the way. Clumps of cars get stuck together that have no place being together. Sports racers tangled up with Miatas because the Miata guys are busy racing each other and are completely unaware of the car that’s 30 seconds a lap faster waiting for them to stop their shenanigans so he can get by cleanly. Sorry if I sound bitter, but I’m bitter. I’ve been run off the track too many times by Miatas lately!

As I attempted to get past a gaggle of slower cars I switched back to our high boost map for a little more oomph. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. The engine sounded like it had a boost leak and had a big drop in power. I immediately radioed in to the pits and explained what was happening. They called me in that lap to check it out. This is only about 30 minutes into the race.

The crew checked under the hood and couldn’t see anything immediate, so we had to go back paddock to take the splitter off and check out the bottom of the intercooler and boost hoses. After about 30 minutes of inspecting clamps and tighening everything they couldn’t find anything obvious. They sent me back out to see if the problem had been resolved but it remained. I noticed that if I only put in about 40% throttle, the car would pull very well and felt strong, but beyond that, I could feel the engine fighting itself. Back into the paddock for some more investigating, this time with the data. It showed that we were overboosting by quite a bit. Our target boost was 13 psi, but we were seeing up to 27psi at times. The ecu wasn’t mapped for boost pressure that high and Mike had pulled massive amounts of timing to protect the motor in that range. Mike sent me back out with instructions to run at partial throttle while they considered what to do.

Driving to engine feel was a new and interesting experience for me. I’d put in throttle until I felt the engine go just slightly soft, then back off until the power came back. Once I found the sweet spot that the engine liked, that became my new “wide open throttle”. Then it was just a matter of trying to put down consistent laps while the guys worked the problem. I was able to get the car into the 1:59′s driving this way, which was surprisingly good, and I was prepared to finish out my stint this way since I’d gotten used to it.

The crew wanted to resolve the problem, though, and called me back in. The guys had determined that it must be a faulty wastegate controller and decided to remove it and just run off the wastegate spring. When I went back out the problem was gone and the car was still pulling strong. It had cost us a ton of time and it was very disappointing. I think we had spent over 45 minutes in the pits and you just can’t recover that kind of time nowadays in an endurance race. So, barely after the race had begun, our chances of finishing strong were gone. Now it was all about just having fun, enjoying racing and the team cameraderie that comes about in these very long events.

I’d like to say that the rest of my stint was pretty uneventful, but there were too many Miatas to let THAT happen. I’d completely settled in and was turning fast laps by this time. I came up on a Miata in turn 2 and was on his bumper all the way around this long sweeping left hander. As the Miata exited to the right, I held a tighter line and started accelerating past him on the left. Turn 3 is nice and wide and there’s room for two cars to go through there side by side. As we approached turn 3 virtually side by side the Miata came over to the left very quickly. The guy had no fucking clue that I was there. Again, I was run clean off the track by a Miata. If I hadn’t driven off the track he would have crashed us both out. I had a brief moment where the car started to pitch to the right, but was able to catch it and rode it out almost to the tire barrier way off the track. I managed to bring the car back on track undamaged and continued on. I finally caught this moron on the front straight and wagged my finger at him out the driver side as I passed him. The index, not the middle finger. Don’t know if he got the message. This guy didn’t seem to use his eyes much anyway.

The rest of my stint went well. Despite taking to the dirt twice for evasive Miata maneuvers, the car was solid and fast. The times kept coming down which was a very good sign. I managed a 1:56.7 in the opening stint of the race and the tires were still in great shape for Mark’s first stint. Turning a lap almost 2 seconds faster than last years fastest lap showed how effective the new fwings and wider front tires were working. The car had great front end grip for a FWD and was very stable in the high speed stuff. I got Mark strapped in and scooted around pit wall to join all the guys and share my silly Miata stories.

I was really looking forward to my next stint that would roll around in about 6 hours. By that time it would be well into night, one of my favorite times to drive. If the car was still healthy, it was going to be fun! Except for the not seeing part, but hey, I like a challenge.

So we all show up at the track early in the morning. It’s damned cold. The crew is working on the car and getting the last things done that need to be done. Typical morning of race prep. All the drivers got suited up and we climbed in the car one at a time to get our seating position perfect. Once each driver was strapped in and comfortable, the seating position would be marked and initialled. These marks would be used during driver changes so the person helping the entering driver would be sure of getting the new driver’s position just right.

Changing drivers is a pretty important part of endurance racing. In the ES class we can use a fueling rig which will dump 26 gallons of fuel into the car pretty quick. So if we’re double or triple stinting a set of tires, it’s either the fueling time or the driver change time that’s keeping the car in the pits. We like to make sure it’s NEVER the driver change time. As soon as the car is ready, it should be rolling.

To ensure we accomplish this, we do driver change practices. Marshall had determined that the driver line-up would be me leading off, followed by Mark Hotchkis, then Rob Holland would take us from dusk into the night and Dave McEntee would drive the first full stint at night. The way we do are driver changes, we have a crewman (Earl) jump in through the passenger door to assist (he’s literally squatting in the car where the passenger seat would be) and the exiting driver assists the entering driver on the driver side.

One of the things that makes this process pretty easy is if we can make sure that the lap belts never need to be adjusted. This means that the lap belts are never really perfect for everyone, but can be close enough to speed up the driver change. In our case it was going to be a bit of a challenge since Rob is a pretty tall guy. Mark, Dave and I all sit within a few clicks of each other. Relatively speaking, Rob sits in the back seat. So finding a compromise for the lap belts is pretty tricky.

After we’ve all cycled through the car once it’s time to practice our stops. This is a very busy time for all three guys involved, and practice is definitely needed. After driving on a racetrack for two hours straight, it’s tough to get into “change driver” mode as your brain is pretty grooved in on doing a very different task. But if you can get a bunch of practice in, it helps you get through the first few driver changes without fumbling around too much. In practice, we aim to get down to 40 seconds from the time the car comes to a stop in pit lane to the time the new driver is in, belted, plugged in to the radio system, net up and door closed. Oh, and Earl needs to be out as well. That would suck.

Here’s what’s involved. As the driver comes down the back straight he radios in to the pits that he’s on the back straight. Rounding turn 15 the driver radios again, this time with “Pit in, pit in, pit in.” The driver slows the car down to the 25 mph pit lane speed limit (2nd gear 3,000 rpm) before the line that marks the official start of the pits. At this point the driver can see the pit stalls still several seconds ahead. The driver has to loosen both shoulder harnesses, pull down the window net, unclip the cam-lock on the harness and flip the right side shoulder harness up over the back of the seat, all this while guiding the car in to a perfect stop close enough to the pit wall for the fueling rig to reach. Once the car is stopped, the driver pulls up on the seat slider release and pushes the seat all the way to the rear. As soon as the car has come to a stop, the entering driver is running around the back of the car and reaches the door handle just as the exiting driver has hit the rear stops of the seat slider.

By this time, Earl has entered through the passenger side and is getting situated for belting in the new driver. The entering driver opens the door, unplugs the exiting driver’s radio connection, flips the left shoulder harnes up over the seat and assists the exiting driver by guiding his HANS clear of any obstructions with his right hand while physically tugging on his suit with his left hand, virtually pulling him out of the car. The drivers change positions and the entering driver sits in the seat and scoots forward while the exiting driver and Earl ensure the lap belts are clear. The entering driver slides back in the seat the Earl and the exiting driver clip the lap belts to the cam-lock and anti-sub belt. The entering driver grabs the seat adjuster and pulls on the cage to pull himself forward while the exiting driver ensures he stops the seat right on his marks. If they miss, they work together to get it right. It is the exiting driver’s responsibility to get this right, and as you will soon see, they are very committed to this task.

The next step is for Earl and the exiting driver to get the shoulder straps over the entering driver’s HANS device and latched into the cam-lock. Earl gives a tug on the right shoulder belt while the exiting driver connects the entering driver’s radio connection to the car harness and the entering driver snugs the left shoulder belt. Earl is exiting the car while the exiting driver is putting up the driver’s side window net, ensuring the release is angled in for the driver to reach, then slams the door and gives it a tug to make sure it’s closed, then runs around the back of the car and back to safety behind the pit wall.

Under forty seconds is a good time for this process. But we sure don’t start out doing it that smooth. It takes may iterations to get everyone working well together, learning the details of where the other drivers’ radio harness needs to be, etc. As we begin this process, the driver changes can be in the minutes. Mistakes are made. Occassionally, injuries occur. Which leads to the next part of the story.

I’m first in the car, so Dave’s my assistant on the left side. We’re going slow, because it’s the first run through and we want to work out the bugs before putting some speed to it. Dave and Earl strap my lap belts up and I reach down and grab the seat slide release and pull myself forward. I go as far as I can and the lap and anti-sub belts stop me before I get to my spot, the furthest forward. I slide back again to get a bit of a run at it and Dave tries to give me a little help to give me some momentum. Again I come up short, but closer to our target this time. Dave tells us to “Give it one more go” and I slide back again. This time we’re determined, and Earl’s on one side and Dave’s on the other, both with a good grip. The seat propels forward like it’s a JATO. You ever see that old video of that crazy man strapped onto the rocket sled doing human G tolerance tests? That’s what came to mind as I hurtled forward to my doom.

My crotch hit the belts so hard that I greyed out. All the air left my lungs in a huge WOOOOOF and I saw stars. I felt something hit my spine and I’m pretty sure it was my right testicle. And to top it all off, my hand slipped of the release and the seat held me there, breathless in a bad way. Dave shouts, “OK, you made it!” and starts on my shoulder belts. I finally pull in a gasp of air and shout, “OW”. Dave asks me what’s wrong and I tell him that we just grew my inseam, halfway severed my right leg and I’m worried that it might take weeks for my right nut to drop. In falsetto.

I finally get a grip back on the slide release and ease my discomfort. Dave has dropped to both knees and I can see his helmet bobbing from him laughing so hard. He finally catches his breath and says, “Dude, I put everything I had into that one!” Earl’s gone, too, laughing his head off. I’m just glad I’m sitting, because if I took a hit that hard standing up, I’d be on my ass soon enough. It takes a few minutes, but I eventually recover enough to say “OK, that’s not going to work” and we get to readjusting the belts a bit to see if we can get things to work, amid occassional snickers from my “team mates”. The final compromise is for me to sit one click back further than I like with a little more slack in the belts.

The rest of the practice driver changes goes significantly better than that, and we eventually got down to our target times. We wrapped up with the call over the PA system that we had just 10 more minutes to get the car to grid. We were getting close to race time and we were ready. Well, mostly ready. I had make one more trip to the rest room to make sure all my parts were still attached.

Seriously, cold tires on this thing are no joke. Not even a snicker. I “thought” about turning the wheel to the right in turn 3 and the ass stepped out. This was while I was on the radio to Marshall bitching about how bad it was driving on cold tires. While putt-putting around the outside of the corner letting cars go past. I was in full on counter steer mode at about 2/10ths, I kid you not. I vote for leaving the same set of rear tires on the car the entire 25 hour race.

Anyway, after about 2 full laps the tires stopped playing their little “I’m made of stone” game and started gripping the track. Which gave me enough speed to scare the shit out of myself in a different way. Let me start by stating that the Fwings are not made of glass. If they were made of glass, they would probably break, because they are producing pretty good downforce and glass just isn’t cut out for that kind of stress. Too brittle. They are made of carbon fiber and aluminum. Which makes them nice and strong for supporting the downforce. The bad thing about carbon fiber and aluminum is that you can’t see through them like you can see through glass. “See” where I’m going with this?

Turn 7, which is a left hand kink, wide open throttle, just a hint of a turn, is the scariest effing place on this track at night. Because the Fwings aren’t made of glass, so you can’t see those cool little reflectors that show where the edge of the track are. In the daytime it’s not so bad, because you can see other stuff, like…the track. But at night, you can’t see shit. Except for those little reflectors that our Fwings block.

Takes a little figuring out. By trial and error you have to find your turn in point and turn the wheel X amount. One of the times you do that, you actually hit the apex, even though you couldn’t see it. Now the trick is to do that every lap from then on. For 13 hours of driving at night. It’s exciting. It’s weird. It’s really scary!

So after about 5 laps I was able to put together something reasonably respectable. Well, on the lower end of respectable. I was constantly running into traffic at the worst times. Oh, I also learned that the Fwing can sometimes block out an entire car if you get it just the right way. Like when you hold up your thumb in front of you and block out that person you wish wasn’t there, same principle. Poof, the whole car is gone. I’m always a little relieved when it comes back. What if it didn’t? Trippy.

Anyway, if I wasn’t being held up by slower cars, I was being held up by yellow “flags”. They’re really yellow lights on the flag stations. So the yellow lights go on, everyone slows down. No passing for a corner or two without seeing any incidents an boom, laptime is in the shitter.

So the best laptime I was able to pull out was a 1:59.2. That’s good enough for 17th out of two hundr…..well, I don’t know…..seventy something cars. Anyway, with the no-see-um corners, the disappearing car tricks, moving chicanes and pretend yellow zones, there was a lot going on. I guess we did OK.

The guys are working on the car right now. Mike Warfield, the owner of GST Motorsports found a problem with the keep-alive for the alternator, so we won’t have to worry about the low voltage issue anymore. Marshall’s notepad of work for the night looks like a seven year old’s Christmas Wish List. It’s pages long. Oh, look at the time, I should be getting to sleep!

The race is tomorrow morning starting at 11am. I’m pretty sure I’m in for the first stint. I’ll post up an update once I’m out of the car at 1pm.

Goodnight!

We’re way ahead of the game already. Last year by this time today we were wrapping up a rebuild of the MPME Scion Racing tC after it barrel rolled in practice on Thursday. So far, zero barrel rolls. We’re going to try to keep it under 3 inversions this year. Fingers crossed.

Today was my first time in the car since the last 25 Hours. Dave McEntee had the car out at Buttonwillow last weekend and the team got to shake the car down a bit and uncover a couple of issues. Yesterday, Mark Hotchkis and Rob Holland got to drive, as did Dave. All got to turn at least a few laps and start to get acclimated to the car.

Overnight the team made some suspension changes. Dave, Mark and Rob got in this morning before I got in. I really only got one flying lap before the session was checkered. We all grouped up in the motor home and downloaded to our engineer, Marshall Pruett. Some minor alignment changes, shock can pressure changes and raising the throttle pedal were all done during lunch.

I got a good 10 laps after lunch and the car felt much improved. It also gave me some time to get reacquainted with the car, since it had been so long. Compared to last year, there is no comparison. Grip overall is much better, as we’re running 255 front tires and 235 rear tires. The car has quite a bit of aero this year as well. We’ve got new Fwings (front wings) and a very aggressive rear wing. Aero grip is very impressive right now! The car has none of the instability it had last year and is very easy to drive.

In my session I got the car down to a 1:56.9. That’s a full second and a half faster than last year. I know I’ve got a little bit left in me and I’m pretty sure the additional changes we’ll make to the car will help as well. Very impressive!

OK, I have to get ready for qualifying. I’ll write more later….

The team’s strategy was to run the car’s power and suspension settings very conservatively, to ensure a full 25 hours of reliability, keeping more power in reserve if needed in the closing hours. Despite running most of the race at a modest, less-than-stock 9psi of turbo boost, Sheehan and the team’s exceptional group of drivers were able to post extremely competitive lap times. Early in the race, Sheehan laid down the team’s fastest race lap, a 1:59.8 on lap 3. During his final, marathon four-hour stint, he was turning consistent laps of 2:01, preserving the team’s P3 position while managing tire wear on the single set of tires used over the final stint. It was more than enough to comfortably secure the podium finish, and the team is overjoyed at its fantastic result.

Gary Sheehan comments,

“Marshall Pruett put together an incredible team effort here; Jaime from ESX, Tony and Joe from TC Design, our own Joel Gat and the entire crew were absolutely amazing, going without sleep for days, and keeping the car running flawlessly during the entire race. All our drivers did a fantastic job, and we are very happy to have put the Subaru STi on the podium against so many higher-powered GT cars. I want to especially thank Marshall for asking me to be on this team, and Ali Afshar of ESX for the car and support’what a fantastic experience.”

The STi was incredibly consistent the entire race. During my last stint it felt nearly identical to what I drove at the start of the race. Considering this car was converted to a 25-hour car in just one month, it is a testament to the quality of preparation and products that went into this effort. The PDX-tuned engine never skipped a beat and the Toyo tires performed consistently throughout. The StopTech brakes and Pagid pads were incredible, with consistent pedal feel and fade-free stopping ability the entire 25 hours, all on a single set of rotors! Nothing on the car felt used up at the end of the race. Simply amazing!”

The race, which finished Sunday at noon, featured 58 entries, in a multitude of classes, and boasts a timed length of 25 hours of competitive racing; 1 hour more than LeMans, Daytona, Nurburgring, or Bathhurst. It’s a daunting test against a who’s who of well-known touring car and GT teams and drivers, but a solid, well-organized effort from the entire team kept problems to a minimum. The team’s full line-up of drivers included: Gary Sheehan (Grand-Am Cup, USTCC); Dave McEntee (ALMS); Csaba Csere (Editor-in-Chief, Car and Driver); Dale Sievwright (USTCC); Auston Harris, age 14 (Formula TR); Marco Romani (BMWCCA).